Preply Engineering: Culture, Team, And Opportunities

by Alex Johnson 53 views

At Preply, the mission is clear: to power people's progress through life-changing learning experiences. This article delves into the heart of Preply's Engineering Team, exploring the culture, the opportunities, and the technologies that drive this innovative platform. If you're passionate about education, technology, and making a real impact on people's lives, then join to explore what Preply has to offer. Let’s discover how Preply combines human expertise with cutting-edge AI to revolutionize the way people learn.

About Preply: Transforming Education Globally

Preply is more than just a learning platform; it's a community of 90,000 tutors delivering over 20 million lessons in more than 175 countries. This global reach underscores Preply's commitment to making education accessible and personalized. Preply's approach is human-led and tech-enabled, ensuring that every lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress. The focus is on creating personalized learning journeys that keep learners motivated and inspired. Preply's impact is tangible, with countless students expanding their vocabulary, mastering conversational fluency, and deepening comprehension. The platform’s success lies in its ability to connect learners with the perfect tutor, crafting a learning experience tailored to individual needs and goals. Preply is redefining education by leveraging technology to unlock human potential and foster a lifelong love for learning. This commitment to innovation and personalized education makes Preply a unique and impactful player in the global education landscape. Preply's dedication to quality and effectiveness is evident in the transformative outcomes experienced by its learners and the supportive environment it provides for its tutors.

Meet the Preply Engineering Team: Redefining Education

The Preply Engineering Team is at the forefront of this mission, providing the tools and technologies that unlock human potential through learning. This team is not just building a platform; they are crafting the future of education. Preply's engineering team embodies a culture of innovation and collaboration, constantly seeking new ways to enhance the learning experience. The team is committed to using cutting-edge technology to create personalized journeys that inspire and motivate learners. By implementing A/B tests, the team ensures that every initiative is data-driven and focused on improving the product based on feedback from both students and tutors. This iterative approach, combined with a strong emphasis on monitoring and metrics analysis, allows Preply to continuously optimize its services and deliver the best possible learning outcomes. Preply’s engineers are passionate about solving complex technical challenges and leveraging their skills to make a tangible impact on the world of education. The team's dedication to quality, innovation, and user satisfaction is what sets Preply apart as a leader in online learning. Joining the Preply Engineering Team means becoming part of a group of talented individuals who are committed to transforming education on a global scale.

Tech-Agnostic Approach: Embracing Diversity in Technology

One of the standout features of Preply's engineering culture is its tech-agnostic approach. This means that Preply is open to considering candidates with diverse technology backgrounds, whether their expertise lies in Java/Spring, Node.js/Express.js, Ruby/Ruby on Rails, Scala/Play, PHP, or Golang. This inclusivity fosters a rich environment of diverse perspectives and skill sets, allowing the team to tackle challenges from multiple angles. While Python is the primary programming language used at Preply, prior experience with it is not mandatory. What truly matters is a candidate's enthusiasm for learning Python and their ability to adapt quickly to using it for product development. This emphasis on adaptability and a growth mindset is crucial in the fast-paced world of technology. Preply values individuals who are eager to learn, experiment, and contribute to the team's collective knowledge. The tech-agnostic approach ensures that Preply can attract top talent from a wide range of backgrounds, further strengthening its engineering capabilities and driving innovation.

Fast-Paced Development: Releasing Products 50-60 Times a Day

Preply operates at a rapid pace, releasing its product 50-60 times per day by leveraging top-notch CI/CD processes. This agility is essential for a fast-growing company that needs to adapt quickly to market demands and user feedback. The high frequency of releases underscores Preply's commitment to continuous improvement and innovation. Each release is an opportunity to refine the platform, introduce new features, and enhance the user experience. This fast-paced development cycle requires a highly efficient and collaborative engineering team, as well as robust processes for testing and deployment. Preply's diverse technical challenges, often highlighted on the company's Engineering Blog, provide ample opportunities for engineers to develop their skills at scale. The dynamic environment at Preply ensures that engineers are constantly learning and growing, making it an ideal place for those who thrive on challenge and innovation. This rapid development pace also allows Preply to stay ahead of the curve in the competitive online education market, continuously delivering value to its learners and tutors.

What You’ll Be Doing: Key Responsibilities and Contributions

As part of the Preply Engineering Team, you will work in a cross-functional team alongside Product Managers, Product Designers, UX Writers, Data Analysts, Technical Leads, Engineers, and other cross-functional team members. This collaborative environment fosters creativity and ensures that all perspectives are considered when developing new features and products. Your contributions will directly impact the learning experience for users around the world. You’ll be involved in delivering engaging features through A/B tests and building top-notch products that enhance the Preply platform. Key responsibilities include developing and owning backend features using Python/Django, supporting the creation of new backend services, and designing, creating, and/or troubleshooting integrations with third-party vendors. You will also be expected to think beyond the code and understand the needs of Preply’s customers, defining solutions with the team that address those needs effectively. Balancing short-term development speed with the long-term technical quality of the systems is crucial, ensuring that Preply’s infrastructure remains robust and scalable. Senior Engineers will also leverage their experience to guide the team in making informed technical decisions, continuously improving best practices such as test culture, code reviews, monitoring, and scalability of tools. This multifaceted role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the growth and success of a leading online education platform.

What You Need to Succeed: Skills and Qualifications

To thrive in the Preply Engineering Team, several key skills and qualifications are essential. Exposure to architectural patterns of a large, high-scale web application is crucial, including experience with well-designed APIs, high-volume data pipelines, and efficient algorithms. Familiarity with and willingness to support small JS/TS tasks when needed is also beneficial. Expertise in troubleshooting issues, identifying the root cause, mitigating it, and setting up safeguards to prevent future problems is highly valued. A high level of self-organization, ownership, and responsibility is necessary for managing projects and contributing effectively to the team. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are vital for collaboration, particularly a minimum B2 English level. Finally, a willingness to be on-call for your squad (typically one week every five weeks) demonstrates a commitment to the team and the platform's reliability. These qualifications ensure that Preply engineers can tackle complex challenges, work collaboratively, and contribute to the continuous improvement of the platform. Preply looks for candidates who are not only technically proficient but also passionate about education and driven to make a difference in the lives of learners.

Why You’ll Love It at Preply: Benefits and Culture

Working at Preply offers numerous benefits and a vibrant, supportive culture. The company fosters an open, collaborative, dynamic, and diverse environment where employees are encouraged to share ideas and contribute to the company's mission. Preply provides a generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, supporting continuous learning and personal development. There's also a dedicated Learning & Development budget and time off for self-development, emphasizing the company's commitment to employee growth. A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance, and health insurance ensures that employees are well-compensated and cared for. For those not in Barcelona, Preply offers an attractive relocation package to join the team at the Preply Barcelona Hub, a vibrant and international city. Access to free mental health support platforms underscores Preply’s dedication to employee well-being. Employees also have access to Gympass-partnered wellness and gym centers throughout Spain, promoting physical health and well-being. Most importantly, working at Preply provides the opportunity to shape the lives of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!). This sense of purpose and impact is a key reason why many people love working at Preply.

Preply's Principles: Guiding the Company's Mission

Preply's principles serve as the foundation for its mission and culture, guiding the company's actions and decisions. These principles reflect a deep commitment to transforming education and empowering learners and tutors around the world. One of the core principles is to care to change the world, emphasizing the passion for work and the impact it has on lives. Preply is dedicated to doing it for learners, focusing on empowering tutors to deliver exceptional learning experiences. The principle of keep perfecting underscores the focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment in the customer experience, with a continuous pursuit of improvement. Now is the time highlights the importance of acting quickly in a fast-paced world to make great things happen. Disciplined execution is crucial, with clear goals, focused efforts, and efficient resource utilization. Preply encourages employees to dive deep, leveraging business acumen and curiosity to uncover meaningful insights. A growth mindset is essential, with a proactive approach to seeking opportunities and learning from feedback. Preply is committed to raising the bar, continuously improving performance standards and building high-performing teams. The company values the ability to challenge, disagree, and commit, fostering open communication and full commitment to decisions. Finally, One Preply emphasizes collaboration, inclusion, and team success over personal ambitions. These principles collectively create a strong foundation for Preply's mission to revolutionize education and empower learners globally.

Conclusion: Join the Preply Team and Make an Impact

In conclusion, Preply offers a unique opportunity to be part of a dynamic and innovative team that is transforming the landscape of online education. With a strong emphasis on personalized learning, cutting-edge technology, and a supportive culture, Preply is empowering learners and tutors around the world. If you are passionate about education, technology, and making a real impact, consider joining the Preply Engineering Team. Your skills and dedication can help shape the future of learning. Explore the opportunities at Preply and be part of a company that truly cares about powering people's progress.

To learn more about Preply's mission and values, visit their official website. 🚀