Backend Engineer Innovation Team (Kotlin, AI, Chatbot) – Albert Heijn Nederland – Zaandam

About the Role

We are looking for a proactive and motivated Backend Engineer to join our innovation‑focused team at Albert Heijn. In this role you’ll help turn new business ideas into real, scalable digital products that are used by thousands of customers and colleagues every day.

You will work on backend systems that power products such as AH Steijn, Laatste Kans Koopjes, and other new initiatives. This is a role for someone who enjoys solid backend engineering first and is curious enough to explore new technologies when the product requires it.

You’ll be part of a team that sits at the heart of innovation within AH, translating concepts into reliable APIs, integrations, and data flows that can run at scale. You may also improve or evolve existing solutions when needed.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain Kotlin‑based backend services, APIs and integrations that power innovative AH products.
• Take ownership of services from design to deployment and lifecycle management (DevOps mindset).
• Work on integrations with existing AH systems and ensure reliable data flows between platforms.
• Collaborate closely with Product Owners, other engineers and business stakeholders to turn ideas into production‑ready solutions.
• Contribute to new initiatives, including AI‑related solutions when relevant.
• Ensure new concepts are built in a robust way so that they can operate reliably within a complex retail environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience as a backend engineer.
• Professional experience with Kotlin or Java (with willingness to work in Kotlin).
• Hands‑on experience with Spring / Spring Boot.
• Experience building and maintaining APIs, integrations and backend services.
• Experience with relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• DevOps mindset: comfortable with CI/CD, deployments and owning the full lifecycle of services.
• Experience working in Agile product teams.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to work in a dynamic, innovation‑driven environment.
• Comfortable with modern developer tooling such as GitHub Copilot and other coding assistants.
• Willingness to work hybrid from our Zaandam office.
• Must already live and work in The Netherlands.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with LLMs, AI agents or frameworks like LangChain4j.
• Interest in how AI can be applied in backend systems.
• A curious mindset and openness to work with new technologies when relevant to the product.

Benefits

• Annual salary up to €72,000 including holiday allowance and a flexible bonus.
• 45 days of paid leave: 25.5 regular vacation days and 19.5 ADV days.
• Flexible working hours.
• Access to a challenging training curriculum – AH Tech Academy.
• Excellent pension plan with employer contribution.
• Travel allowance or an NS‑business card for commuting to and from Zaandam by train.
• Attractive discounts on various insurance policies.
• 10% staff discount on groceries in all Albert Heijn stores, up to €300 per year.
• Free Mijn Albert Heijn Premium membership with many benefits.
• Company laptop and telephone.

Company Overview

Albert Heijn is a leading Dutch supermarket chain with a long history and a strong online presence. We have over 125,000 colleagues, more than 1,250 stores in the Netherlands and Flanders, and are the leading online food retail platform.

Mission

Our mission is to make eating better the easy choice for everyone. We continuously rethink our propositions to provide fresher, healthier and more sustainable food, and we rely on data and technology to future‑proof food shopping.