Backend Software Engineer

Are you the kind of backend engineer who loves web technology, takes ownership, thrives on responsibility, and enjoys working with an ambitious team to build rock-solid systems? And…

Do you want to:

• Be in charge of your own job while experiencing a down-to-earth company culture based on trust and freedom?
• Work in a fun, relaxed work environment, with a passionate team right in the heart of Amsterdam?
• Build the most reliable and robust SaaS product for our top-tier customers?

If that sounds like your kind of adventure, come join us and take the backend of Smart.pr to the next level!

ABOUT SMART.PR

We’re on a mission to make PR smarter, faster, and a lot more fun. We are a team of driven software engineers, sales/account managers, and data researchers - always aiming to surpass ourselves. We run a lean operation in an entrepreneurial environment from our office in the heart of Amsterdam. Having bootstrapped our SaaS company from scratch since 2008, we pride ourselves on a non-hierarchical and down-to-earth company culture that is a blast to work in. We combine our ambitious goals for (inter)national growth with a relaxed work environment and a healthy work-life balance. We simply perform better when we are happy.

What we believe

Scalability instead of customization

We develop our own products

Iterate fast and release often

People thrive when given responsibility

HOW YOU’LL MAKE AN IMPACT

As a Backend Engineer, you’ll help shape and grow the backbone of Smart.pr, our powerful in-house developed platform for press relationship management.

One day you’ll be hunting down performance bottlenecks, the next you’ll be finding clever ways to keep our journalist database up-to-date using email engagement data.

You’ll also get to:

• Experiment with AI to unlock new ways of using our data.
• Keep our infrastructure secure, scalable, and future-ready.
• Optimize our data model so our single-page app stays lightning fast.
• Develop functionality that help PR pros send, track, and analyze their campaigns with ease

Your strong technical skills in web app backend development will make you a pivotal player in creating value that help PR professionals and journalists connect in meaningful ways.

You won’t just keep the backend running—you’ll help shape what it can do. If you like tackling complex challenges, playing with innovative tech, and seeing your work used by professionals every day, you’ll feel right at home here.

THE TEAM

You’ll join our product team, working side by side with six talented software engineers and a dedicated product owner. We’re a tight-knit crew with diverse skills, always pushing each other to grow and build better solutions. We value transparency, collaboration, and accountability. As we continue to grow, we’re looking to strengthen the team with someone excited to bring fresh ideas and help us deliver even more value for our users.

Meet your new colleagues 👋

Stefan
Full-stack engineer

Chris
Front-end engineer

Emiel
Back-end engineer

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

• You think and work at a Bachelor’s or Master’s level
• You’re based in the Netherlands
• 3-6 years of relevant experience in web and backend engineering
• Strong communication skills — meaning sharing ideas clearly, giving feedback, and keeping the team in sync. (Dutch is a plus)
• Solid track record in designing and building scalable, reliable backend architectures
• Strong programming experience (Python, TypeScript)
  • Though Haskell, OCaml, Gleam, Unison, Elm, etc. would be totally awesome ;)
• Good understanding of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP)
• Comfortable working with:
  • Cloud platforms (AWS is our go-to)
  • Infrastructure as Code (we use Terraform/Terramate)
  • Containers & orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
  • Databases & services like NGINX, MySQL/PostgreSQL
• Version control (we use Git)
• An automation-first mindset, experience setting up CI/CD pipelines (we use GitHub Actions)
• (Nice-to-have) Celery, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, semantic search and embeddings

What we offer

Office in the center of Amsterdam

Flexible hybrid working arrangements

Healthy lunch & fresh fruit

NS Businesscard

Employer contribution OneFit membership

Personal pension accrual

25 vacation days

Personal development budget

• Working in a fun, ambitious and highly skilled development team
• Being part of a non-hierarchical company culture with a relaxed and open atmosphere
• A chance to design, build and refine our API architectures and all of their surrounding components, creating, adding to and growing our beautiful little oasis on the web
• Contribution to a private pension scheme (Bright Pensioen or Brand New Day)
• 25 holidays per calendar year
• NS business card (depending on your residence)
• Employer contribution OneFit membership
• Healthy lunch (and fruit) at the office
• Flexible working from home policy
• Personal development budget
• Referral bonus
• Office in the heart of Amsterdam
• Infamous ping-pong championships
• Team outings and spontaneous work drinks

Rutger Baake
Managing Director+31 6 44 20 7400
rutger@smart.pr