Back-End Engineer (Ruby on Rails)
We power people’s progress.
At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact.
We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale.
Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.
Meet the team!
The Engineering team builds scalable, resilient products that sit at the core of this experience. We’re a product-led org with high autonomy, fast feedback loops, and real ownership.
We’re currently looking for a Backend Engineer with Ruby on Rails experience to join our B2B team. This team focuses on corporate customers, companies that use Preply to upskill hundreds or thousands of employees. From an engineering perspective, that means building the backbone of our corporate offering: systems for managing organizations, users and permissions, group learning flows, admin dashboards, and complex business logic that needs to scale reliably.
Part of this role involves leading the transition of an existing Ruby on Rails system into the team’s ownership. This includes developing an understanding of the system, improving how it’s maintained and evolved, and bringing that knowledge to the rest of the B2B team.
Alongside this work, you’ll be working alongside other B2B engineers to the team’s ongoing product development using our core backend stack (Python/Django), working on features and engineering initiatives that support our corporate customers.
Our core backend stack is Python/Django with React on the frontend, but we’re pragmatic and tech-agnostic. Ruby on Rails experience is especially valuable for this role, and we’ll support you in onboarding into Python over time. Strong engineering fundamentals and curiosity matter more to us than prior experience with any one framework.
What you’ll be doing:
You will work in a cross-functional team alongside the Product Manager, Product Designer, UX Writers, Data Analytics, Technical Lead, Engineers and other cross-functional team members to deliver engaging features through A/B tests and build top-notch products, including, but not limited to:
Develop and own backend features using Python/Django, supporting the creation of new backend services as well as design, create, and/or troubleshoot integrations with third-party vendors.
Think beyond the code and about our customers, understand their needs, and define solutions with the team;
Balance short-term speed of development with the long-term technical quality of our systems;
What you need to succeed:
Exposure to architectural patterns of large, high-scale web applications (e.g. well-designed APIs, high-volume data pipelines, efficient algorithms);
Solid backend experience with Ruby on Rails, including working with complex business logic and evolving codebases;
Willingness to support small JS/TS tasks when needed;
Expertise in troubleshooting issues, identifying root causes, mitigating incidents, and putting safeguards in place to prevent recurrence;
High level of self-organization, ownership, and responsibility;
A great collaborator with strong verbal and written communication skills (minimum B2 English);
Willingness to be on-call for your squad (1 week every 5 weeks).
Why you’ll love it at Preply:
An open, collaborative, dynamic, and diverse culture;
A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, Learning & Development budget, and time off for your self-development;
A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance, and health insurance;
Access to free mental health support platforms;
The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!)
#LI-KD2
Our Principles
Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.