It’s time to cross borders. After a year and a half of building our claim service in the Netherlands, we now help over 120,000 train passengers each month and process more than 700,000 train journeys per month. Now, it’s time to expand across Europe. We’re looking for a Backend Software Engineer to help us make it happen.

While the Netherlands has one of the most punctual rail networks in Europe, the surrounding countries present a huge opportunity. In Germany alone, the train delay claim market is roughly 50 times larger than in the Netherlands.

This is a founding engineering role in our European rollout team. You’ll work side by side with Engineering Lead and Market Analysts in Amsterdam, translating complex local rail rules and processes into automated, scalable products for millions of passengers.

What you’ll drive

• Launch MVPs for new European markets: From eligibility checks and claim forms to ticket parsing, browser automation, partner API integrations, and monitoring systems.

• Translate insights into code: Conduct market research on country-specific rail processes and translate your findings directly into production-ready solutions.

• Own the full lifecycle: Research, build, deploy, and maintain backend features end-to-end.

• Move fast & keep it lean: Pair program and review code with Engineering Lead, shipping quickly and iterating often.

• Lay the foundations for scale: Your technical decisions today will shape how we expand across Europe tomorrow.

What success looks like in your first 12 months

• By month 3: Deliver an MVP that automatically determines whether a delay qualifies for compensation, while contributing to the foundation of our backend architecture for European expansion.

• By month 6: Extend the pipeline with automated claim processing, improve trip data import workflows for partners, and significantly increase the accuracy of our eligibility logic.

• By month 12: Evolve the MVP into a scalable system by replacing third-party components with in-house algorithms. Use this foundation to lead the rollout across multiple European markets.

What sets you apart

• Experienced backend builder with 2-4+ years of hands-on development experience, comfortable owning features from concept to production.

• Proficient in our core tech stack, including: PHP (Laravel Framework), MySQL / PostgreSQL, Redis, RESTful APIs, and Node.js (Puppeteer / Playwright). Experience with another backend setup is equally welcome.

• Comfortable working with databases, APIs, background jobs, automation/scraping, browser automation, and B2B integrations.

• Startup mindset: Hands-on, iterative, focused on impact over polish.

• Curious about rail & travel tech, excited by the challenge of building automation and data pipelines in a complex, real-world domain.

• Fluent in English; native proficiency in German, French, or Spanish is a plus.

Why join us

• Impact from day one: Play a key role in building Trein-vertraging's new railway compensation product and shaping its European expansion.

• Collaborative environment: Work in a hybrid model (4 days in the office) in Amsterdam.

• Growth potential: Join at the ground floor and grow with us as we scale across Europe.

• Lean, ambitious culture: Small, high-impact team, no corporate bureaucracy, lots of learning. Flexible working hours, you determine your rhythm, while it fits within the operational dynamic.

We're not for everyone

• This is a high-impact role where commitment matters. There will be moments that go beyond standard hours - not because it’s expected every day, but because you’ll care deeply about what you’re building.

• If you thrive in environments where not everything is figured out yet - where you help shape the “what” as much as the “how” - you’ll love it here. If you need perfect specs before you code, probably not.

• If you prefer meetings over shipping, this won’t be the right environment. We value momentum and tangible outcomes over endless discussions.