Tech Academy: Java Graduate Program

In a nutshell

Learn while making an impact! This program offers a rare chance to step directly into a real production environment, contributing to systems that operate at scale while strengthening both your technical and behavioral skills. Through the Picnic Tech Academy, you’ll explore topics ranging from Java Clean code to reactive programming and MongoDB, while also developing key capabilities like collaboration and a growth mindset. You’ll learn to balance project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables—building the foundation for a successful engineering career.

Picnic has over 20 Java backend development teams, each highly involved with and essential to all parts of the company. From enabling a smooth shopping experience to ensuring we fulfill our customers’ orders efficiently in our warehouses, there’s a wide range of products to work on. Product teams are also supported by the work of our platform teams on key technologies and infrastructure.

Also, we don’t hide what we do. Instead, we open-source with the community that helped us grow. Here’s proof: http://picnic.tech

Tricks of the trade

• Growth: Level up your development and behavioral skills through our 6 months Tech Academy and with the guidance of your mentor while applying what you learn directly in your team!
• Contribution: Become a part of one of our product teams from day one and start contributing to Picnic from the get-go
• Ownership: Get to work on increasingly challenging tasks and projects, growing all the time, and working collaboratively with your colleagues
• Our Tech: Java 21 (Reactor and Spring 6), RabbitMQ and Kafka, Maven and Git, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Vault (Hungry for more? Check out https://stackshare.io/picnic-technologies for an overview of our tech stack)

We’re looking for

• You have (or will soon have) a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
• Recent graduates and early-career professionals with up to 1 year of professional experience
• Willingness to learn technologies to create systems at scale
• Your English skills are on point (no Dutch required)
• You are available to start this position full time in January 2026!
• You are currently located in the EU and are authorized to work in the Netherlands

Extra credit for:

• Familiarity with Spring, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL
• Relevant working experience/projects alongside your studies

Picnic Perks

✍ Every expert was once a beginner!

You’ll get plenty of opportunities to challenge yourself and grow, including the Picnic Tech Academy, Lunch & Learn sessions, and tailored soft skills training. We also offer free professional weekly language courses.

Make a difference

You’ll work in an awesome startup environment with the freedom to drive your own projects and create a visible impact. Our fully electric vehicles and sustainable business model mean you’ll also be contributing to making the world a better place!

‍Teamwork makes the dream work

With more than 80 nationalities across 3 countries, you’ll be part of a diverse company with plenty of cool stuff to get involved with, from board game evenings to after-work drinks to our company ski trip and more!

You are what you eat

You’ll get freshly prepared, healthy lunches and snacks (with plenty of vegetarian, vegan, and halal options). Coffee snob? Don’t worry, our amazing Picnic barista has you covered.

Stay healthy

Mental health is important. As well as having the option to speak with Picnic colleagues who act as confidential advisors, our collaboration with OpenUp gives you easy access to professional psychologists, along with workshops and materials.

There are plenty of sports communities and events to get involved with, from tennis to yoga, to climbing!

Attractive package

We offer competitive compensation and a pension plan that looks out for your future self, as well as 25 vacation days per year, so you can recharge your batteries

Benefits for expats

It can be daunting starting a new job AND moving to a new country. That’s why we offer lots of support for our many expat colleagues, if you want to find our relocation benefits, see here.