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Barden are delighted to be partnering with a global business in the energy technology space as they seek to hire an ambitious and smart Senior Financial Accountant to join their well-established and highly collaborative finance team.

The successful person will work closely with the Finance Manager on a range of tasks including month-end reporting, variance analysis, statutory reporting and ad-hoc project work. This person will get broad exposure across the global business while liaising with multiple teams across finance and beyond.

“This would be a great move for someone looking to take the next step in their career as a qualified accountant, who wants to gain experience in gaining more hands-on experience of a business. We will support someone’s long-term career development” – Finance Manager

ABOUT THE ROLE:

Responsibilities include:

• End-to-end accounting for your assigned entities within the EMEA region
• Preparation of the month-end and quarter-end reporting processes
• Responsible for supporting and preparation of the statutory accounting activities for your assigned entities
• Completion of variance analysis and related reports for your entities
• Liaise with internal and external auditors and support the audit process by providing timely and accurate information and data
• Assistance with Corporate tax, VAT and payroll tasks
• The development of strong relationships with key stakeholders across the business
• Ad-hoc projects as required.

ABOUT THE PERSON:

• Recently qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CPA or CIMA) with 2+ years’ PQE;
• Experience in a multinational environment is a strong advantage but not essential;
• Strong Excel and systems experience;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong team player with the ability to interact with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.

Curious? Feel free to get in touch with Siobhán Sexton in Barden (siobhan.sexton@barden.ie) for more information.

Senior Software Engineer (PHP) – Contract Role (6 Months)

Remote (Ireland) | Daily Rate / Temp Contract

Barden is delighted to support a leading tech company in their search for an experienced Software Engineer. This person will join a global product engineering team working on large-scale, high-availability systems that support critical financial and compliance-related functionality.

This is a 6-month contract opportunity, offered on either a daily rate or temporary contract basis. The role can be worked fully remotely within Ireland, with very occasional travel to a Dublin office.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will design, build, and maintain scalable backend services, taking ownership of key engineering initiatives and delivering solutions to complex technical challenges. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to develop and enhance business-critical systems while contributing to a collaborative engineering culture.

You will:

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services using PHP
• Build and support high-volume, business-critical applications
• Contribute to system design, architecture discussions, and technical decision-making
• Participate in code reviews and promote engineering best practices
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, and stakeholders across multiple teams
• Deploy code regularly through modern CI/CD processes
• Implement and maintain monitoring, logging, and observability solutions
• Support and mentor team members through knowledge sharing, pairing, and technical guidance

ABOUT YOU:

• Strong commercial experience developing backend applications in PHP
• Experience building and maintaining scalable, production-grade systems
• Experience working within agile, cross-functional teams
• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Previous mentoring or coaching experience would be beneficial
• Exposure to payments, financial services, tax, compliance, or regulated environments is a plus

Contract Details:

• 6-month contract (leave coverage)
• Daily rate or temporary contract available
• Fully remote within Ireland
• Very occasional travel to Dublin office required

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced PHP engineer to join a globally recognised technology business. Whether you’re between contracts or looking for your next challenge, you’ll gain valuable experience in a world-class engineering environment while contributing to products used by millions of customers worldwide.

Applicants must be currently residing in Ireland and eligible to work in Ireland.

Barden is delighted to partner with a leading organisation in their search for an AI Engineer to join their team. This person will work across both business and engineering functions to design, build, and deploy production-ready AI agents that deliver measurable business value.

ABOUT THE ROLE (AI Engineering | Agentic AI | Python)

You will lead the design and delivery of production-grade AI agents on an internal Agentic AI platform, while partnering closely with business stakeholders to identify and shape high-value use cases.

Responsibilities will include:

• Translating business problems into well-defined agentic solutions through structured discovery and requirements gathering
• Engineering and iterating agent prompts and instructions (context engineering) to ensure consistent, reliable behaviour
• Building and configuring MCP-based integrations, including defining tool contracts and troubleshooting tool execution issues
• Developing MCP servers to wrap external APIs and internal systems with proper authentication, error handling, and logging
• Designing end-to-end agentic workflows, including retrieval, tool use, and analytics/AI model integration
• Managing and improving file-based knowledge bases, including ingestion, organisation, and RAG optimisation
• Creating and maintaining search indexes for document corpora where required
• Designing and executing evaluation frameworks using offline test sets, regression testing, and metrics tracking (e.g. MLflow)

ABOUT YOU

• A hybrid profile combining strong software engineering capability with business-facing communication skills and a passion for applied AI systems.
• Ability to assess AI use case feasibility, complexity, and business value (including ROI framing and prioritisation)
• Experience acting as a bridge between technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Focus on end-user experience and business outcome optimisation

AI Engineering

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, preferably backend-focused (Python preferred but flexible)
• 2+ years of experience building LLM-powered applications, including AI agents, RAG systems, or tool-using systems
• Strong understanding of LLM behaviour, including context windows, tokenisation, hallucinations, latency, and cost trade-offs
• Familiarity with secure authentication patterns including OAuth 2.0 / OIDC and identity platforms such as Azure Entra ID
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including Git, testing, code reviews, logging, and monitoring
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in an Agile, cross-functional team environment

OTHER DETAILS

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge Agentic AI systems in a highly applied, production-focused environment
• Strong focus on real-world value delivery, evaluation, and continuous improvement of AI agents

If this role aligns well with your experience, please apply here or contact rachel.mcguckian@Barden.ie for more information.

Barden are delighted to be partnering exclusively with a PLC to help identify an experienced finance professional in a key commercial finance role.

Working closely with operational and functional leaders, this position will provide financial insight, challenge and support to drive business performance, improve decision-making and contribute to the delivery of strategic objectives. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys partnering with senior stakeholders and influencing outcomes in a dynamic environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with business leaders to provide financial insight and support strategic initiatives
• Lead budgeting, forecasting and planning processes for designated business areas
• Deliver meaningful performance reporting, analysis and recommendations to support decision-making
• Develop financial models and business cases to evaluate opportunities and investments
• Monitor financial performance, identify risks and opportunities, and provide proactive solutions
• Support governance, controls and continuous improvement initiatives
• Drive greater visibility of key performance metrics and business outcomes
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support operational and commercial objectives

About You:

• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CPA or equivalent), with circa. 5-8 years PQE.
• Strong experience in business partnering, commercial finance, FP&A or financial analysis
• Ability to influence and challenge stakeholders at all levels of an organisation
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a commercial mindset
• Experience operating within a fast-paced and complex business environment
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills

Barden has been exclusively engaged by a leading Irish semi-state infrastructures and utilities organisation is seeking to appoint a Company Secretary.

The position can be based either out of the Dublin or the Cork offices. The organisation’s hybrid working policy is 2 days per week onsite.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, this is a senior role with responsibility for leading the company secretariat function and supporting the effective operation of the Board, Committees and subsidiary entities. The successful individual will play a key role in Board governance, statutory compliance, stakeholder engagement and advising senior leadership on company law and governance matters.

Full job spec is available.

THE PERSON

• 10+ years’ experience in a senior company secretarial or governance role in Ireland, with strong knowledge of corporate governance, board support and statutory obligations.
• Demonstrable experience operating at board level and the ability to confidently interact with and influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience within a regulated, utility, infrastructures or semi-state environment would be highly advantageous.
• Strong knowledge of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and the UK Corporate Governance Code is also a significant advantage.

Our client is a leading Irish-headquartered manufacturing and R&D group with a significant international footprint and operations across multiple jurisdictions. The business is now seeking to appoint a Legal Counsel based in Cork to support its continued growth and strategic objectives.

The position offers significant flexibility and would particularly suit someone seeking a part-time opportunity while maintaining exposure to high-quality legal work and senior stakeholders.

THE ROLE

Reporting to senior leadership, the Legal Counsel will provide legal support across a range of business activities, including:

• Advising on mergers, acquisitions and other strategic corporate transactions.
• Supporting the business on intellectual property matters, including the protection and management of key assets.
• Assisting with company secretarial and corporate governance requirements across the group.
• Providing pragmatic commercial legal advice to stakeholders across the organisation.
• Liaising with external legal advisers where required.

THE PERSON

The successful individual will be an Irish qualified lawyer with strong commercial judgement and an ability to operate independently within a business environment. The business is keen to consider generalist commercial lawyers with strong experience in M&A and general corporate matters.

While individuals with approximately 5-7 years’ PQE are likely to be of particular interest, applications from lawyers with the right experience at different levels of seniority will also be considered.

WHY THIS ROLE

• A rare part-time in-house legal opportunity.
• Significant flexibility around working arrangements.
• Exposure to high-profile strategic projects and senior decision-makers.
• A broad and varied remit spanning corporate, governance and commercial matters.
• The opportunity to join a successful Irish business with an international presence.
• The role is ideally suited to candidates based in Cork or with strong connections to the region.

Barden is working directly with the Partners in the Cork office of an established law firm looking to expand their presence in the region across a number of different areas.

With circa 15 people in its Cork office, the firm has a small to mid-size “feel” to it, with a strong and friendly work culture. However, its large presence and client base domestically and internationally offers the quality of work and other benefits of a larger practice.

The organisation is open to flexible working arrangements with a high level of hybrid and/or remote working. While every case would be assessed individually and presence in the Cork office is an advantage, the firm will consider applications from individuals based elsewhere in Ireland who can do circa 1 day per week in the office (subject to discussion).

OPEN ROLES

• Real Estate: 3+ years’ PQE up to Partner level
• Commercial Litigation: 3+ years’ PQE up to Partner level
• Privacy: 3+ years’ PQE, it can suit someone coming from in-house
• Banking: Senior appointment, while there doesn’t have to be significant client following, candidates should have good connections in the area
• Employment: 3+ years’ PQE up to Partner level

The firm is keen to hear from Irish or UK qualified Solicitors with experience in the above areas. Equity partnership will be considered for candidates with strong client following and there are good progression opportunities to that level.

Applications and discussions will be treated extremely discretely and confidentially.

An unique opportunity has arisen for an experienced Senior Payroll Specialist to join a growing international organisation during a period of significant expansion.

This is a key role within the business, offering the opportunity to take ownership of payroll operations across multiple countries, drive process improvements, and play a central role in shaping future payroll strategy.

This is an excellent opportunity for a payroll professional looking to take on a highly visible role within a growing international organisation where they can influence change, improve processes and contribute to long-term success.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

As the payroll subject matter expert, you will oversee end-to-end payroll delivery across multiple jurisdictions, ensuring accuracy, compliance, efficiency, and an exceptional employee experience.

Key responsibilities include:

• Ownership of multi-country payroll operations
• Managing outsourced payroll providers and service delivery
• Ensuring compliance with payroll legislation and regulatory requirements
• Driving payroll process improvements, automation and efficiencies
• Supporting international payroll expansion projects
• Partnering closely with HR, Finance and key stakeholders
• Developing robust controls, reporting and audit processes
• Resolving complex payroll queries and escalations

ABOUT THE PERSON:

• Significant payroll experience with exposure to multiple entities
• Strong knowledge of payroll legislation, compliance and controls
• Experience with BrightPay, Megapay or similar payroll systems
• Advanced Excel and strong analytical capability
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Proven ability to manage multiple deadlines and priorities
• Experience leading payroll transformation, implementation or continuous improvement initiatives would be highly advantageous

Senior QA Automation Engineer | Cork City (Hybrid)

I’m working with an exciting client in Cork City that is heavily investing in AI and looking to hire a Senior QA Automation Engineer to join their growing team.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with 5+ years’ experience in test automation who wants to make a real impact in a collaborative, fast-moving environment.

Key responsibilities/experience required:

• Design, build, and maintain automated test suites for core functionality and regression testing using Python and Playwright.
• Develop and maintain BDD test coverage using Behave (Gherkin) where appropriate.
• Leverage Claude Code and Cursor to accelerate test development, debugging, and test maintenance.
• Integrate automated testing into Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines to ensure fast, reliable feedback loops.

What’s on offer?

• Hybrid working: 3 days per week in the Cork city centre office
• Innovative company with a strong focus on AI
• Excellent culture and supportive team environment
• Opportunity to grow with the business and influence quality practices as the company scales

If you’re a Senior QA Automation Engineer with experience in the technologies listed above, please apply using the link below.