Senior Backend Engineer Stores(Kotlin, Java, Agentic Development)

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Are you ready to be a part of something transformative?

Join AH Stores as a Senior Software Engineer and embark on a journey to reshape our traditional tech infrastructure into a modern, cutting-edge technology landscape that touches the lives of millions of customers daily!

As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll play a leading role in our ongoing transformation, and in how we build. We are moving to a way of working where a large share of the code is produced by AI coding agents, and where the engineer's value sits in the design of the system and in the quality of the instruction, review and judgment around that code. What matters most to us is how you think about systems, and how well you can direct a set of agents towards a result you would be happy to put your name on. The language you are strongest in is the second question rather than the first.

If you have a fervor for designing distributed systems, working hands-on with agentic development workflows, and helping make amazing applications for the Stores landscape, then this is the ideal place for you.

This is how you will reinvent food retail

• Design the system, not just the service: own the architecture of a greenfield microservices landscape for the Stores Cluster, including service boundaries, contracts, data ownership, failure modes and migration paths away from our legacy estate
• Work agent-first: decompose work into specifications that coding agents can execute, orchestrate those agents, and stay accountable for the outcome. The agent writes a lot of the code; you own whether it is correct, secure and maintainable
• Raise the quality bar rather than lower it: automated testing, code review, security and non-functional requirements become more important as the volume of code we produce goes up, not less
• Coach and guide the engineers in your team, including on how to work this way, which is new for most of us
• Develop technical solutions in line with our systems and business process architecture
• Build proofs of concept, implement and execute automated testing, ensure security and code quality, and develop best practices
• Further enhance our technical standards, guidelines and the way we specify work
• Work closely within a product team, participating in agile ceremonies, story refinement, code changes, deployments, and production support activities
• Share your expertise and contribute to initiatives in your product cluster and the broader AH Technology Platform
• Develop the team's skills and processes to deliver value as quickly as possible

As Senior Engineer, you are technically responsible for the work of your product team. Your team develops and supports multiple applications delivering one or more capabilities for our brands in The Netherlands. You will work closely with our Product Owner and Product Architect to develop our technology landscape. Business technology and Solution consultants will support you and the rest of the team to identify requirements and find the best possible solutions.

Your office

Together with your team you will work on inspiring projects to accelerate our transition into a hybrid Food & Tech company. We want to leverage data and technology to future-proof food shopping and give our customers accessibility to healthy food more easily available for everyone. At Albert Heijn, you team up with inspiring peers in the data, digital and tech domains. A community of diverse individuals who share a common goal; to create digital solutions that make (online) shopping simpler and more inspiring. Are you ready to reinvent the way millions of people buy and enjoy their food? We invest heavily in data, digital and tech. And that includes investing in your career! Our teams work in a hybrid way: both from home as well as in the office. We are located right next to the train station Zaandam.

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. For this job we are preferably looking for someone who brings diversity in our team, in the widest possible sense. Someone who is a great addition to our team by bringing other ideas to the table. So don't check all the boxes? Don't worry, we probably don't either . Don't hesitate to apply if you think you are up for the challenge, we're happy to have a look at your resume!

What we offer

At Albert Heijn we aim to grow, and this is only possible if you grow along with us. As we work together to build our brand and your career, you can count on (based on 40 hours per week):

• An annual salary up to 106K including holiday allowance and a flexible bonus. Depending on your level of seniority and experience
• A minimum of 20 days paid vacation, optionally 12.5 days extra. Do you want to take that extra time off, or would you rather convert the extra days into discounts or sell them for cash? You're the end boss!
• Flexible working hours
• Access to a challenging training curriculum: AH Tech Academy
• An excellent pension plan where we as an employer contribute 6 times more than you as an employee
• A travel allowance or a 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

• A Technology/IT Engineering Master or Bachelor degree, or an equivalent track record
• 5+ years experience working as Senior Engineer, Tech Lead or Principal Engineer in a complex (corporate) Technology environment
• Hands-on experience with agentic development!

  You have used AI coding agents to deliver real production work, not just to autocomplete. We will ask you what you built this way, where it went wrong, and what you changed as a result

• Genuine senior-level depth in at least one language. Java or Kotlin is our preference, but Python, C#, Go or something comparable is fine. What matters is that you have carried production systems in it. You will be working in a Kotlin/Java landscape here, so you should be comfortable getting there quickly
• Strong system design: service boundaries, API design, event-driven architecture, data ownership, and non-functional requirements such as scalability, resilience and technical security
• Cloud experience, preferably Azure
• Knowledge of event streaming and messaging platforms (Kafka) is a big plus
• Knowledge and experience on Agile
• An outstanding command of English
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to lead and motivate people
• Already located in The Netherlands

We're Albert Heijn, food retail reinventors!

Albert Heijn goes way back. More than 135 years, to be exact. So for millions of people, food shopping is synonymous with the Albert Heijn brand. We didn't achieve this with a complacent, 'hey, if it works today, it'll work tomorrow' approach, but by continually rethinking our propositions and staying plugged in to customer demands. More than 125,000 colleagues? Check. Over 1,250 stores in the Netherlands and Flanders? Check. The leading online food retail platform? Check, we build, run and love it.

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

The world around us has changed, and significantly at that. These changes have impact on the lives of our customers, colleagues and partners. And therefore, also on Albert Heijn. We're moving towards a new world with new opportunities and challenges. Albert Heijn wants more people to eat fresher, healthier and more sustainable food. Eating brings us together, keeps us healthier and contributes positively to the world. 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. Would you like to learn more first, before you apply to Albert Heijn? We're happy to tell you everything about this vacancy. An assessment will be part of our selection process, and for this role that includes a hands-on session where you solve a problem the way you would on the job, agents included.

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