Context

Worklife is scaling rapidly and aiming to enhance its technical excellence and maturity. We’re seeking an accomplished Principal Back End Engineer to drive backend architecture, scalability, and performance while mentoring engineers and leading high-impact initiatives.

As Principal Engineer, you will be directly attached to the CTO, shaping the evolution of our distributed backend. This role combines hands-on execution with strategic leadership.

Following our acquisition by Crédit Agricole, we maintain our scale-up agility while benefiting from financial stability.

Tech Team

As a Principal Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our technology landscape. You will collaborate with:

1 CTO

1 Principal Engineer (you!)

1 Staff Engineer

3 Engineering Managers

4 Backend Engineers

3 Frontend Engineers

3 DevOps Engineers

1 SecDevOps Engineer

2 QA Engineers

2 Mobile Engineers (1 Android, 1 iOS)

Our Stack

Backend: Microservices in Python (FastAPI), DDD-inspired architecture

Frontend: Nuxt 3 (Vue.js) & React

API Gateway: GraphQL (Apollo)

DevOps & CI/CD: GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes (Helm)

Infrastructure: AWS (Terraform)

Observability: Datadog, Sentry, Pganalyzer

Project Management & Design: Linear, Figma, Notion

Data Stack: Segment, Airflow, Airbyte, DBT, PostgreSQL Data Warehouse

Missions

Define & execute backend architecture strategy – scale distributed systems, optimize middleware, and evolve the architecture.

Spearhead large-scale initiatives like caching strategies, event-driven processing, and API optimizations.

Collaborate cross-functionally with the BE team, aligning backend strategy with product, platform, security, and business goals.

Promote and implement software craftsmanship best practices, fostering continuous improvement.

Act as a technical mentor and force multiplier, supporting and upskilling engineers through coaching, technical reviews, and knowledge-sharing across the team

Anticipate technical challenges and identify high-leverage investment opportunities, ensuring long-term technical health.

Streamline incident response & reliability strategies – drive monitoring, alerting, and failure recovery improvements.

Push automation & efficiency – refine CI/CD, testing strategy, and developer workflows for velocity and resilience.

Ensure clean, scalable, and maintainable code while delivering high-impact solutions.

Expected Results During Onboarding

30 Days:

Gain deep familiarity with our codebase, architecture, and technical stack.

Participate in shadowing & tech support rotations, gaining firsthand experience of real-world system behavior.

Deep dive into the roadmap, processes, and engineering workflows.

Understand business goals, priorities, and how engineering contributes to success.

Establish relationships with engineering, product, and leadership teams.

Provide a structured report on first observations, identifying strengths, improvement areas, and unexpected challenges.

60 Days:

Lead technical discussions and provide insights on system improvements.

Take ownership of key technical projects and drive impactful contributions.

Gain direct experience on live production issues, improving reliability and response processes.

Propose and implement process optimizations to enhance development efficiency.

Provide technical mentorship to engineers, fostering skill development

Engage with stakeholders, ensuring alignment on priorities and expectations.

Identify inefficiencies in CI/CD, monitoring, and developer workflows, proposing practical solutions.

Present a technical roadmap aligned with business challenges, identifying risks, tech debt, and high-leverage improvements.

90 Days:

Architect and lead high-level initiatives, ensuring scalable and maintainable solutions.

Establish regular knowledge-sharing sessions (Tech Talks, RFC reviews, architecture roundtables) to foster a culture of technical excellence and cross-team collaboration.

Play a key role in strategic decision-making, aligning technology with business objectives.

Drive best practices, mentorship, and engineering craftsmanship to raise technical standards across the team.

Execute the roadmap and ensure its continuous progress, keeping it aligned with strategic objectives and delivering key initiatives.

Profile Sought

At Worklife, we embrace diversity and prioritize inclusion, equity, and accessibility in our hiring process.

Extensive experience in software engineering with a track record of leading backend projects

Proven expertise in building and scaling distributed backend systems.

Deep architectural knowledge in event-driven systems, API design, and cloud infrastructure.

String Python skills, with a strong understanding of best practices and performance optimization

Knowledge of observability, monitoring, and debugging in high-scale production environments.

Excellent communication skills, capable of translating technical concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Passion for coaching engineers and fostering a strong engineering culture.

Strategic thinking, balancing long-term vision with short-term execution.

Proactive and ownership-driven, comfortable making impactful technical decisions.

Ability to align technical decisions with business objectives and influence leadership.

Strong ability to navigate new challenges and acquire knowledge in unfamiliar domains

Passion for building impactful products that improve people’s lives

Fluent in French and English

Bonus Points (Preferred Expertise):

Fintech or HR Tech expertise, with a deep understanding of compliance, security, and industry challenges.

Knowledge of money flows, payment processing, and financial reconciliation.

Our Cultural Fit Criteria

Be impactful: You are proactive, bold, and take ownership of your work.

Never give up: You uphold high standards, demonstrate resilience, and adapt to challenges.

Level-up: You embrace a test-and-learn approach, take responsibility for your projects, and provide/receive constructive feedback.

Join us in shaping the future of Worklife’s backend ecosystem and driving excellence in engineering!

Employee Benefits

We offer you remuneration at market price, reevaluated each year (based on the market, our performance and your results) as well as +€4,500 in employee benefits (€5,000 if you are parent)👇

14€ / day worked with meal vouchers, covered at 50% and access to the benefits of our food partners including Frichti

800€ / year sustainable mobility allowance for your transport (public transport subscription, scooter, purchase of bicycle, single metro ticket, etc.)

120€ / month personal services (housekeeping help, sports coaching, childcare, etc.), 200€ / month if you are a parent

300€ / year remote allowance for your expenses related to working from home

30€ / month for your sporting activity

100€ / year to contribute to your expenses during your vacations

100€ / year to contribute to your expenses during the Christmas celebrations

RTT (number of days defined according to the collective agreement, 9 in 2024)

An excellent working environment: an international team, regular events, offsite, offices in the heart of Paris

The pleasure and pride of using our own product on a daily basis (and of testing all the advantages offered!)

Process

Talent acquisition phone call

Tech meeting with two team members

Meeting with our CTO

Culture fit with our HR Director

Reference check/ Proposal

We do our best to have a process of about 20 days and we send an offer within 48 hours 🤞