DevOps Engineer - ShopCore Backend

DevOps Engineer - ShopCore Backend
Build backend software. Engineer the platform. Run it in production.

• Bachelor / Master
• 6.000-7.600
• Utrecht
• 7-10+ year

How will you make our customers happy?

Every feature bol's shop teams produce relies on a shop foundation that enables dozens of teams to scale, experiment, and ship with confidence.

As a DevOps Engineer in ShopCore Backend, you combine backend software development with deep platform engineering. You develop services and APIs, while tuning and optimizing Kubernetes workloads on Google Cloud for performance, scalability, and reliability.

This is not a traditional infrastructure or code-only backend role. You work across the full stack, from application code to the production platform.

The biggest challenge

The challenge isn't just adding backend capabilities; it's building and evolving the shop platform that 55+ teams depend on. Behind every successful feature team is a foundation of reliable systems, scalable infrastructure, automation, observability, and backend services that they can trust.

You will solve scalability and reliability challenges across both the application and platform layers. This means balancing hands-on software development with deep Kubernetes expertise, cloud engineering, automation, observability, and production operations. You build it, deploy it, run it, and improve it.

What you do as a DevOps Engineer - ShopCore Backend

You are part of the ShopCore-BackEnd team, which develops and operates the backend capabilities that enable shop teams to create better consumer experiences faster.

• Tune and optimize Kubernetes workloads on Google Cloud for performance, scalability, and reliability
• Improve observability, monitoring, alerting, and incident response
• Automate operational processes and improve CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code
• Design and develop scalable, resilient backend services and APIs in either Go, Java, or Kotlin
• Build maintainable, well-tested software and contribute to architecture and system design
• Take end-to-end ownership: develop, deploy, operate, and improve the services you build
• Collaborate across teams and explore how AI can improve software development and platform operations

How you can make a difference

You are an engineer who enjoys both building software and understanding deeply how it runs in production. You have hands-on experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native environments, and you also enjoy writing production code.

You may come from a backend, DevOps, or platform engineering background. What matters most is that you are comfortable moving between application code and the platform underneath it. You do not need to be an expert in Go, Java, and Kotlin, but professional software development experience and the willingness to work across these languages are important.

What you bring:

• Professional software development experience in Go, Java, Kotlin, or a comparable backend language
• Strong hands-on Kubernetes knowledge, including operating and troubleshooting production workloads
• Experience with cloud environments, preferably Google Cloud Platform
• Understanding of CI/CD, observability, and production operations
• A software engineering mindset focused on quality, testing, maintainability, code reviews, and system design
• Interest in working across both application and platform layers
• Ownership, curiosity, and a collaborative way of working

Tech stack: Go, Java, Kotlin, Spring Boot, GraphQL, Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform, GitLab, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and AI-assisted development.

3 reasons why this is (not) for you

Software and systems mindset

You enjoy writing production software and understanding how it behaves on Kubernetes and in the cloud. You are comfortable working across application and platform layers.

Team ownership

You believe a great foundation is built together. You take responsibility, share knowledge, ask for help, provide feedback, and help your teammates succeed.

Growth mindset

You continuously improve yourself, your team, and the way we work. You enjoy learning new technologies and proactively bring ideas and initiatives to improve how we build and operate.

Infrastructure-only engineer

You want to focus exclusively on infrastructure, configuration, or Kubernetes administration. Writing and maintaining production backend software is a substantial part of this role.

Code-only engineer

You only want to write application code and prefer someone else to handle Kubernetes, deployments, reliability, and production incidents. In this team, engineers own the full lifecycle.

Solo performer

You prefer working alone, do not value feedback, and see collaboration as a necessary evil. This team succeeds through teamwork, not individual heroics.

This is where you'll work

You will join the ShopCore Backend team (~9 engineers), part of the Technical Shop Foundation within the Consumer Journey domain. We run business-critical services where stability matters, while continuously improving our architecture, reducing operational overhead, increasing automation, and exploring how AI can help us build a better platform.

The team owns the Shop API (federated GraphQL), the Shop Router, and several other backend services that form the foundation of bol's shopping channels.

Perks of having a blue heart

29 days

to recharge

Travel costs

Public transport, car, parking & charging covered

Pension plan

75% premium covered

Annual bonus

Based on sustainability goals