Tech Lead - AI Lab

Our mission and customers: We are creating the freedom for SMEs to succeed by delivering Europe's leading finance workspace with banking at its core, augmented by financial tools. We are proud to be rated 4.8 on Trustpilot, based on 55,000+ reviews. Our culture puts customer satisfaction at the core of what we do, as proven by our Net Promoter Score of 75. Our journey: Founded in 2017 by Alexandre and Steve, Qonto has grown to 1,600+ Qontoers serving over 600,000+ customers across 8 European countries. We have been profitable since 2023, and we are just getting started. Our beliefs: We hire for skills and potential. With 80+ nationalities, 45% women, of which 56% of women in our leadership team, diversity isn't a program; It's who we are. We've built a discrimination-free hiring process because the best teams are built on merit. AI at Qonto: AI is deeply embedded in how we work (here) - Every Qontoer gets unlimited access to the best AI tools. We want people who experiment without waiting for permission, push AI beyond the obvious, know when to trust it, and when to question it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 🌍 This job is open to full remote if you are based in France, Germany, Italy, or Spain. ⭐ Mission Join our AI Lab as a Tech Lead and help Qonto build the AI-first product that transforms how 600,000+ businesses manage their finances. You'll spend most of your time doing what you love — shipping — while providing the technical direction and light mentorship that turns a high-velocity squad into a high-quality one. Working alongside Sophie, our Manager for the AI Lab, you'll set the technical standard for a 13-person cross-functional team as we scale from one AI agent to many. You'll directly manage 5 engineers across Backend, Web, and Mobile — leading by project and track, not by stack — keeping pace with our ambition: one new agent every 6 weeks. 👩‍💻 As a Tech Lead for the AI Lab, you will Ship as an IC, lead by example: Spend ~70% of your time coding — owning backend and AI logic on agents, setting the bar for code quality, and demonstrating what "fast and reliable" looks like in practice. Set technical direction: Make architecture calls, define pragmatic LLM guardrails, and ensure the team builds components that scale in a regulated banking environment — not components that get rewritten in three months. Grow the engineers around you: Coach junior profiles, run progress reviews, and help people develop — without the overhead of a full people management role. This is technical leadership with a mentorship layer, not an EM job. Bridge the Lab and Qonto: Act as the technical interface between the AI Lab and the broader organisation — understand how features are built across Qonto, bring that knowledge into the Lab, and ensure what we build in agents integrates with the wider product. 🏅 What we're looking for Python depth with a leadership track record: Strong production experience in Python, with experience setting technical direction in a team — Go and/or Ruby are a plus for Qonto service integrations. IC-first mindset: You've grown into a lead or management role but genuinely want to keep shipping. 70% coding time isn't a constraint — it's what draws you to this role. AI-native workflow: Daily use of AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) is a baseline expectation. You use them yourself and set the example for your squad. AI curiosity over AI expertise: Production AI experience not required — what matters is genuine curiosity, active experimentation, and the drive to build things even outside of work. Coaching ability: You know how to develop junior engineers — give feedback that lands, spot growth opportunities, and run progress reviews that actually move the needle. Strong communicator: You articulate technical decisions clearly to non-technical stakeholders and navigate cross-functional squads with ease. 🔧 What you'll get Unlimited access to the best AI tools on the market: Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Dust, Notion AI. A Python-first stack with hands-on AI agent work from day one — PydanticAI, LangGraph, LangChain in the mix (framework awareness appreciated; production expertise not required). A squad culture where autonomy is the default — minimal process, quick dailies, weekly demos with leadership, and every hour counting. The opportunity to define what technical leadership looks like in an AI-first fullstack team — this role is being built as the Lab scales. 🤝 About your future manager You'll work closely with Sophie, our Manager for the AI Lab — but don't expect hand-holding. Sophie leads a cross-functional team building Qonto's AI-first product, working directly with Product and Tech leadership to align the AI roadmap with the company's strategic goals. Steve (CPO) attends Friday demos regularly. Her approach: give engineers real ownership, create