Senior Software Engineer

Ask Aletta is an AI-powered search engine that helps healthcare professionals find reliable medical information in seconds.

We started from a problem our co-founder Tijs (pediatrician) experienced firsthand: doctors needed quick access to guidelines, protocols, and clinical resources, but this information was scattered across dozens of sources. Finding the right answer often meant searching through multiple websites, PDFs, and reference materials – or simply not finding it at all.

We used the AI revolution to solve this – building a unified search and discovery platform specifically trained on medical guidelines and clinical resources. Instead of juggling multiple sources or settling for incomplete information, doctors get precise answers to the practical questions they face in their daily work.

The Role

We're looking for a senior software engineer who cares deeply about solving real problems for users – not just writing elegant code.

You'll work directly with our co-founders to build features that matter: tools that help doctors find answers faster, enterprise capabilities that unlock hospital deals, and infrastructure improvements that let us scale sustainably. You'll talk to users, understand their workflows, design solutions, ship code, and measure what actually works.

This is a hands-on role in a lean, high-output team. We move fast, we use AI tools extensively, and we care more about impact than process. You'll have significant autonomy and ownership – from product decisions to technical architecture to production operations.

• Build features that make healthcare providers' lives easier – from faster search results to enterprise governance tools that unlock hospital deals
• Work across our stack – primarily a Python backend and TypeScript (Vue) frontend – to deliver end-to-end solutions
• Own meaningful product initiatives from start to finish: understand the problem, design the solution, build it, ship it, measure impact
• Balance competing priorities: user experience, business needs, technical quality, compliance requirements, and cost efficiency
• Contribute to product strategy and technical architecture – you'll have real input on what we build and how we build it
• Optimize our AI infrastructure for performance and cost – we process thousands of medical queries daily and need to scale smartly as we grow
• Share responsibility for production operations – we're a small team, everyone owns keeping things running
• Use cutting-edge AI tools (Claude, Coderabbit, etc.) to move faster and build better
• Collaborate closely with the founding team to align engineering with business goals

Essential:

• 8+ years building and shipping software that real people use
• Strong Python skills and experience with modern backend development (APIs, databases, async systems)
• Product mindset: you care about user outcomes, not just technical solutions
• Comfortable owning things end-to-end: from understanding user needs to deploying to production to measuring results
• Pragmatic engineering approach: you know when to optimize and when to ship
• Experience with infrastructure, DevOps, or production operations – you can debug issues and make architectural trade-offs
• Fluent in English (Dutch is a plus)

Bonus points:

• Frontend skills (Vue.js or similar) – not required but helpful for full-stack ownership
• Experience building software for regulated industries or compliance-heavy products
• Background working at early-stage startups where you wore multiple hats
• Deep understanding of AI applications in production – particularly RAG, LLM integrations, or agent systems
• Experience with internationalization or building for multiple European markets

• Competitive compensation package with meaningful equity
• Minimum 25 holiday days (we encourage taking more when you need it)
• Real ownership: influence over product direction, technical decisions, and architecture
• Direct collaboration with founders who value your input
• Work that matters: your code will help tens of thousands of healthcare providers across Europe deliver better care
• Modern development culture: AI-first tooling, pragmatic processes, outcome-focused
• Hybrid work with ~2 days/week together at our Amsterdam office (opening soon)
• Opportunity to shape engineering culture as we grow the team
• Flexible, results-oriented environment

Our Technical Context

We build primarily with Python (FastAPI) and TypeScript (Vue.js). For performance-critical components we have experience using Rust and Go. Our EU-based infrastructure runs on bare metal, which we prefer over managed services. Our workflow is heavily assisted by AI tools – from code reviews with GitHub Copilot and Coderabbit to development with Claude Code.

You'll work in a regulated healthcare context where decisions about data handling, audit trails, and system reliability have real consequences for clinical workflows. We balance two types of work: features that drive product-led growth (stickiness, virality, user experience) and capabilities that close enterprise deals (SSO, governance, compliance). You'll work on both.

Why This Role Matters

You'll be joining at an inflection point where product decisions and technical execution directly determine our growth trajectory. The features you build, the architecture you design, and the trade-offs you make will shape whether we can serve 10x more doctors while maintaining quality and staying profitable.

This isn't a role where you disappear into a backlog for months. You'll see the direct impact of your work: doctors finding answers faster, practices converting to paid plans, hospitals choosing us over alternatives. If you want to build something that matters with a tight feedback loop between code and real-world outcomes, join us.