Senior II - Back-End Engineer in London

We power people's progress. At Preply, we're all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it's creating real impact. We've just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we're only getting started. As a category-defining company, we're shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale.

Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.

Meet the team! Join Preply's Teams and help us power people's progress through life-changing learning experiences. We're on a mission to combine the magic of the best tutors with cutting-edge AI to create personalized journeys that keep learners motivated and inspired. The Preply Engineering Team provides the tools to help unlock human potential through learning.

We implement A/B tests to prove the value of our initiatives and improve our product based on data and students' and tutors' feedback. As part of our commitment to ensuring high-quality products, we prioritize monitoring and metrics analysis to identify areas for optimization and ensure our services are performing at their best.

As a Senior II Backend Engineer, you'll set the technical direction, lead cross-functional projects, and build systems that power Preply's global growth engine. Your work will shape how millions of learners connect with tutors worldwide, tackling challenges that are complex in scope and critical to our success.

We are tech-agnostic, meaning we are open to considering candidates with diverse technology backgrounds, such as Java/Spring, Node.js/Express.js, Ruby/Ruby on Rails, Scala/Play, PHP, or Golang. While Python is our primary programming language, prior experience with it is not mandatory. What truly matters is your enthusiasm for learning Python and your ability to adapt quickly to using it for product development.

What you'll be doing:

• Own and drive technical vision across squads.
• Develop and own backend features using Python/Django, supporting the creation of new backend services as well as design, create, and/or troubleshoot integrations with third-party vendors.
• Scope and lead cross-functional initiatives involving design, data, product, security, and other engineering teams.
• Design and implement scalable backend systems, data pipelines, and integrations with third-party platforms.
• Mentor and coach junior and middle engineers across squads.
• Improve performance, tracking, monitoring, and reliability of our systems with an eye on long-term scalability.
• Collaborate closely with PMs, EMs, designers, and analysts to make data-informed, user-centered decisions.
• Champion engineering best practices: test automation, documentation, observability, and quality-first culture.

What you need to succeed:

• Exposure to architectural patterns of a large, high-scale web application (e.g., well-designed APIs, high-volume data pipelines, efficient algorithms).
• Proven experience leading complex, ambiguous, or greenfield projects end-to-end.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills (English level B2+).
• Willingness to be on-call for your squad (1 week every 5 weeks).

Nice to have:

• Side projects or product ownership experience.
• Experience designing systems for marketing attribution, experimentation platforms, or recommendation engines.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) and modern DevOps practices.
• Familiarity and willing to support small JS/TS tasks when needed.

Why engineers choose Preply?

• Impact that scales: What you build helps unlock progress for learners in 175+ countries. Every feature you ship supports real people, reaching real goals.
• Ownership that matters: We don't just follow roadmaps, we shape them. Engineers lead bold projects, make key tech decisions, and see their work drive business results.
• Learning built in: We work cross-functionally with data, product, design, marketing. So there's always a new challenge and a new skill to pick up.
• Modern tech, real standards: From cloud-first infra to observability-first ops, we prioritize scalable systems and smart engineering practices that last.

Why you'll love it at Preply:

• An open, collaborative, dynamic, and diverse culture.
• A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, Learning & Development budget, and time off for your self-development.
• A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance, and health insurance.
• Access to free mental health support platforms.
• The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!).

Our Principles:

• Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
• We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
• Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
• Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
• Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
• Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
• Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
• Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
• Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don't fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
• One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.