
Tech Academy: Java Graduate program
Key Skills
Job Description
In a nutshell
Learn while making an impact! The first 6 months of the role are structured as a dedicated learning and development program, offering a rare chance to step directly into a real production environment, contributing to systems that operate at scale while strengthening both your technical and behavioral skills. After this initial 6-month program, you’ll continue in your role at Picnic as a Java backend engineer, building on what you’ve learned and taking on increasing responsibility. The program is intended to set you up for success in your long-term role at Picnic. Through the Picnic Tech Academy, you’ll explore topics ranging from Java Clean Code to reactive programming and MongoDB, while also developing key capabilities like collaboration and a growth mindset. You’ll learn to balance project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables, building the foundation for a successful engineering career.
Picnic has over 20 Java backend development teams, each highly involved with and essential to all parts of the company. From enabling a smooth shopping experience to ensuring we fulfill our customers’ orders efficiently in our warehouses, there’s a wide range of products to work on. Product teams are also supported by the work of our platform teams on key technologies and infrastructure.
Also, we don’t hide what we do. Instead, we open-source with the community that helped us grow. Here’s proof: http://picnic.tech
Tricks of the trade
- Growth: Level up your development and behavioral skills through our 6 months Tech Academy and with the guidance of your mentor while applying what you learn directly in your team!
- Contribution: Become a part of one of our product teams from day one and start contributing to Picnic from the get-go
- Ownership: Get to work on increasingly challenging tasks and projects, growing all the time, and working collaboratively with your colleagues
- Our Tech: Java 25 (Reactor and Spring 6), RabbitMQ and Kafka, Maven and Git, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Vault (Hungry for more? Check out https://stackshare.io/picnic-technologies for an overview of our tech stack)
We’re looking for
- You have (or will soon have) a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
- Recent graduates and early-career professionals with up to 1 year of professional experience
- Willingness to learn technologies to create systems at scale
- Your English skills are on point (no Dutch required)
- You are available to start this position full time in January 2027!
Extra credit for:
- Familiarity with Spring, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL
- Relevant working experience/projects alongside your studies
Picnic Perks
✍🏼 Every expert was once a beginner!
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 startup 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, if you want to find our relocation benefits, see here.
Core Responsibilities
Participate in a 6-month structured learning program while contributing to production systems within a backend development team. After the program, continue as a Java backend engineer taking on increasing responsibility for product development.
Requirements
Candidates must hold or be near completion of a Bachelor's or Master's degree in a technical field such as Computer Science or Engineering. Applicants should have no more than one year of professional experience and possess strong English communication skills.
Benefits
- Professional development program
- Lunch and learn sessions
- Soft skills training
- Weekly language courses
- Healthy lunches and snacks
- Mental health support
- Access to psychologists
- Sports communities
- Pension plan
- 25 vacation days
- Relocation support
About Picnic
Industry: Retail
Company size: 5,001-10,000 employees
At Picnic, we’re a team of inventors, builders, dreamers, and best-in-class operators! With our app-only business model and custom-built in-house supply chain, we're revolutionizing the way people buy groceries and eat every day. We're growing across the Netherlands, Germany, France, and beyond. One of the things that makes Picnic different is that we handle almost everything ourselves: from forecasting and building automated warehouses to designing custom electric vehicles and writing our own software. It gives us total freedom to experiment with bold, new ideas (which we do a lot!). We love to challenge ourselves and learn by doing. The best way to grow here? By taking ownership from day one and pushing boundaries every single day. As a diverse team of over 85 nationalities, there’s always something happening - whether you’re into sports, board games, charity work, dancing at our legendary Picnic festival, or licorice tasting (yes, really!). Our scale-up culture means you get to own your work and bring fresh ideas to life. If you’re looking to make a real impact, reach out. We’d love to hear from you!