Software Engineer / Developer
Designs, builds and maintains the software features that power the product — from back-end to interface.
Why this hire matters.
Your engineers are your product's delivery capacity: their level directly drives your velocity, your technical debt and your time-to-market. A bad hire costs twice — in salary, and in slowing the whole team (code review, production bugs, rewrites). Conversely, a senior who can own a system end-to-end and articulate technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders unblocks the roadmap and levels up everyone around them. In a scale-up, the gap between a mid-level and a true senior isn't measured in years but in scope: the ability to architect, anticipate risk and decide under uncertainty. This is the first role you must learn to hire with rigor, because it sets the quality bar for the entire engineering org.
Key missions.
- Build features from design to production
- Write tested, documented, maintainable code
- Run code reviews and mentor peers
- Fix incidents and reduce technical debt
- Contribute to architecture decisions with leads
- Partner with product and design on feasibility
- Own the observability and reliability of their services
Skills.
Technical skills
- Mastery of at least one language (TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Rust)
- REST/GraphQL APIs, SQL/NoSQL
- Automated testing, CI/CD
- Cloud fundamentals (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Expected qualities
- Rigor
- Technical communication
- Autonomy
- Product sense
Common stack
Salaries 2025-2026
| Level | Experience | Annual gross base |
|---|---|---|
| Junior | 0-2 yrs | 38–45 k€ |
| Mid-level | 2-5 yrs | 45–55 k€ |
| Senior | 5-8 yrs | 55–70 k€ |
| Lead / Staff | 8+ yrs | 70–85 k€ |
Paris market ranges, 2025-2026.
Outside the Paris region, expect 10 to 20 % less.
Sources : Bureau des Talents 2026 · talent.io · francesalaires 2025 · Novera Talent 2025 · Michael Page 2026
Hiring this profile.
Typical background
Engineering degree or CS master's, or bootcamp/self-taught with a strong portfolio. Growth comes from increasing system ownership.
When to hire
From your first product hires (pre-seed/seed). From Series A, structure levels (junior/senior) to balance cost and autonomy.
Career path
Senior → Tech Lead or Staff Engineer (IC track); or Engineering Manager (management track).