Responsibilities
- Leading technical direction & delivery for backend systems and services across the platform.
- Collaborating closely with the Architect on major architectural decisions and owning implementation-level decisions within agreed architectural guidelines.
- Translating architectural vision into executable backend designs and ensuring delivery aligns with business goals.
- Creating a clear technical vision for backend architecture and ensuring alignment with business goals.
- Supporting architecture decisions around microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, AWS services, and Infrastructure-as-Code.
- Gatekeeping quality standards through code reviews, coding standards, and best practices (security, performance, reliability).
- Ensuring operational excellence, including observability, incident learnings, and improving stability in production.
- Mentoring and coaching backend developers, supporting professional growth and building a culture of ownership.
- Acting as the escalation point for complex technical issues, guiding solutions and coordinating across teams.
- Partnering closely with IT Ops and other Leads on DevSecOps maturity, CI/CD reliability and system resilience.
- Translating product needs into robust technical solutions while keeping scalability and maintainability in mind.
- Continuously improving backend engineering workflows, tooling, and service reliability, feeding platform-level insights back to the Architect.
Requirements
- A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
- 8+ years of backend development experience, depending on demonstrated scope and impact.
- Extensive experience (minimum 5 years) in people management, leading and mentoring backend engineers, and improving team productivity and engineering maturity.
- Extensive experience in Java (17+), Spring Boot, REST APIs, and backend architecture.
- Deep experience with AWS services (serverless, ECS/EKS, DynamoDB, RDS, SQS/SNS, etc.).
- Experience with microservices and event-driven architecture in distributed systems.
- Proficient knowledge of Infrastructure-as-Code (CloudFormation or CDK) and CI/CD pipelines.
- Proficient understanding of Kubernetes, containerised deployments, and service operations.
- Demonstrated ownership of service lifecycle, including monitoring and production stability.
- An in-depth grasp of security-by-design principles, DevSecOps, and compliance awareness (privacy, security, accessibility).
- Ensuring effective alignment with mobile and frontend teams on API contracts, data models, and shared technical decisions.
- Effective communication skills in English (both oral and written), able to explain complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- A structured, improvement-driven mindset and the ability to make sound engineering decisions.
Nice to Have
- Experience in a B2C or B2B eCommerce environment with high availability requirements.
- Experience working with architects and other leads in larger technical ecosystems.
- Familiarity with domain-driven design, API versioning strategies and backward compatibility practices.
- An interest in sustainable travel.
Benefits
- A flexible hybrid model that combines remote work with in-office days each week, enhancing teamwork and connection.
- A complimentary NS train card to travel across the Netherlands for work and leisure.
- An annual free Interrail/Eurail travel pass for you and a companion, so you can explore Europe and share the same experiences as our customers.
- Unlimited access to OpenUp for lifestyle & well-being recommendations.
- Support for your well-being through a personal allowance of €1500.
- We provide a training allowance of €4000 to support learning opportunities relevant to your role.
- Variable annual bonus (target 4%), based on company and individual performance.
- An annual team trip across Europe to experience our product first-hand.
- 20 working days per year from abroad.
- An annual leave package of 28 days, plus study days, volunteer days, and a culture day.
Work Arrangement
Hybrid
Team
Structure: We work in a flexible hybrid model from our Utrecht HQ and our homes across the Netherlands.
Additional Information
- A structured, improvement-driven mindset and the ability to make sound engineering decisions.
- Effective communication skills in English (both oral and written), able to explain complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
