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Are you ready to engineer the future of retail at Albert Heijn? As a Staff Engineer in the Data Differentiation Platform (DDP), you will be a hands-on technical leader, empowering product teams through robust platforms, tools, and frameworks. Join our Data Platform Enablement team and help drive our Data Mesh strategy, building scalable data enablement products and setting the technical direction for distributed systems.

This is how you will reinvent food retail.

• Technology (50%): You lead by example as a hands-on engineer, tackling complex technical challenges and designing the data enablement products that expose our platform’s capabilities. By architecting scalable solutions on Databricks and developing services that integrate seamlessly with our data platform, you raise the engineering bar and ensure our stack remains cutting-edge and robust.
• Strategy & Alignment (25%): You partner with fellow Staff Engineers and Enterprise Architects to shape the technical direction of our data platform. You are the bridge between vision and execution, translating high-level platform strategy into concrete technical initiatives and acting as a primary technical spokesperson within the engineering organization.
• People Management (15%): You are a mentor and a multiplier. You support Senior Engineers and Tech Leads in their growth toward staff-level impact, fostering a strong culture rooted in quality, ownership, and collaborative excellence across the cluster.
• General (10%): You drive cross-team technical alignment by facilitating discussions and sharing knowledge through engineering guilds. You help harmonize engineering practices across the organization, ensuring our learning platforms and standards evolve alongside our technology.

Your new team and office.
At Albert Heijn, we are engineering the future of retail. You’ll work with inspiring peers in data, digital, and tech—a diverse community with a shared goal: making (online) shopping simpler and more inspiring. We invest heavily in technology and your career. Our teams work hybrid: from home and at our office next to Zaandam train station.

As a Staff Engineer in the Data Differentiation Platform (DDP), you are a role model for excellence in software engineering. You act hands-on as a highly skilled technical sparring partner for our teams.
You will join the Data Platform Enablement team, the driving force behind our Data Mesh strategy. Rather than building domain data products ourselves, we empower product teams by developing the platforms, tools, and frameworks they need to work with data independently.

Our team builds data enablement products: software applications that combine robust application engineering with large-scale data processing. These include internal platforms, APIs, and frameworks that integrate with Databricks, data pipelines, data quality frameworks, and governance systems.

You will operate at the intersection of software engineering and data engineering: setting the technical direction for robust, scalable distributed systems; defining architectural standards for high-performance RESTful APIs and backend services (primarily in Python); and guiding teams in the usage and integration of Databricks, orchestration of complex data pipelines, and seamless interoperability between services.

We value a high-belonging team where everyone feels safe, accepted, and appreciated. We especially welcome candidates who bring new perspectives and diversity to our team. Don’t check all the boxes? Neither do we 😉. If you’re up for the challenge, we’d love to see your application!

The recipe for maximum impact.
We are looking for an experienced data engineer with a software-first mindset. You possess a deep software engineering understanding and a proven track record of delivering high-quality, reliable, and scalable technical solutions. You view data platforms as high-scale software products. Your expertise lies in building data-intensive systems and delivering seamless data access through well-structured Python-based APIs.

The Technical Core:

• Software Engineering for Data Platforms: Experience building internal platforms or developer tooling that enable other teams to work with data at scale.
• Extensive Databricks Experience: Extensive experience with Unity Catalog, (Serverless) compute and access control configurations, with a focus on governance and secure data enablement.
• Cloud Native Architect: Proven experience building data-intensive applications (real-time and batch) on Azure, leveraging cloud-native services and architectural patterns.
• DevAI / GenAI savvy: Embrace DevAI and GenAI as second nature, driving innovation and automation at every step.
• Proficiency in Spark: Solid understanding of Apache Spark, its distributed processing model, and why a framework like Spark is required in large-scale data environments.
• Engineering Rigor: A background in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and engineering performance practices (e.g. DORA metrics).
• Modern Data Stack: Fundamental understanding of Parquet, Delta Lake, and other Open Table Formats (OTFs), including their architectural implications.
• Containerization: Solid experience with Docker and Kubernetes for deploying and operating scalable services.

The Leadership Core:

• T-Shaped Technical Leadership: You pair world-class coding expertise with a deep mastery of software design and the communication skills necessary to align diverse stakeholders on complex technical visions.
• Trusted Technical Partner: Teams seek you out to help solve complex architectural challenges.
• Performance Driver: You have the ability to motivate engineering teams and boost their performance through clear communication and technical mentorship.

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 125k 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 4,5 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.

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. 
Albert Heijn the Netherlands is B Corp certified. This underscores our purpose, through which we aim to contribute to a healthier, more social, and sustainable society. B Corp certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency.

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 might be part of our selection process.

You can apply until the 1st of April. Since we’ll start the selection interviews right away, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. 
 

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