Tech Lead - Warehouse Systems (Java)

At Picnic, we’re revolutionizing the way people buy groceries with our innovative and sustainable app-only service. We do almost everything in-house, developing cutting-edge technologies and processes to ensure we continue to grow rapidly without missing a beat. If you’re excited about leading a development team building mission-critical products and services, then we have the right opportunity for you!

If you’re a passionate Tech Lead we’re offering you the opportunity to join the diverse team at our Amsterdam HQ and make a real difference in our scaleup environment.

🥜 In a nutshell

Picnic operates more than 40 product tech teams that each provide an integral part of our customers' experience - from the point they start the app until the moment they hold their groceries in their hands. As a Tech Lead for Warehouse Systems, you will lead one of the seven teams that creates and supports the software that drives our fulfilment operation. These systems enable our warehouses to receive stock, do order picking, and ship all of our customers’ orders every day. On top of all that, these systems also control every movement of the conveyors and robots in our automated fulfilment centres.

As Tech Lead you will empower your team to deliver high-quality, secure and performant solutions for the business we’re building. Together with the Product Owner you will evaluate initiatives and drive roadmap discussions. You will design and estimate technical solutions for the presented challenges together with your team.

You will be responsible for the delivery of projects and for developing the skills and strengths of the people working in your team. As a Tech Lead, you will lead by example, not by title.

🎯 What you’ll do

• You work together with the other Warehouse Systems teams to accomplish our vision of a modular software platform that supports our manual and automated fulfilment operations.
• You collaborate with stakeholders from tech and business on multiple business-critical projects simultaneously, and actively steer the solution design to support all of those.
• You ensure smooth day-to-day operation, and proactively communicate with your colleagues in the operations to validate the quality and effectiveness of your team’s software.
• You make pragmatic trade-offs between timeline and cost, without sacrificing quality.
• You help the team plan and prioritise, and ensure a smooth delivery of the planned work.
• You are able to communicate your views both when specifying new features with stakeholders and while providing technical mentorship to your colleagues.
• You build and evaluate team members through regular development conversations, personalized coaching, and mentorship to foster growth and achieve career goals.
• You build it - you run it - you love it: you will be responsible for managing a sustainable support model for your product.

We don’t hide what we do. Instead, we open-source with the community that helped us grow. Here’s proof:

💻 Technologies we use

• Java 21 (Spring 6 with Spring Boot 3, Maven)
• Python 3.x
• RabbitMQ
• PostgreSQL / jOOQ
• Git and Docker
• AWS, Helm, Terraform, Kubernetes, Vault
• Datadog, Grafana and Prometheus

Hungry for more? Check out for an overview of our tech stack.

⭐ About you

• You have a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Computer Engineering or a related technical field.
• You have at least 7 years of experience and a profound understanding of back-end development including Java, Spring Boot, AMQP, and SQL.
• You have at least 2 years of experience in leading projects and/or teams
• You are a strong abstract thinker and are able to translate high level architectures into executable plans at a high pace.
• You have an intrinsic need to validate your own ideas with others, and are a star at leveraging, and learning from, other people’s expertise.
• You have demonstrable experience in large-scale, long running refactoring projects.
• Your decision making is based on business risks and opportunities.
• You have worked extensively with cloud-based software architecture.
• You have affinity with hardware automation.
• You have great English skills (no Dutch required) and are able to structure your thoughts and express them clearly verbally and in writing.

Nice to have:

• You have experience with migrating from a monolith to a microservices architecture.
• You have experience in working with or integrating with PLC software.
• You have experience with taking ownership of a large code base.

📖 Picnic Perks

Learn new things every day!

• You’ll get plenty of opportunities to challenge yourself and grow, including the Picnic Tech Academy, Lunch & Learn sessions, and tailored soft skills training. We also offer free professional weekly language courses.

Make a difference

• You’ll work in an awesome scale-up environment with the freedom to drive your own projects and create a visible impact.
• Our fully electric vehicles and sustainable business model mean you’ll also be contributing to making the world a better place!

Teamwork makes the dream work

• With more than 80 nationalities across 3 countries, you’ll be part of a diverse company with plenty of cool stuff to get involved with, from board game evenings to after-work drinks to our company ski trip and more!

You are what you eat

• You’ll get freshly prepared, healthy lunches and snacks (with plenty of vegetarian, vegan, and halal options). Coffee snob? Don’t worry, our amazing Picnic barista has you covered.

Stay healthy

• Mental health is important. As well as having the option to speak with Picnic colleagues who act as confidential advisors, our collaboration with OpenUp gives you easy access to professional psychologists, along with workshops and materials.
• There are plenty of sports communities and events to get involved with, from tennis to yoga, to climbing!

Attractive package

• We offer competitive compensation and a pension plan that looks out for your future self, as well as 25 vacation days per year, so you can recharge your batteries

Benefits for expats

It can be daunting starting a new job AND moving to a new country. That’s why we offer lots of support for our many expat colleagues, including:

• Relocation package: If you join Picnic from abroad, we’ll cover your trip to Amsterdam, sponsor your Visa, and offer you a month of accommodation while you settle in (as long as regulations allow).
• In the Netherlands, we offer support with your first tax report as well as arranging the 30% ruling.
• From health insurance to living arrangements to pet passports, there are always colleagues who’ve faced the same challenges and are more than happy to help!

Commitment to equal opportunities

Picnic is an equal opportunity employer—this means that all decisions regarding applications will be based on qualifications and merit. Applicants will be regarded independently of age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, skin color, civil status, religious beliefs, physical or mental disability, or any other factors protected by law.

At Picnic, we celebrate and value our differences and are committed to building a safe and inclusive working environment where everyone can be themselves.