IC
Backend Engineer
Contract type
Ongoing
Work mode
Hybrid · Amsterdam, Netherlands
Experience
Mid-level · 3+ years
Job description
Backend engineer role at Inner Circle, a screened dating app, joining the team building new Kotlin services while migrating from a PHP monolith and using AI/agentic engineering in daily work.
At a glance
- Employment
- Full-time
- Work mode
- Hybrid · Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Languages
- English
What you'll do
- Build and ship backend features that improve matchmaking, engagement and retention, working from outcome-based stories
- Build new Kotlin services and help extract functionality from the PHP monolith step by step without disrupting members
- Use AI and agentic tools such as Claude Code daily, giving clear specs and context and critically reviewing output
- Write clean, testable code with automated tests, keep pull requests small, follow secure coding practices, and stay responsible for code in production
- Make pragmatic trade-offs, recognise when more care or optimisation is needed, and ask for input on bigger decisions
What we're looking for
- 3+ years of experience in backend engineering
- Proficiency in at least one typed backend language, such as Kotlin, Java, C#, Go, TypeScript or PHP
- Solid experience with APIs and relational databases, including query performance
- Understanding of systems design and software architecture, and the ability to reason about trade-offs
- You know why clean code matters and you apply it, with or without AI
- Experience writing automated tests and working with CI/CD
- Hands-on experience with AI coding tools, or a strong drive to learn agentic engineering practices
- Clear communication in English, both spoken and written (design docs, decision records, pull request descriptions)
Nice to have
- Experience with AWS
- Experience with event-driven systems or microservice architectures
- Familiarity with Domain-Driven Design or clean architecture
- Experience with Kotlin or the JVM
- Experience working in, and gradually migrating, a legacy codebase
Benefits
- A fulltime job that makes a positive impact on people's lives
- A competitive salary matched with your experience and ambition
- An amazing work environment in our office at Prins Hendrikkade, at the heart of Amsterdam
- A Macbook or other hardware of your choice to be able to do your job
- Stay healthy and bring your own device allowance
- Training and development budget
- Frequent team get-togethers and team activities
- Free Inner Circle VIP membership for you and your single friends
Apply
About Inner Circle
A dating app for people who are done wasting time
Inner Circle is a dating app built on the contrarian belief that opposites don't attract; the best connections happen between people who already live life the same way. Every member is screened, so effort and intention are in place before anyone gets in, and the app is built to get people off it and onto a date.
Key facts
- 40 team members
- Dating app
- 16 nationalities
- Female:male ratio of 60:40
- Office at Prins Hendrikkade in Amsterdam
What they value
- Curious, and keen to try new tools and ways of working
- Focused on outcomes rather than output
- Pragmatic
- Comfortable asking questions and explaining your reasoning
- Authentic team player