Distinguished Engineer

Brevo; Paris; Sur place; EUR 180 000 - 240 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Brevo in Paris seeks a Distinguished Engineer to lead cross-cutting technical transformations too large for a single team. You will own end-to-end programs with authority to drive major architectural decisions across Product Engineering, Platform, Infrastructure and Data.

You bring experience at Principal/ Distinguished/ Senior Principal levels, leading migrations of hundreds of engineers, and deep expertise in Kubernetes, CI/CD, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry, and large-scale observability.

Qualifications

• Experience at Principal/ Distinguished/ Senior Principal or Fellow level in a large engineering organization.
• Led transformations involving hundreds of engineers, large service fleets, distributed systems, and complex migrations.
• Ability to move between system design discussions, code reviews, incidents, migration plans, and executive-level technical decisions.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, CI/CD, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry, distributed databases, service communication, developer platforms, and large-scale observability.

Responsabilités

• Own end-to-end technical transformations: architecture, migration, adoption, retirement of legacy systems.
• Lead CI/CD deployment architecture across hundreds of services and repositories.
• Replace fragmented logging with an OpenTelemetry-based platform backed by ClickHouse.
• Redesign how Kafka is used and improve platform abstractions around messaging.
• Turn ClickHouse into a first-class internal product; standardize service communication and runtime architecture.
• Drive developer platforms and observability at scale across the organization.

Connaissances

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Kafka

ClickHouse

OpenTelemetry

Distributed databases

Service communication

Developer platforms

Large-scale observability

Description du poste

At Brevo, we’re not just building a CRM. With our technology, we’re helping millions of organizations build lasting relationships with their customers.From emails and SMS to WhatsApp, Chat, and Marketing Automation, our tools are intuitive, powerful, and built to scale with every ambition. We give businesses a clear view of the customer journey, so they can focus on what matters: connection.

As a certified B Corp, we’re proud to grow with purpose, committed to high standards of social and environmental impact, not just performance.

Today, more than 500,000 businesses across 180 countries—from NGOs like Amnesty International to global brands like Carrefour, eBay, Louis Vuitton, and Michelin—trust Brevo to engage their audiences, cut through complexity, and deliver results. Our reliable technology and 75+ integrations help them create unparalleled customer experiences, without the usual tech headaches.

We recently exceeded 200m ARR and reached a major milestone by becoming a Unicorn, backed by strong growth and global expansion - and we’re just getting started!

The role:

We are looking for a Distinguished Engineer based in our Paris office to lead the technical transformations that are too large, too cross-cutting, or too critical to belong to a single engineering team.

This is a company-wide IC role with direct report to the CTO and explicit authority to drive major technical decisions across Product Engineering, Platform, Infrastructure and Data.

This isn't an advisory role, it's a mandate to change how Brevo Engineering works at a foundational level

What you will do:

You will own a small number of high-impact technical transformations end to end: architecture, implementation strategy, migration, adoption and retirement of legacy systems.

Examples include:

• rebuilding our CI/CD and deployment architecture across hundreds of services and repositories;
• replacing fragmented logging and observability patterns with an OpenTelemetry-based platform backed by ClickHouse;
• redesigning how we use Kafka and introducing stronger platform abstractions around messaging;
• turning ClickHouse into a first-class internal product rather than a database consumed inconsistently across teams;
• defining and driving common standards around service communication, reliability, runtime architecture and developer platforms

These initiatives will cross organizational boundaries and require changes to both infrastructure and application code.

Your responsibility is to own the projects end to end, driving them through every stage and resolving whatever obstacles arise until it is delivered.

Who you are:

• You have already operated at Principal, Distinguished, Senior Principal, Fellow, or equivalent level within a significantly larger engineering organization
• You have repeatedly led transformations involving
  • hundreds of engineers or large service fleets,
  • distributed systems and production infrastructure,
  • complex migrations where old and new worlds had to coexist,
  • strong technical disagreement across senior teams,
  • and architecture decisions with broad and lasting consequences
• You move fluidly between a system design discussion, a code review, a production incident, a migration plan, and an executive-level technical decision
• You bring deep expertise in several of the following: Kubernetes, CI/CD, Kafka, ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry, distributed databases, service communication, developer platforms, and large-scale observability

Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, if this role speaks to you, we’d love to hear from you.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.