Meet Picnic from the Netherlands, Europe’s Most Advanced Grocery Delivery Tech

Picnic is a Netherlands-based tech company hiring skilled software engineers.

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Company overview:

• Company name: Picnic

• HQ: Amsterdam

• Other work locations: Paris, France, and Düsseldorf, Germany.

• Team diversity: 80 nationalities

• Company size: around 5000 employees

• Number of software engineers working in 2025: around 400

• Latest funding round: €355M in 2024 by Bill Gates Foundation Trust and other investors

Picnic, the sustainable online supermarket founded ten years ago in the Netherlands, looks like a grocery-shopping app, but those who work there say it’s a tech company that happens to deliver groceries. This Dutch company continually recruits engineers who want to live and work in Amsterdam. As such, this sustainable company has been a trusted hiring partner of Relocate.me since 2022 and is known for attracting skilled tech talent from all around the world.

If you’re a developer who, besides landing a job, wants to write code that ultimately has a positive impact on the environment, you’ll be attracted to its central-to-door delivery model. Their business model and engineering help cut down on the number of miles consumers drive to do groceries. Since starting in the Dutch city of Amersfoort in 2015, Picnic has grown rapidly, and in 2020 became the second fastest-growing company in the Netherlands.

Here’s a closer look at Picnic Technologies: what they’re building, what makes them stand out, and why you might want to consider joining them if you’re looking for your next tech role in the Netherlands.

Picnic as a company

Picnic started in 2015 in the Netherlands and now delivers groceries to one million customers across the Netherlands, France, and Germany. It operates as a delivery service, but on top of that, as a sustainable overhaul of grocery shopping. The ambition is simple: bring back the personal touch of the milkman, and offer fresh products and service in a modern and environmentally conscious way. The result is a dramatic reduction in waste: Picnic throws away 90% less product than a traditional supermarket because it only stocks what customers order.

Perhaps, one of Picnic’s top highlights is that each piece of tech is built in-house. The app, the private-label catalogue, and logistics systems all trace back to teams who started from a blank sheet of paper just a few years ago.

To support its growth, the company most recently raised a €355 million Series E round, specifically in 2024. Picnic reports deliveries now run six days a week in three countries, with services available in towns or big cities like Paris or Berlin via 63 delivery hubs, all supported by about 4,400 electric vehicles (yes, this makes it the largest zero-emission delivery fleet in grocery retail in Europe.) Much of the strategy rests on mapping where the model resonates most, especially with young families whose budgets and lifestyles suit the service.

Tech personnel at Picnic describe a buzzing environment where they build useful systems every day, tackle real-world supply chain and customer challenges, and see their skills grow fast. Many say they become better engineers quickly as responsibilities scale with the company, and they can see the impact of their work firsthand. Mohamed Sameh, Java Developer at Picnic, recently shared his perspective on a LinkedIn anniversary post: “Seeing how the code I write directly helps families and users is incredibly rewarding.”

The team at Picnic

The tech team at Picnic includes over 80 nationalities. By the end of 2022, according to their CTO Daniel Gebler, the tech division had grown to over 300 members across 35–40 teams, organised in four areas: consumer technology, supply-chain technology, data technology, and foundational technology.

Supply chain teams work on systems for purchase orders, warehouse operations, and apps used by shoppers and drivers. Other teams focus on customer-facing features, fulfilment, or data insight generation. Foundation teams maintain core infrastructure to support fast and reliable releases. Broadly speaking, engineering work at Picnic covers the driver app, hybrid automated fulfilment systems, and machine-learning models such as those behind personalised purchase-page recommendations.

Welcoming talent from around the world

Picnic actively welcomes international talent and hires expats who want to relocate to their offices in Amsterdam. The company guides candidates through every step of the immigration process, and offers support with timing, paperwork and logistics. It covers flights for the candidate and their direct family, provides a Picnic hotel studio (or hotel room when needed) for the first month, and a small bonus to cover a real estate agent or initial rent, as you prefer. Some accommodation partners even accept pets. You can find detailed documentation on relocation support in Picnic’s internal wiki.

For example, in a public profile, a recent hire appreciated the care and clarity that the Picnic relocation team provided: generous information on visa steps, consulate procedures, residence permits, BSN registration, banking, health insurance and more gave him confidence during a stressful transition. The company’s move checklist helped him manage the avalanche of tasks that arrived upon landing. He also pointed out that the onboarding in the Amsterdam office was followed by familiar faces, warm greeters, and continuous help with getting settled in.

Working at Picnic as a Software Engineer

At Picnic, technology and customer focus go hand in hand to make grocery shopping simple, affordable, and enjoyable. Engineers work on mobile apps, backend systems, internal platforms, delivery routing, warehouse logistics, and machine-learning models. And yes, every part of it is built in-house. That means the developers building the systems are the same ones shaping how the service works, from code to customer.

The engineering culture values solving real problems and making steady improvements. Every day, according to Daniel Gebler, Picnic’s systems receive over 2,000 small updates, which result in more than 2,000 daily builds. Across a team of about 300 engineers, that translates into roughly 100 to 200 changes each day, supported by around 1,000 feature pull requests and 1,000 upgrade requests every month. From these numbers, you might notice things move quickly at Picnic, and improvements are real.

Tech stack and progression

The backend began entirely in Java, a choice made back in 2014–2015 that was already ahead of its time. Java remains central today, alongside Python, which is used widely across data and infrastructure. The infra stack has also evolved as it moved to Docker, Kubernetes, and other modern tools for scalability and resilience. On the frontend, the original native Swift (iOS) and Java (Android) apps were replaced with a shared React Native codebase. Now, features can be written once and released on both platforms.

By 2017–2018, Picnic had begun to build machine-learning models and data feedback loops in a more structured way. The company also maintains language-specific platform teams, such as the Java platform team for core Java infrastructure and the Python platform team for widespread Python use. Analysts are encouraged to migrate scripts to Python, with full onboarding to support the shift.

Teams and career growth

Engineers are organised into cross-functional product teams. A typical team includes both frontend and backend developers, and sometimes data professionals, focused on missions such as the customer app, purchase systems, or warehouse management.

Picnic’s career development framework also allows engineers to grow into technical lead roles to guide teams from a technical perspective, or specialise deeply in a tech domain as staff engineers. Knowledge sharing happens through peer-led guilds on topics such as Python, SQL, MongoDB, and data science, while the internal Tech Radars keep technology choices consistent and up to date.

Philip Leonard, Tech Lead at Picnic, once recalled how the company has scaled:

“Back when we were just a small startup company… We had one fulfilment centre, a handful of distribution hubs, and we were delivering a few thousand orders a week. To give you the idea of the scale. Now we’re running at ten times that. My ambition back then was to see technology drive such growth. It hasn’t disappointed.”

It’s worth noting that Philip discussed these goals four years ago, and since his comments, Picnic has scaled so much more than ten-fold!

And this Glassdoor review from a senior software engineer reveals another side to Picnic’s engineering culture:

“Picnic is also the unique company in the sense that it is a good mix of both software and hardware, something you don’t often see. You can get your hands dirty not only by writing code, but also by joining the physical side of the product to feel what is behind the software, which is very valuable and makes the difference.”

Joining Picnic

Picnic benefits include competitive pay, a pension plan, 25 vacation days, and free continuous learning opportunities through the Picnic Tech Academy, Lunch & Learn sessions, language courses, and soft skills training.

You can find the latest tech roles at Picnic here - https://jobs.picnic.app/en/tech

Candidate profile

Picnic candidates typically have at least five years of experience in software development, strong backend skills in Java, Spring MVC, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and excellent English. But keep in mind that Picnic is also hiring more and more junior developers, so profiles with 0–3 years of experience are also quite relevant for them. Dutch is not required (more about that later). Problem-solving skills and initiative are valued, as engineers influence everything from machine-learning models to delivery algorithms.

Michiel Muller, CEO and co-founder of Picnic, explained the type of candidate the company looks for in an interview:

“We need people who like complexity and want to solve it, then move to the next challenge. The first time something is super complex, it is hard. The second time, pieces start to repeat. The third time it becomes manageable. That is the path Picnic is on. There are many challenges and opportunities ahead, and Picnic needs people who want those complexities and look forward to what comes next.”

Hiring process: step-by-step guide

The hiring process at Picnic follows a clear series of steps:

1. HR screening call.

2. Take-home assignment in which you create a pull request.

3. Technical round with two engineers discussing projects and the assignment.

4. Pair-programming session with two more developers.

5. Behavioural interview about experience and fit.

The expected turnaround from application to offer is around four weeks, though in some cases it can be less. One candidate noted, “I applied online. The process took three weeks.” But the recruiting team has an explicit policy of a turnaround of four weeks from clicking “Apply” until getting an offer.

Oscar, Senior Software Engineer at Picnic, recently told Relocate.me about his experience and what he thought about the process:

“The interview process for me (the bit that stood out) was chatting with the interviewers. Everyone I talked to seemed really switched on, really smart, asked good questions, and felt like they were listening to me. I feel like a lot of interviewers just read off a list of questions, going through the same process. It felt very personal here. I came away with a very good impression of the engineers.”

Extra pointers for the interview:

1. Be on time, or even slightly early. That’s the Dutch way.

2. Learn about Picnic through their careers site, blog, and social media.

3. Prepare a structured story of your background, skills, and future plans.

Do you need to speak Dutch to work at Picnic? What languages do you need to speak if you want to work with them?

No. You can get a job offer and even relocate to the Netherlands with Picnic if you speak English. You’ll have time to learn Dutch once you get settled in Amsterdam. If you wish to become a Dutch citizen and have a European passport you can use to work in the Netherlands or in Madrid or Lisbon, then you’ll have to speak Dutch. (Some on-site roles do require speaking German or Dutch, but you’ll notice which ones when you read the job description in that language.)

Why Picnic could be your next move

Working at Picnic means joining a tech company that delivers groceries with a focus on engineering challenges. Engineers build systems for millions of users, scale operations, and contribute to sustainable solutions. The company offers steady professional growth and the chance to work with skilled colleagues in a culture that welcomes international tech talent.

And on top of that… lunch is freshly made every day, with vegan and vegetarian options, and there’s an in-house barista ready to make your favourite coffee free of charge. It is even rumoured that the Picnic lunch has been voted the best in the Netherlands by its own team. Sounds like a delicious picnic, right?