AI Engineer Trainee

Rentman is an operations management platform built to support event and media production teams in 70+ countries. The team is based in Utrecht (NL) with a second office in Toronto (CA). Its 100+ team members work in a culture that's open, flat, international and inclusive, where you'll have real ownership over your work and the freedom to challenge ideas, not just agree with them. Joining now means your work will genuinely shape what Rentman becomes next.

Mission of this role

This traineeship is a genuine way into engineering. You'll have real ownership, with coaching alongside you the whole way, and the possibility to grow further and develop your career at Rentman. You'll join the small AI squad and work directly with the team lead.

You'll build the technologies that make AI projects reliable, measurable, and worth using: evals, context stores, workflows, agents, and tracing. You'll work hands-on with Claude, the agent platform, and the BigQuery warehouse. You'll always reach for the simplest tool that solves the problem, whether that's a skill, a workflow, or a full agent, with the model that does the job. What you leave behind, the team can run without you.

Curiosity is what drives this work. If you're as intrigued by AI as the team is and want to learn, grow, and put your skills to the test, this traineeship is for you. You'll own what you build, from the first design choice to the finished product.

What you'll do

• Build skills, prompts, workflows, and agents, only reaching for more when the problem actually needs it.
• Define eval sets, so it is clear whether an agent is actually getting better or just different.
• Dive into tracing, monitor cost and latency, and catch problems before users do.
• Stand up and tune context stores, so agents have the right information on hand instead of guessing.
• Pick the right model per job, weighing what it costs against what the task actually needs.
• Document it so someone else can run it, without having to ask the person who built it.

What we are looking for

• You nerd out on AI, and bring it back. You follow the field in your own time and pull what's useful into Rentman. Genuine personal interest in the field matters more than resume keywords. No portfolio required; just show what you've actually built.
• User-first engineering. You build for adoption.
• Coachable and AI-first. You use AI daily to move faster.
• Python, JavaScript, APIs, and git knowledge are strongly preferred.
• Working student available to work 16-24 hours a week with at least one overlap day in Utrecht.
• Have the right to work in the Netherlands.
• Fluent in working English.

Nice to haves

• Experience with RAG or vector stores, evals, observability, or automation platforms.
• Experience with SQL.
• Open-source contributions or public repos.
• A security instinct: bot accounts over personal credentials, no secrets in code, as a habit rather than something you're reminded to do.

What you’ll get

• Competitive salary based on experience, plus 8% holiday allowance.
• A 4-week paid sabbatical after 5 years to go on an adventure.
• Flexible WFH policy and work from anywhere for 4 weeks a year.
• Pension plan through BrightPensioen.
• An annual training budget to grow your skills.
• Access to OpenUp for mental well-being and personal growth.
• Your choice of a shiny new Windows, Linux, or Mac.
• Stay active with the team: join the Rentman football team, squash and padel, plus a discounted Urban Sports membership.
• An OV Business card if you live more than 10km from the office.
• An ambitious international team.
• A flexible, energizing workplace with free lunches, office perks (PS5, ping pong, D&D), karaoke nights, and regular team activities.
• An office in the heart of Utrecht, in the historic Drift 17.