about
02 — About

A brief
biography.

I'm a backend engineer based in Paris, obsessed with the infrastructure that makes everyday products feel effortless. This is the longer version of the story.

Elimane Sall

I've spent the last decade in the quieter rooms of software — the ones without screens, where data moves in queues and systems either hum or they don't.

My path started at Orange, hardening network infrastructure. It passed through the Caisse des Dépôts and a handful of startups before landing at Radio France, where I've led the backend platform behind the ICI mobile app since 2019.

Along the way I've shipped voice apps for Alexa, Electron apps for insurance inspectors, a Chromecast player heard by millions, and countless microservices nobody ever sees — which is exactly the point.

I care about correctness over cleverness, about tests that tell the truth, about APIs other engineers enjoy using. I believe the best backends are the ones you forget exist.

How I work

A few principles.

Not rules. Not dogma. Things I've come to believe after enough 3am incident calls.

01

Boring tech, on purpose.

The novel stack is rarely the right one. I reach for proven tools and leave the creativity for the product, not the plumbing.

02

Tests tell the truth.

If you can't write a test for it, you don't understand it yet. TDD isn't religion, but it's the fastest way to stop lying to yourself.

03

Readable beats clever.

Code lives ten times longer than it takes to write. Optimise for the engineer reading it at 10pm on a Friday.

04

Monitor before you scale.

You can't fix what you can't see. Every service I own gets metrics, logs, traces and alerts before it goes near production.

05

Small PRs, big conversations.

Ship the change in chunks you can reason about. Save the architecture debates for the whiteboard, not the merge queue.

06

Leave it better than you found it.

Every touch to a codebase is a chance to clean something up. Not a refactor marathon — just a little courtesy to the next person.

Chronology

The long path.

2012

ESEO — Prépa

Mathematics and physics prep classes. The years of chalk dust and proofs.

2013 — 2015

IUT Nancy-Brabois

Masters in Computer Science — specialising in software engineering and information systems.

2014

Orange — Security Engineer

First real job: network security, migrations, equipment at scale.

2015 — 2017

TELECOM Nancy — Engineering degree

Completed the engineering cycle in software engineering and information systems.

2016

CNP TI / Caisse des Dépôts

First full-stack role. Built JIRA analytics and archival tools across the architecture org.

2017

NeoLynk → Car&Boat Media

A year of startups. Ionic apps for consultants, then React for LaCentrale.fr's B2B platform.

2018 — 2019

TEXA / Stelliant — Scrum Master

Full-stack + Scrum Master for iTex Mobile. Taught me how teams scale, and how they don't.

2019 — 2024

Radio France — Lead Backend

Where I am today. Built and led the backend platform behind ICI Mobile and the voice ecosystem.

Next

A new chapter

Looking for the next adventure — product-minded teams, hard infra problems, quiet humour welcome.

Off the clock

What I do when
I'm not at a keyboard.

  • SurfingAtlantic coast, weekends
  • RunningParis 10k loops
  • Chess~1600 elo, on the subway
  • ReadingSci-fi, systems, biographies
  • Vim-ricingSee the journal →
  • CoffeeV60, medium roast, Kenyan
Elimane Sall

Backend engineer in Paris. A decade spent building APIs, services and voice systems for audiences of millions.

Based in
Paris · CET
48.8566° N, 2.3522° E
Currently
Radio France
© MMXXVI · Elimane Sall · Crafted in Paris
v3.0 · last shipped apr '26
Available this week Book a 30-min call