Lead Kotlin Backend Engineer Amsterdam

Vacancy: Lead Kotlin Backend Engineer

• Do you want to work on a platform that enables a greener world with real world impact, where your decisions shape both the system and the people building it?
• Do you want to guide a FP/Kotlin squadtoward technical and professional maturity while staying hands on in a modern backend landscape?
• Do you enjoy environments where engineering is personal, where teams are small enough for your leadership to matter and where your influence is visible from day one?

Then wait no longer, this is the job you have been waiting for!

Your employer: a medium sized European platform with a strong engineering heart

Your mid-sized tech savvy employer operates a digital platform used across several European regions. Behind this platform sits a Kotlin first engineering organisation that cares deeply about building sustainable, reliable and high quality backend systems.

You step into a culture where squads are compact, collaborative and warm. You work with engineers who value craftsmanship, communication and clarity. The organisation is mature enough to run serious production workloads, yet small enough for you to influence how people work together, how services evolve and how leadership is shaped.

They are entering an exciting new phase. After years of building and scaling the platform, they are investing in a stronger technical leadership layer. The focus now lies on people, team cohesion and long term engineering quality. When you join, you help define the next chapter of that growth.

You can enjoy an amazing work/life balance as they are very remote friendly, with a minimum of 2 days per month at the office!

Your job: Lead Kotlin Backend Engineer Amsterdam

When you start here, you immediately step into a role with real responsibility. You work closely with the other leads and the VP of Engineering to determine which squad fits your leadership experience. Some squads contain mid-level engineers who benefit from guidance, coaching and clear rituals. Others are senior heavy squads that rely on you for technical direction, system understanding and strategic thinking.

You lead by example. You write Kotlin services, shape event driven domain flows and improve service boundaries. You help engineers think more clearly about architecture, reliability and communication. You review code, guide decisions and bring structure to complex reasoning. While helping to improve processes and extend the engineering culture; all to grow your people and deliver even more customer value.

You help create clarity: Strengthen refinement sessions, help define priorities with product and create an environment where engineers feel supported, safe and inspired to grow. You introduce team habits that improve alignment, create calm and enhance collaboration.

Your leadership becomes a visible part of the team. You help develop people, influence engineering culture and drive meaningful improvements across the platform.

This is a role for someone who wants both: deep Kotlin/FP engineering and real leadership impact.

What is required

• At least 5 years of experience in backend engineering
• Experience designing and building distributes backend systems
• Strong experience with Kotlin, Java or Scala and a keen interest in FP
• Experience with microservices and event driven architectures
• A strong product development and pragmatic mindset
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes and cloud native environments
• Strong communication skills, emotional intelligence
• Experience with leading and mentoring a team of software engineers
• Ability to bring clarity, structure and technical direction to a team
• Experience with Arrow, Redis, Ktor and/orMeilisearch is a plus

What is offered

• Salary between €95.000 and €115.000 euro, depending on experience
• Up to 8% yearend bonus
• Remote friendly: Work from home, with only 2 office days per month!
• 25 vacation days
• Training and education budget
• Good pension
• Flexible working hours and extensive work from home possibilities
• Transportation compensation
• The best hardware including MacBook options
• Plenty of room for courses, trainings and attending meetups and seminars
• A warm, compact engineering community where your leadership makes a difference

Ready to lead a Kotlin squad where your impact on people, culture and systems is visible from day one?