Pennylane is a French all-in-one accounting and financial management platform that lets startups, SMEs, and their accountants collaborate in a shared workspace.
Pennylane is building the financial OS (Operating System) for European SMEs. A single source of truth for financial data, used on one side by entrepreneurs to run their business (invoicing and getting paid, paying suppliers and expense management, piloting cash and profitability) and on the other side by their accountant for bookkeeping and fiscal declarations. Saving time to all entrepreneurs and accountants, helping them to make the right decisions and enabling 3rd parties to offer added-value personalised financial services. We’ve launched in France and will expand to other markets in Continental Europe in the coming years. Our commercial website is thus in French only but the code is obviously documented in English and our tech team speaks English. We’re product-led, growing fast, backed by strong investors and are starting to hire software engineers anywhere in Europe, to join our experienced remote-first engineering team. 👪 CONTEXT & ROLE We're looking for our next Head of Engineering. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of people, product, and operational excellence. As Head of Engineering, you will report directly to a co-founder and take ownership of how multiple engineering groups operate, deliver, and grow together. You won't be a remote coordinator. You'll be in the details where it matters: unblocking teams, making trade-offs explicit, raising the bar on engineering practices, and building the org systems that let great engineers do their best work. This role sits between what the market calls a Director of Engineering and a VP Engineering, with a strong operational bias and a high degree of autonomy. 🎯YOUR MISSIONS ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP & PRODUCT PARTNERSHIP - Partner with Head of Product (or General Manager) to align on strategy, roadmap priorities, and make trade-offs explicit and well-understood across the organisation - Define clear collaboration points between Engineering, Product, and Design: ownership maps, escalation paths, decision cadence - Onboard and set up senior engineering leaders for success, with clear interfaces and expectations MULTI-TEAM EXECUTION - Be accountable for Tech outcomes across several teams that together deliver a coherent product or business area: quality, delivery, reliability, and team health - Clarify ownership boundaries between squads, resolve gaps and overlaps quickly, and ensure cross-squad work is staffed and sequenced end-to-end - Create the conditions for teams to execute autonomously while staying aligned with company priorities - Anticipate org scaling needs (new teams, scope changes, leadership coverage) and drive the changes needed in partnership with HR and Tech leadership ENGINEERING OPERATING SYSTEMS - Own and continuously improve the engineering-wide operating cadence: delivery rhythms, staffing processes, performance and career frameworks, decision-making hygiene - Raise the bar on engineering practices: delivery predictability, quality, reliability, and communication - Keep the technical bar high and ensure architectural decisions support long-term scaling CROSS-FUNCTIONAL BRIDGE - Act as the main engineering counterpart to business stakeholders on company-wide initiatives - Work closely with the Data team on both technical and organisational topics - Drive structural improvements in how Tech operates, in partnership with HR and other Tech leaders (e.g. clarifying roles, evolving rituals, aligning people processes to scaling needs) ENGINEERING CULTURE - Improve how decisions are made, respected, revisited, and communicated across the Tech department - Hold Engineering Managers accountable for delivery while preserving maximum autonomy for Senior Engineering Managers - Foster a learning mindset, knowledge sharing, and open communication - Contribute to Tech advocacy internally and externally (conferences, content, community) - Help build a strong Tech Leadership community at Pennylane ✨ WHY THIS ROLE, WHY NOW - Direct line to a co-founder: real influence on how the Engineering organisation is built, not just managed - Greenfield scope: the organisation systems, rituals, and team structures are still being shaped; you'll have a genuine hand in building them - A team that cares: our engineers are thoughtful, opinionated, and invested in doing things well - Scale that matters: we're growing fast across France and Europe, which means real organisation complexity and real stakes 🥇 YOU’RE THE RIGHT CANDIDATE IF YOU.. - Have significant experience leading multiple engineering teams through managers of managers, ideally in a high-growth B2B SaaS or fintech environment - Have a track record of improving how engineering organisations operate, not just managing within them - Have a strong product and business sense: you understand roadmap trade-offs and can have credible conversations with Product, Design, and business stakeholders - Are operationally sharp: you can zoom in on execution issues and zoom out to org design in the same week - Are a people leader who builds trust with senior ICs and EMs alike, and who holds a high bar on both delivery and culture - Are comfortable with ambiguity and capable of operating with a high degree of autonomy - Are fluent in English (working language of our Engineering team); French is a plus WHAT DO WE DO TO MAKE YOUR WORK LIFE EASIER 🏢 You'll be able to work remotely from anywhere in Europe, as long as your contract allows you to 💵 You’ll have a compensation package 📈 You'll get company shares to enjoy a piece of the success story you're building with us 🏡 You’ll have a budget to turn your home into a more comfortable workspace, as well as a monthly allowance to work from a coworking space whenever you feel like it ⛹️Through our partner Gymlib, you’ll have access to 8000 fitness spaces in Europe and more than 300 activities r