TL;DR
- Pennylane’s ~100 remote-tagged roles are far fewer jobs than they look. One French accounting-support role is posted across roughly sixty towns.
- The binding rule is Europe, within CET ±2 hours, from your country of residence – not “anywhere in Europe”.
- Of 149 live adverts, three state that French is not required, and all three are in Tech. Two roles flagged “Remote Europe 🇪🇺” both demand fluent French.
- The French roles need French accounting qualifications – DCG, Master CCA, BTS CGO – and three tax seasons in a French cabinet.
Pennylane is a French accounting software company with a Paris headquarters, a Berlin office and around 1,100 staff. On a job board it looks like one of the most remote-friendly employers in Europe.
Remote Work Europe read all 149 of its live adverts. The picture underneath is considerably narrower than the count suggests, and the gap between the two is the single most useful thing we can tell you about applying there.
Is Pennylane a remote-first company?
It depends which page you read, and the wording drifts in a way worth noticing.
The careers site says: “We’ve been a remote-first tech team from the start as our tech cofounders, Quentin and Thierry, live in different French regions.” Note the scope – a remote-first tech team, not a remote-first company.
The adverts say something softer. Across 34 of them: “a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe”. And the operative policy line, repeated across 15 or more English adverts, opens with a conditional:
”🏢 Depending on the teams and the requirements of the position — you’ll be able to work remotely from your country of residence, as long as it is in Europe and within a maximum time difference of two hours from the CET time zone”
Remote-first, remote-friendly, and depending on the team are three different promises. The adverts are the ones that bind.
A warning about the careers page itself: it still says “over 700 employees” and “As we’ve launched in France only (for now!)”, while live adverts say 1,100 and Pennylane is actively hiring a German team from a Berlin office. Read the adverts, not the careers page.
How many remote roles does Pennylane actually have?
This is the finding that matters most.
Of 149 live adverts, Customer Success accounts for 74 and Partner Success for 23. Tech is 8 and Product is 8. That alone tells you this is not an engineering-led board.
But the ~60 Customer Success listings in French towns from Loudéac to Les Sables-d’Olonne are the same two roles posted once per town – Spécialiste Support Comptable and Spécialiste Support Pilotage et Comptabilité, each titled “(Télétravail complet possible – [town])”. They are genuinely home-based. They are one job advertised sixty times, not sixty jobs.
The same pattern repeats elsewhere: one Senior Legal Counsel role is posted seven times across French cities plus Germany.
Strip the duplication and Pennylane’s board is roughly: one French accounting-support role, one German accounting and partner role, one legal role, and about a dozen genuinely distinct Tech and Product openings.
| Department | Live adverts | Remote picture |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Success | 74 | The French volume – one role, ~60 towns |
| Partner Success (cabinets comptables) | 23 | German remote roles, plus 8 freelance French field missions |
| G&A (legal, IT) | 11 | Seven are one legal role replicated |
| Tech | 8 | The only roles offering Europe-wide scope |
| Product | 8 | Some “Remote Europe” – but see language below |
| People | 6 | Mixed; Paris on site for People Ops |
| Sales | 6 | Barcelona and Berlin hybrid; two French remote |
| Strategy & Operations | 5 | Paris, three flagged on-site, none remote |
| Marketing | 4 | Paris offices / hybrid |
| Financial Services | 2 | Paris, hybrid |
Which countries does Pennylane employ in?
France and Germany at volume. Portugal, Ireland, the UK and Italy appear only as secondary locations on a handful of Tech and Product roles, always with the hedge “as long as your contract allows you to” – which is a question to ask, not an offer.
The German adverts are tighter than the English ones and say so in German: you may work remotely “solange es in Deutschland liegt” – as long as it is in Germany – with occasional work elsewhere in Europe if the time difference to CET is at most two hours.
The CET ±2 hour rule is the real boundary. Portugal, Ireland and the UK fit at CET−1. Much further east or west does not.
The only concrete employment statement on the whole board is French: “If you are based in France, you will have a French contract following French regulation on top of the additional perks: 6 to 12 RTT, 5 weeks PTOs, lunch credits (Swile), Alan Blue healthcare cover”. There is no equivalent for any other country, and whether Pennylane employs directly, via a local entity or via an employer of record outside France and Germany could not be determined.
Do you need to speak French to work at Pennylane?
Almost always, and the job titles actively mislead here.
Three adverts out of 149 state that French is not required, all in Tech: Backend Engineer – Ruby on Rails 🇪🇺 (“French is not mandatory”), Senior AI Engineer 🇪🇺 (same), and Senior Product Analyst (“French is a plus”).
The 🇪🇺 flag in a title does not mean English-only. In the same Product team, both tagged with Portugal, Germany, Spain, Ireland and UK remote locations:
- Product Designer (Confirmed/Senior) – Remote Europe 🇪🇺: “Fluent in both French and English. Being able to run user interviews in french is a must.”
- Product Design Manager: “Fluency in French and proficiency in English is required.”
The two most Europe-open-looking Product adverts on the board both require fluent French.
The German roles ask for “Verhandlungssichere Deutschkenntnisse (C2-Niveau oder Muttersprache)” – C2 or native – across nine adverts. The Barcelona roles want “Español fluido (nivel nativo ideal)”.
The qualification lock on the French remote roles
Even fluent French is not enough for the roles that make up most of Pennylane’s remote volume.
The Spécialiste Support adverts require “De formation comptable (BTS CGO, DCG, BTS assistant de gestion PME-PMI, Master CCA ou Bachelor Responsable admin et comptable)” and “Expérience d’au moins 3 ans en cabinet comptable (idéalement avoir fait au moins trois périodes fiscales)”.
These are French accounting qualifications and French practice experience. This is Pennylane’s real gate, and it is far more restrictive than any location line implies.
What else to know before you apply to Pennylane
Eight “Partner Success” roles are freelance, not employment, and not really remote. They read “En tant que consultant en formation en freelance”, require “minimum 3 jours par semaine”, and ask for availability “au moins 10 jours par mois” for training, “avec la capacité de se déplacer dans une zone géographique définie (environ 2h de son domicile)”. A jobseeker filtering for remote could easily land on one.
“Germany (remote)” carries a monthly travel obligation the location line hides: onboarding at the Paris HQ and regular client visits within Germany, “ca. 1mal im Monat”.
The board’s own tagging is unreliable. The same title appears as “Remote” in one town and “Hybrid” or blank in another. One prominent “Engineering Manager 🇪🇺” listing states in its own text: “This position is not currently open for active recruitment. We are keeping this job description online to build a talent pool.” Read the advert body, never the remote filter.
Remote working is funded: a budget for the home workspace plus a monthly coworking allowance for fully remote contracts. Teams meet in Paris for Tech Days roughly every two to three months.
Visa sponsorship is not mentioned anywhere in 149 adverts. Treat it as unanswered.
Frequently asked questions
How many genuinely distinct remote roles does Pennylane have? Around a dozen, once per-town duplication is removed – concentrated in Tech and Product, plus the replicated French and German accounting roles.
Can I work for Pennylane from Spain or Portugal? Portugal appears only as a secondary location on a few Tech and Product roles, hedged with “as long as your contract allows you to”. Barcelona roles exist but are hybrid and require fluent Spanish. Ask before assuming.
What does “within two hours of CET” rule out? Practically, it keeps you inside Europe. Portugal, Ireland and the UK are fine at CET−1. It excludes anywhere substantially further east or west.
Is Pennylane worth applying to if I only speak English? Realistically only in Tech – Backend Engineer, Senior AI Engineer and Senior Product Analyst are the three adverts that say French is not required.
Sources
- Pennylane careers
- Pennylane’s public Ashby job board, 149 live adverts, retrieved 7 September 2026
- Remote Work Europe Connected jobs board, role counts as at 7 September 2026