About the job
Join Albert Heijns Data Differentiation Platform (DDP) and help shape Thor, our cloud data platform powering advanced analytics across all Ahold brands. In this role, youll work on building secure, scalable, and auditable access to large datasets, enabling our teams to turn data into actionable insights. If youre passionate about software engineering, enjoy solving complex challenges, and want to make a tangible impact on the future of food retail, this role is for you.
Our Data Platform.
Our department, the Data Differentiation Platform (DDP), operates Thor, a full-fledged cloud data platform built around an ELT datastore and powered by Databricks and Azure. The platform already enables secure and auditable access to large datasets across multiple environments.
Thors aim is the decentralization of operational loads, following the principles of the Data Mesh architecture. Our ambition is to make Thor a reusable platform for all 16 Ahold brands, scaling its impact even further. You can find out more about how it works in this blog post.
Offering the business stakeholders tools to onboard and use data is only one side of the analytics platform work: users need to be able to find the right sources, access them, understand them, and trust them, to ultimately use them for their work and create tangible business value. This is where the team we are recruiting for comes into play.
Your new team and office.
You will become part of a collaborative team that owns, designs, builds, and maintains the application managing user access on Thor. This product combines components ranging from internally faced APIs (Python, FastAPI) to infrastructure management (Azure, Databricks, Terraform/Terragrunt). We are looking for engineers with a strong software engineering background who are willing to not only write code but also design scalable, secure systems that integrate seamlessly with the wider data platform ecosystem.
You will work on inspiring projects that accelerate our transition into a hybrid Food & Tech company. At Albert Heijn, we leverage data and technology to make food shopping easier, healthier, and more accessible for everyone. You will team up with talented peers across the data, digital, and tech domainsa community of diverse individuals united by the goal of creating digital solutions that make (online) shopping simpler and more inspiring.
Our teams work in a hybrid way, from home and in our office next to Zaandam train station. We also invest heavily in your development, ensuring your career grows alongside our platforms.
This is how you will reinvent food retail.
- Designing and implementing new API endpoints to support internal tools and self-service user flows
- Building approval workflows to enable secure, auditable, and scalable access to datasets
- Extending access control beyond Databricks to other cloud-native and enterprise data assets
- Continuously improving observability mechanisms
- Troubleshooting access issues and supporting users across multiple environments
We think its important to be part of an 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 dont check all the boxes? Dont worry, we probably dont either . Dont hesitate to apply if you think you are up for the challenge, were happy to have a look at your resume!
What were looking for.
- 35 years of relevant experience in software development
- Hands-on Python experience with strong programming skills (OOP)
- Comfortable with async/await and robust error handling (e.g. 4xx vs 5xx)
- Experience designing and building APIs with FastAPI & Pydantic (model validation, response models)
- Writes both unit and integration tests to ensure code quality and system reliability
- Solid engineering practices: git, CI/CD, containerization (Docker)
- Familiarity with Azure cloud infrastructure and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
- Hands-on experience in data-heavy environments (bonus: ingestion/streaming patterns)
- Dedication to high-quality software engineering practices and system design
- Collaborative mindset (pair/mob programming, open feedback culture)
- Curious, proactive, fast learner who quickly pick-ups new areas.
Nice to have:
- Knowledge of Databricks or Unity Catalog
- An interest in data-related technologies and business applications.
- Understands and applies domain modeling in a backend context
- Familiarity with OAuth2-based authorization flows
- Striving for pragmatism: we always want to try new things, but with an eye on sustainability, in terms of shipping times, maintenance, security, and cloud costs
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 75k including holiday allowance and a flexible bonus. Depending on your experience
- 45 days of paid leave to enjoy your well-deserved holidays: 25,5 regular vacation days and 19,5 ADV days. Enjoy!
- 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
- 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
Were 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 didnt achieve this with a complacent, hey, if it works today, itll 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. Were 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? Were happy to tell you everything about this vacancy! An assessment might be part of our selection process.
