Spanish retail bank modernizing core systems with cloud and generative AI
Unicaja is Spain's sixth-largest bank by branch count, running a hybrid cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) alongside legacy mainframe systems. Active hiring is skewed toward engineering (10 of 22 roles), concentrated in mid-level builders, while the project list reveals a deliberate pivot: generative AI hub development sits adjacent to microservices migration on OpenShift and retail banking transformation. Pain points around mainframe cost and performance suggest the bank is trading batch-oriented infrastructure for cloud-native, AI-augmented customer workflows.
Notable leadership hires: Branch Director
Unicaja is a publicly traded Spanish bank headquartered in Málaga, operating as a primary lender across six regional markets. The bank serves over 4 million customers through approximately 1,000 branches and 2,500 ATMs, employing roughly 8,000 staff. Core business spans retail deposit-taking, lending, and wealth management, with emerging focus on generative AI solutions for customer acquisition and personalization. The technology footprint covers classic banking infrastructure (IBM mainframes, MQ messaging) and modern cloud platforms, indicating a multi-year modernization cycle.
Unicaja runs all three major cloud providers: AWS, Azure, and GCP. The tech stack also includes Kubernetes and OpenShift for container orchestration, alongside Elasticsearch and Grafana for monitoring and observability.
Unicaja is building a generative AI hub with active MVP development and scaling initiatives. The stack includes OpenAI, Google Gemini, Meta Llama, Azure AI, Gemma, Claude, and DeepSeek, accessed via Langchain and LlamaIndex orchestration frameworks.
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