Backend Engineer (Java)

Join Us as We Build the Datavant Life Sciences Tech Hub in Barcelona

Datavant is expanding its global footprint with the development of our Life Sciences Tech Hub in Barcelona. We are seeking talented technical professionals who are product-oriented, impact-driven, and motivated to help shape the future of healthcare technology.

At Datavant, our Life Sciences technology powers clinical research, real-world evidence generation, pharmacovigilance, and data collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem. As a Software Engineer in our Life Sciences Tech Hub, you will design and build systems that enable secure, privacy-preserving access to high-quality healthcare data used by pharmaceutical companies, biotech innovators, and research organizations worldwide. Your work will directly support the development of new therapies, accelerate clinical trials, and improve patient outcomes by ensuring that critical data is interoperable, scalable, and trustworthy.

Careers at Datavant offer the chance to apply your technical expertise and problem-solving skills in support of our mission: enabling every healthcare decision to be powered by the right data, at the right time, in the right format. We’re looking for problem-solvers, game-changers, innovators, dreamers, doers – people who are ready to move the needle and build on our success.

Why join Datavant’s tech team? 

• You’ll collaborate with other engineering leaders on all matters that impact the Engineering team, including resourcing and building technology/product vision
• You’ll have the opportunity to coach and mentor colleagues, including code reviews, higher-level software design, and direct management
• The team works on a technical stack which includes both cloud and on-premise deployments, big-data ingestion and analytics, distributed systems, and algorithmic complexity.

The Role

As a software engineer you will be contributing to system architecture discussions and decisions and help with strategy and execution to improve the core analytical backend of Datavant’s platforms. You will work closely with our product and science teams in providing insights on technology advancements for platform analytical capabilities, ensuring scalability, reliability, and availability is at the forefront of strategic conversations.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and document software solutions by studying information needs, conferring with users, studying systems flow, data usage, and work processes; investigating problem areas; and following the software development lifecycle.
• Contribute to the strategic development, execution and optimization of the core analytical backend of Datavant platform.
• Provide insights on technology advancements for the platform’s analytical capabilities by ensuring performance, scalability, reliability, and availability. 
• Work with other software engineers and tech leads to define software architecture and prototype software stack.
• Assist in the development of relevant features and processes to ensure that statistical programs are properly documented and implemented on, according to generally recognized industry and regulatory standards.
• Work closely with product owners to aid in developing roadmaps and setting priorities, offer advice on how to staff projects, make short term vs long term estimates for projects and features.
• Provide expertise on devising technical solutions, making informed judgment calls on when and how to invest in tactical vs. strategic solutions.
• Ensure continued functionality of a program during maintenance and testing of software. 
• Document each aspect of a system or application as a reference for future upgrades and maintenance.

What You’ll Bring

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of prior experience writing production-level code in Java.
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of system design, data structures, and algorithms.
• Proficiency in debugging and optimizing batch JVM processes and scaling vertically.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to prioritize, communicate well, design for repeatability and scalability, demonstrate accountability and dig beneath the hood with technology.
• Enjoy working in collaborative team environments, including partnering with product teams to find creative solutions for challenging engineering problems.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted software development tools (for example, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex, or similar).

Perks of joining Datavant in Barcelona

• Competitive and equitable salary
• Hybrid work model, with two days per week based in our Gràcia office
• Daily in-office lunch stipend and access to a fully stocked kitchen
• Comprehensive private health insurance, including out-of-network reimbursement options
• 25 days of annual paid leave
• Six-week “Work from Anywhere” policy