How to Apply to Telefónica

9 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 1 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Telefónica operates Movistar, O2 and Vivo across roughly 12 core markets in Europe and Latin America, employing about 100,000 people from its Madrid headquarters.
  • Hiring is centralized on a Workday-based global careers portal, with country-specific sub-portals for Spain (Movistar), Brazil (Vivo), Germany (O2) and the UK; create one profile and apply across geographies.
  • Tailor your CV to the language of the posting, mirror requisition keywords (5G, Open RAN, OSS/BSS, cloud, cybersecurity, IoT), and lead with measurable telecom or digital outcomes.
  • Expect a structured, competency-based interview process of three to four rounds over four to eight weeks, with explicit STAR-style behavioral questions and language switches between Spanish and English.
  • Technical roles include hands-on coding, system-design or case exercises tuned to telco realities — high availability, regulatory constraints, multi-country deployments and security.
  • Senior hires almost always present a case study to a cross-functional panel and are evaluated against the published values 'Open, Decided, Together' as much as against technical merit.
  • Compensation includes a fixed salary, variable bonus, restricted stock for senior bands, generous Spanish vacation (22+ days plus public holidays), private health insurance, and strong pension and parental-leave benefits anchored in the collective bargaining agreement.
  • Telefónica's transformation focus — fiber, 5G SA, Telefónica Tech (B2B digital), and ESG/net-zero — defines hiring priorities; candidates who can speak fluently to those themes consistently advance.
  • Internal mobility is a real career path: many leaders rotate between Spain, Hispam, Brazil and Germany via Universitas and Talentum programs, so signaling long-term commitment is valued highly.

About Telefónica

Telefónica S.A. is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and Spain's most internationally recognized corporate brand, headquartered in the Distrito Telefónica campus in Madrid. Founded in 1924 as Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España, the company was privatized in 1997 and has since grown into a multinational operator with roughly 100,000 employees serving more than 380 million customers across Europe and Latin America. Telefónica trades on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, London, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Lima and New York stock exchanges, and is a constituent of the IBEX 35 and Euro Stoxx 50 indices. The group operates under several powerful consumer brands depending on the market: Movistar in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America (including Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela), O2 in the United Kingdom and Germany (where it operates through Telefónica Deutschland / O2 Germany), and Vivo in Brazil, where Telefónica Brasil is one of the country's largest telecom operators. It also runs business-facing units such as Telefónica Tech (cybersecurity, cloud, IoT and Big Data), Telefónica Global Solutions (multinational accounts and wholesale connectivity), and Telefónica Infra (which holds stakes in fiber and tower companies, including a stake in Telxius). Under the strategic plan known as 'GPS' (Grow, Profit, Sustain), formerly the 'Five Bold Decisions' framework, Telefónica has focused on five core markets — Spain, the UK (now via the VMO2 joint venture with Liberty Global), Germany, and Brazil — while accelerating fiber-to-the-home deployment, 5G stand-alone rollouts, B2B digital services, and ESG commitments such as net-zero emissions by 2040 in its main markets. The company is widely recognized for its R&D investment, its open-network initiatives (Telefónica was a founding member of the Open RAN movement), and its partnerships with hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. Working at Telefónica typically means joining a large, highly-regulated, unionized European employer with strong work-life-balance norms, structured graduate programs (Talentum, Universitas), and a clear emphasis on bilingual (Spanish/English) collaboration with sister operating companies on three continents.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search openings on the global careers portal at telefonica

    Search openings on the global careers portal at telefonica.com/en/about-us/work-with-us/ or the country-specific sites (e.g., movistar.es/empleo, careers.o2.co.uk, vivo.com.br/carreira). The global Workday-powered job board lets you filter by country, business unit (Telefónica Tech, Telefónica Hispam, Telefónica España, Telefónica Brasil, etc.), and job family.

  2. 2
    Create a candidate profile in Workday with one verified email; uploading a CV (P

    Create a candidate profile in Workday with one verified email; uploading a CV (PDF or DOCX) auto-parses your education and work history, but always review the parsed fields manually because Spanish and Portuguese accents are sometimes mis-mapped.

  3. 3
    Submit your application with a tailored CV in the language of the role posting (

    Submit your application with a tailored CV in the language of the role posting (Spanish for Spain, Portuguese for Brazil, English for global / Telefónica Tech / UK, German for O2 Germany). A cover letter is optional for most listings but expected for graduate, Talentum and leadership programs.

  4. 4
    Expect an initial screening within two to four weeks: a recruiter call covering

    Expect an initial screening within two to four weeks: a recruiter call covering motivation, language fluency, salary expectations, and notice period, plus — for many roles — an online assessment via SHL, HireVue or Pymetrics covering numerical, verbal and situational judgment.

  5. 5
    Progress through one to three competency-based interviews with the hiring manage

    Progress through one to three competency-based interviews with the hiring manager and cross-functional stakeholders. Technical roles add a take-home or live exercise (coding, network design, data case, cybersecurity scenario); senior and director roles often include a final panel and a case presentation.

  6. 6
    Receive a verbal offer followed by a written contract referencing the relevant c

    Receive a verbal offer followed by a written contract referencing the relevant collective bargaining agreement (Convenio Colectivo de Telefónica de España for Spain), which fixes salary band, vacation, and benefit floors. Background and reference checks run in parallel and pre-employment medicals may apply in Spain and Brazil.

  7. 7
    Onboarding is centralized through the 'Universitas Telefónica' learning platform

    Onboarding is centralized through the 'Universitas Telefónica' learning platform, with a structured first-90-days plan, mandatory compliance training (Code of Ethics, GDPR, security), and an in-person or hybrid welcome week at the local headquarters.

Resume Tips for Telefónica

recommended

Submit your CV in the language of the posting and keep it ATS-clean: a single co

Submit your CV in the language of the posting and keep it ATS-clean: a single column, no text boxes, no headshot for English-language roles (a photo is still common and accepted on Spanish, Brazilian, and Latin-American CVs).

recommended

Lead with measurable telecom or digital outcomes — subscriber growth, ARPU uplif

Lead with measurable telecom or digital outcomes — subscriber growth, ARPU uplift, churn reduction, network availability, NPS gains, EBITDA contribution, fiber/5G site rollouts — because Telefónica recruiters score impact metrics heavily during Workday screening.

recommended

Mirror the exact job-posting language for skills like 'Open RAN', 'NFV', 'OSS/BS

Mirror the exact job-posting language for skills like 'Open RAN', 'NFV', 'OSS/BSS', 'B2B', '5G SA', 'cloud-native', 'cybersecurity', 'IoT', 'big data' and 'ESG'; the Workday/Eightfold matching layer rewards keyword alignment with the requisition.

recommended

Highlight multilingual capability explicitly (CEFR level for Spanish, English, P

Highlight multilingual capability explicitly (CEFR level for Spanish, English, Portuguese, German or Catalan) in a dedicated 'Languages' section — bilingual or trilingual fluency is a genuine differentiator, especially for cross-country roles based in Madrid.

recommended

Show experience with regulated environments and large enterprise stakeholders (t

Show experience with regulated environments and large enterprise stakeholders (telecom regulators, EU Commission, GDPR, cybersecurity audits, SOX, ISO 27001) where relevant — Telefónica is a heavily regulated, listed company and values that fluency.

recommended

Quantify team scope and budget responsibility for management roles ('led a team

Quantify team scope and budget responsibility for management roles ('led a team of 22 across Spain and Peru, €14M opex'), and call out matrix or cross-border collaboration with Vivo, O2, or Movistar Hispam to demonstrate cultural fit.

recommended

For technology roles, list specific stacks Telefónica uses internally — Java, Py

For technology roles, list specific stacks Telefónica uses internally — Java, Python, Kubernetes, Kafka, Azure, AWS, GCP, ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce, Workday — and add certifications like AWS, Azure, CISSP, CCSP, PMP, ITIL, TOGAF, or scrum.org credentials.

recommended

Keep the CV to two pages (three for senior leadership), use a chronological form

Keep the CV to two pages (three for senior leadership), use a chronological format, and place education and certifications near the top if you trained at a Spanish-speaking university or hold an MBA from IE, IESE, ESADE, FGV, or INSEAD — these are well recognized internally.

ATS System: Workday

Telefónica runs its global recruiting on Workday Recruiting, with country-specific sub-sites (Movistar Spain, Vivo Brazil, O2 UK, Telefónica Deutschland, Telefónica Tech). Workday parses uploaded CVs, scores keyword alignment with the requisition, routes shortlists to recruiters, and orchestrates interview scheduling, offers and onboarding. One candidate profile works across all geographies, but each application is scored against the local requisition.

  • Upload a clean PDF or DOCX CV — single column, no text boxes, no headers/footers, no images — so Workday's parser captures every field correctly.
  • After uploading, manually verify the parsed work history and education; Spanish, Portuguese and German accents and special characters are sometimes mis-mapped.
  • Mirror the exact phrasing of skills and certifications from the job posting — Workday matching rewards literal keyword alignment, especially for technical requisitions.
  • Complete every optional field in the candidate profile (languages with CEFR levels, certifications, work eligibility, mobility) to avoid being filtered out by automated screening rules.
  • Use one verified email address across applications so all your activity stays linked to a single Workday profile and you build interview history with the recruiting team.
  • Apply from the canonical telefonica.com/en/about-us/work-with-us/ portal or the relevant country sub-site rather than third-party aggregators, which sometimes lose attachments in transit.

Complete Workday Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

Telefónica's interview culture reflects its identity as a large, multinational European telco with deep Spanish and Latin-American roots: it is structured, relationship-driven, and increasingly competency-based, but rarely brutal in the way some US tech firms are. For most roles you should expect three to four conversations spread over four to eight weeks, conducted in a mix of Spanish and English (or Portuguese for Brazilian roles, German for O2 Germany). Recruiters are generally friendly, communicative, and willing to share salary band information up front, which is uncommon in the wider European market. The first interview is almost always with a recruiter from the People (HR) team and centers on motivation, language ability, mobility, notice period, and a high-level walkthrough of your CV. Expect very direct questions about why Telefónica specifically — strong candidates can speak fluently about Movistar, O2, Vivo, Telefónica Tech, and the GPS strategic plan, and tie their personal story to the company's transformation from a legacy fixed-line monopoly into a digital and B2B services group. The second round typically pairs you with the hiring manager and at least one cross-functional stakeholder (frequently from finance, technology, or a sister operating company in another country). These conversations are competency-based and lean heavily on the STAR method: be ready with crisp, measurable stories about delivering through complex matrix structures, navigating regulators or unions, and balancing customer experience with cost discipline. Technical and analytical roles add a hands-on component. Engineers can expect a coding exercise (often Java, Python or Go) and a system-design discussion that emphasizes telco constraints — high availability, latency, geographical redundancy, OSS/BSS integration, and security. Data and AI candidates are typically given a case study or take-home dataset. Cybersecurity, cloud and consulting candidates at Telefónica Tech often face scenario-based interviews mirroring real client engagements. Senior and director hires are usually asked to deliver a 30 to 60 minute case presentation to a panel that may include C-level sponsors, followed by behavioral interviews focused on leadership, ESG, and Telefónica's published values: 'Open', 'Decided' (Decididos) and 'Together' (Juntos). Throughout the process, candidates report a noticeably collaborative, low-ego tone — interviewers are interested in whether you can build coalitions across countries and business units, not just whether you can dominate a whiteboard.

What Telefónica Looks For

  • Genuine motivation for telecommunications and digital infrastructure — candidates who can articulate why connectivity, cybersecurity, and B2B digital services matter to society, not just why they want a stable corporate job.
  • Bilingual or trilingual communication, with at least solid working English plus Spanish (for Madrid and Hispam roles), Portuguese (for Brazil), or German (for O2 Germany); Catalan is a plus for Barcelona.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver in matrix, multinational structures across Spain, Brazil, Germany, the UK and Hispam — collaboration evidence usually outweighs raw individual brilliance.
  • Customer-centric thinking with measurable impact on NPS, churn, ARPU, B2B revenue, fiber/5G coverage, or operational availability — Telefónica leadership references these metrics constantly.
  • Comfort operating inside a regulated, listed, unionized company: GDPR, telecom regulators (CNMC in Spain, BNetzA in Germany, Anatel in Brazil, Ofcom in the UK), labor councils, and ESG reporting frameworks.
  • Technical depth aligned to the specific business unit — Open RAN, 5G SA, fiber, cloud-native, Kubernetes, AI/ML, cybersecurity (SOC, SIEM, OT), or enterprise IoT — backed by certifications where appropriate.
  • Alignment with Telefónica's stated values 'Open, Decided, Together' and its sustainability commitments (net-zero by 2040 in main markets, digital inclusion, responsible AI principles).
  • Long-term orientation: Telefónica invests heavily in internal mobility through Universitas and Talentum, and prefers candidates who plan to grow within the group rather than treat it as a short stop.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I actually apply for jobs at Telefónica?
The canonical entry point is the global careers portal at telefonica.com/en/about-us/work-with-us/, which routes into a Workday job board listing roles across all operating companies. Country sites — movistar.es/empleo (Spain), vivo.com.br/carreira (Brazil), careers.o2.co.uk (UK) and telefonica.de/karriere (Germany) — list the same roles plus some local-only positions. For Telefónica Tech roles use telefonicatech.com/careers.
Do I have to speak Spanish to work at Telefónica?
Not always, but it helps significantly. Roles based in Madrid, Barcelona or Hispam typically require working Spanish. Telefónica Tech, global functions, and senior leadership roles often operate primarily in English. Brazilian roles require Portuguese, German O2 roles require German, and UK O2 roles operate in English. Multilingual candidates have a major edge for cross-border roles.
How long does the Telefónica interview process take?
Plan for four to eight weeks from initial application to offer for individual contributor roles. Senior and director-level hires often run eight to twelve weeks because of additional panel rounds and case presentations. Technical roles add a take-home or live exercise that adds about a week. Recruiters at Telefónica are generally responsive and will give you a timeline up front.
What does a typical Telefónica interview look like?
Expect a recruiter screen, one to two competency-based rounds with the hiring manager and stakeholders, and — for technical or senior roles — a hands-on exercise or case presentation. Interviews are heavily STAR-based: prepare three to five quantified stories covering delivery, stakeholder management, customer impact and conflict resolution. Tone is collaborative and rarely adversarial.
What benefits does Telefónica offer in Spain?
Spanish employees are covered by the Convenio Colectivo de Telefónica de España, which sets a competitive base salary, variable bonus, 22+ days of vacation plus public holidays, private health insurance through Adeslas, life insurance, generous parental leave, hybrid-work and flexible-hours policies, employee discounts on Movistar services, restaurant vouchers, transport allowance in some sites, and a pension plan with company contribution.
Is Telefónica a good employer for early-career talent?
Yes — the Talentum graduate program is a flagship pipeline for engineers, data scientists and business graduates, and Universitas Telefónica delivers structured leadership development. Internships and 'becas' are well-paid by Spanish standards, and many graduate hires rotate through Hispam, Brazil or Germany within their first three years. Be aware that promotion cadence inside a 100,000-person organization is structured rather than fast.
What technologies does Telefónica work with?
On the network side: 5G stand-alone, Open RAN, fiber-to-the-home, OSS/BSS modernization, NFV/SDN, and edge computing. On the IT side: Java, Python, Kubernetes, Kafka, Spring Boot, microservices, Azure, AWS and GCP, plus SAP, ServiceNow, Salesforce and Workday for back office. Telefónica Tech also runs large practices in cybersecurity (SOC/SIEM, OT security), cloud, IoT and big data/AI.
Does Telefónica support remote or hybrid work?
Yes. Most corporate and technology roles operate on a hybrid model, typically two to three office days per week at the Distrito Telefónica campus in Madrid or the relevant country headquarters. Fully remote roles exist but are less common; field operations, retail, and customer-care roles are on-site. Cross-border full remote arrangements are rare due to tax and labor-law constraints.
What is the dress code at Telefónica interviews?
Smart business casual is the safe default for in-person and video interviews — a blazer with a shirt is appropriate, no tie is required for most roles. Senior leadership and finance interviews lean more formal. Technology interviews at Telefónica Tech are noticeably more relaxed. Avoid full casual (t-shirt, hoodie) for first impressions.
How can I stand out in a Telefónica application?
Three things consistently differentiate candidates: (1) a CV that mirrors the requisition keywords and quantifies telecom or digital impact, (2) a clear narrative tying your motivation to Telefónica's GPS strategy, ESG commitments and the specific brand (Movistar, O2, Vivo, Telefónica Tech), and (3) demonstrated ability to operate across countries and languages. Adding a referral from a current employee through LinkedIn meaningfully accelerates the process.

Open Positions

Telefónica currently has 1 open positions.

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