Engineering Manager - Freelance

Welcome to the Jungle; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Freelance contract

Hybrid working environment

Cross-team collaboration

Job summary

Welcome to the Jungle is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager for a freelance, hybrid role spanning Paris and London. You will lead a squad, own delivery, quality, and team health, and guide architectural decisions without hands-on feature delivery.

You will collaborate closely with Product and Design, read code, challenge trade-offs, and uphold high standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, and release quality.

Qualifications

• 7 to 12 years of engineering experience including team leadership.
• Strong technical credibility reading code and evaluating trade-offs.
• Experience partnering with Product and Design to meet shifting priorities.
• High standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, and releases.

Responsibilities

• Lead one squad and own delivery, quality, and team health on a freelance basis.
• Translate strategy into an achievable roadmap and manage trade-offs.
• Stay close to architecture, code quality, and technical decision-making.
• Maintain strong standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, and disciplined releases.
• Coach, mentor, and conduct performance conversations with clarity.
• Recruit, onboard, and support engineers while fostering growth.
• Strengthen operational rigor through risk management and post-mortems.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Staff Engineers, and VP Engineering.

Skills

Engineering management

Team leadership

Code reading

Product collaboration

Bilingual French/English

Job description

You know that managing engineers is a craft, not an extension of senior individual contribution. This role is for someone who wants the room and trust to lead a squad well, with clear responsibility for delivery, quality, and team health.

At Welcome to the Jungle, we build tools that help companies hire better: employer branding, sourcing, job matching, and an ATS in one product suite. You will join an engineering organization working across Paris and London, in close partnership with Product and Design, and you will help shape how one squad ships and grows.

This freelance mission is designed for an experienced Engineering Manager who stays close to technical decisions without being hands-on in feature delivery. You will read code, challenge trade-offs, and keep standards high across testing, CI/CD, observability, and release quality.

Your impact will be measured through team performance, technical discipline, and the ability to create a healthy, scalable way of working with the rest of engineering.

• Lead one squad and own delivery, quality, and team health on a freelance basis

• Translate strategy into an achievable roadmap and make trade-offs explicit

• Stay close to architecture, code quality, and technical decision-making through reviews and regular check-ins

• Maintain strong standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, and disciplined releases

• Run effective one-to-ones, give actionable feedback, and handle performance conversations with clarity

• Recruit, onboard, and support engineers, while helping seniors mentor and scale their impact

• Strengthen operational rigor through risk management, incident response, and useful post-mortems

• Work closely with Product, Design, Staff Engineers, and the VP Engineering to support cross-team execution

• Freelance contract for an experienced Engineering Manager

• Hybrid working environment

• Work with Product, Design, and Engineering leadership on high-impact topics

• Opportunity to shape team practices and operating standards

• Collaborative environment across Paris and London

7 to 12 years of engineering experience, including 2 to 5 years managing software engineers in a product companySolid technical credibility: you read code, challenge designs, and understand engineering trade-offsExperience partnering with Product and Design to deliver against changing prioritiesStrong standards around testing, CI/CD, observability, and release qualityA coaching mindset with clear expectations, honest feedback, and a genuine interest in people growthStrong communication skills and the ability to surface risks earlyComfort working in French and English