Staff Engineer

Context

Our client is a leading digital company operating a high-scale B2C platform with business-critical flows related to customer experience, digital operations, conversion and platform reliability.

The Engineering organization is looking for a Freelance Staff Engineer to support a strategic technical scope: the Production Chain, involving three engineering teams.

The objective is clear: raise the level of technical design, engineering practices and implementation quality across these teams.

The company is looking for one of the best Staff Engineers available on the market someone able to bring immediate technical impact, challenge existing practices, influence teams and increase the overall engineering standard.

This is a freelance transition mission, with an immediate start expected.

Mission objective

The Staff Engineer will act as a senior technical reference across the Production Chain.

The role is focused on:

• technical design;

• architecture quality;

• CI/CD and branching strategy;

• testing strategy;

• engineering best practices;

• technical problem-solving;

• mentorship;

• influence across teams.

This role requires someone who is not only technically excellent, but also able to influence people, explain technical decisions, create alignment and raise standards through credibility and posture.

Key responsibilities

Technical design & architecture

• Own, review and validate technical design across the Production Chain.

• Ensure technical choices are scalable, maintainable, robust and aligned with business-critical travel and e-commerce flows.

• Challenge weak or unclear design decisions.

• Bring technical clarity before implementation starts.

• Help teams anticipate technical risks, dependencies and complexity.

• Ensure technical decisions are properly documented, understood and executed.

Engineering standards & best practices

• Raise engineering standards across three teams.

• Improve CI/CD practices, branching strategies, testing strategy, code quality and release discipline.

• Ensure teams do not only deliver features, but deliver them with the right technical quality.

• Reinforce maintainability, reliability, production-readiness and implementation consistency.

• Help teams understand why specific practices are required and how they contribute to better delivery.

Technical influence & mentorship

• Influence engineers, tech leads and teams without relying on hierarchical authority.

• Explain technical choices clearly and convincingly.

• Create alignment between teams on architecture, practices and implementation strategy.

• Mentor engineers and help them grow technically.

• Bring a strong Staff Engineer posture: credible, structured, demanding, pragmatic and collaborative.

Problem-solving & execution support

• Step in when teams face complex technical problems.

• Help unblock critical topics.

• Identify weak points in code, architecture, design or delivery flow.

• Support the VP Engineering with a clear technical view on risks and required improvements.

• Ensure technical execution is aligned with the expected level of quality.

Required profile

The ideal candidate has:

• Proven experience as a Staff Engineer or Principal Engineer

• Excellent technical level in software architecture, backend systems, distributed systems, scalability, performance and reliability.

• Strong understanding of CI/CD, testing strategy, branching strategy, observability, production-readiness and engineering best practices.

• Ability to challenge technical designs and improve implementation quality.

• Strong influence and communication skills.

• Ability to mentor engineers and raise the technical level of several teams.

• Fluent French and English.

Must-have criteria

The client will be especially demanding on:

• Very strong technical depth.

• Real Staff Engineer posture, beyond senior developer seniority.

• Strong influence and communication skills.

• Ability to work transversally across several teams.

• Strong culture of technical design, CI/CD, testing and engineering standards.

• Ability to bring clarity, structure and high standards quickly.

• Pragmatism and strong execution mindset.

• Ability to start as soon as possible.

Red flags

The client will not move forward with profiles who are:

• Too theoretical or too far from hands-on engineering.

• Strong technically but unable to influence teams.

• Good senior developers but not true Staff-level profiles.

• Weak on communication or unable to explain why a technical approach is the right one.

• Not strong enough on design, CI/CD, testing or engineering practices.

• Unable to operate transversally across several teams.

Selection process

The process will include:

1. System design interview with senior technical stakeholders

2. Technical discussion with VP Engineering

What success looks like

Success means:

• Technical design across the Production Chain is stronger.

• Engineering teams apply better CI/CD, testing, branching and implementation practices.

• Teams understand why technical decisions are made.

• Engineers and tech leads are mentored and challenged.

• Technical risks are anticipated earlier.

• The overall technical level of the three teams increases.

• The VP Engineering has more confidence in technical execution.

Location:

Full remote, with 2 days on-site per month

Required profile

The ideal candidate has:

• Proven experience as a Staff Engineer or Principal Engineer

• Excellent technical level in software architecture, backend systems, distributed systems, scalability, performance and reliability.

• Strong understanding of CI/CD, testing strategy, branching strategy, observability, production-readiness and engineering best practices.

• Ability to challenge technical designs and improve implementation quality.

• Strong influence and communication skills.

• Ability to mentor engineers and raise the technical level of several teams.

• Fluent French and English.

Must-have criteria

The client will be especially demanding on:

• Very strong technical depth.

• Real Staff Engineer posture, beyond senior developer seniority.

• Strong influence and communication skills.

• Ability to work transversally across several teams.

• Strong culture of technical design, CI/CD, testing and engineering standards.

• Ability to bring clarity, structure and high standards quickly.

• Pragmatism and strong execution mindset.

• Ability to start as soon as possible.

Red flags

The client will not move forward with profiles who are:

• Too theoretical or too far from hands-on engineering.

• Strong technically but unable to influence teams.

• Good senior developers but not true Staff-level profiles.

• Weak on communication or unable to explain why a technical approach is the right one.

• Not strong enough on design, CI/CD, testing or engineering practices.

• Unable to operate transversally across several teams.