Backend Engineer (Kotlin, Kafka, AI/LLM systems), Zaandam

Working at Albert Heijn is not just a job. It is work with meaning. You work in an informal culture together with a passionate team that wants to stay ahead and make a difference. With your unique talent, you make an impact on the lives of all our customers. You learn from experts in their field and we help you shape your career. You can work flexibly with us, both from home and at our headquarters in Zaandam.

What does this mean for you? We are looking for a proactive and motivated Medior Backend Engineer to join our customer service team at Albert Heijn.

You will join a collaborative team dedicated to building the next generation of digital experiences at Albert Heijn. Together, you'll work on innovative solutions including our AI‑powered customer service chatbot 'Digital Assistant,' which serves millions of customers daily. Your team takes ownership of the backend systems that power critical customer touchpoints—from our customer service pages to our store locator—ensuring seamless experiences across all platforms. You will take ownership of real production systems that directly impact how our customers interact with Albert Heijn every day.

This is how you will reinvent food retail

Design and build backend services and APIs that power customer‑facing experiences

Develop and maintain systems behind our AI‑powered customer service chatbot

Integrate new capabilities into existing AH systems and ensure reliable data flows

Take ownership from design to deployment and ongoing operation

Collaborate with Product Owners, engineers, and stakeholders to turn ideas into working solutions

Ensure systems are scalable, reliable, and maintainable in a complex retail environment

Your new team and office You will join a team focused on building the backend foundations behind Albert Heijn's customer experience platforms. We turn ideas into production‑ready systems that operate at scale, designing APIs and integrating with existing AH systems to ensure reliable data flows across our retail landscape.

Together with your team of Backend and Frontend Developers and other specialists, you will work on inspiring projects that accelerate our transition into a hybrid Food&Tech company. We want to leverage data and technology to make food shopping simpler and more accessible for everyone.

We think it's important to be part of a high‑belonging team—a team where you can be yourself and feel safe, accepted, and appreciated. If you don't check all the boxes, don't worry; we probably don't either. Don't hesitate to apply if you think you're up for the challenge!

What we offer

An annual salary up to 60K (Hay 15) including holiday allowance. Depending on your experience

You contribute to our growth and therefore receive a guaranteed profit sharing bonus

45 days of paid leave to enjoy your well‑deserved holidays: 25.5 regular vacation days and 19.5 ADV days

Flexible working hours

Access to a challenging training curriculum– AH Tech Academy

An excellent pension plan with the Ahold Delhaize Pension Fund

A travel allowance or an NS‑business card for traveling to and from Zaandam by train

Attractive discounts on various insurance policies

10% staff discount on groceries in all Albert Heijn stores, to a maximum of€300 per year

A free Mijn Albert Heijn Premium membership with many benefits

A company laptop and telephone

The recipe for maximum impact

3+ years of experience as a backend engineer

Strong experience with modern backend frameworks and languages

Experience building and maintaining APIs, integrations, and backend services

Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases

A DevOps mindset, comfortable with CI/CD and owning services end to end

Experience working in Agile product teams

Strong analytical skills and ability to work in a dynamic, fast‑moving environment

Preferred technical skills and experience with

Kotlin, Spring Boot, and Maven

Docker, Kubernetes, and ArgoCD

Postgres, MongoDB, and Redis

Git and GitHub

Kafka

Rasa and Azure

Building scalable backend systems in cloud environments

Speak and write fluently in both Dutch and English

We're Albert Heijn, food retail reinventors Albert Heijn has been around for more than 135 years. For millions of people, food shopping is synonymous with the Albert Heijn brand. We didn't achieve this with complacency, but by continually rethinking our propositions and staying plugged into customer demands.

Our mission is:

Together we make eating better the easy choice. For everyone.

Ready to contribute to our mission? Do you want to play an active role in changing the food retail landscape as we know it? Then hop on board and join us on our expedition!

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