Senior Python Backend Developer

Futurewhiz; Amsterdam; Hybrid; EUR 54,684 - 62,496; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

24 vacation days

Pension plan

Health insurance

€600 learning budget

Coaching via Inuka

Goodhabitz training

StudyGo & Squla access

MacBook

Transit card/OV card

Job summary

Futurewhiz in Amsterdam is seeking a Senior Backend Developer to own the backend direction of Squla/StudyGo integration. You will shape engineering practices, drive architecture, and mentor the team while delivering high-quality, scalable services.

In a hybrid setup, you’ll lead technical decisions, collaborate with PM and cross-functional teams, and help define AI-driven workflows that enhance product value and performance.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Senior Backend Developer building production systems.
• Strong Python expertise and ownership from idea to production.
• Daily use of agent-driven development and task delegation to coding agents.
• Experience designing API-driven backends and data modelling with MySQL.
• Knowledge of software design patterns, automated testing, and clean code practices.
• Ability to mentor engineers and review production-bound work.
• Comfort working from goals and ambiguity in a multidisciplinary team.
• Fluency in English, written and spoken.

Responsibilities

• Lead backend planning and technical decision‑making with PM and multidisciplinary team.
• Define AI usage in engineering: design workflows around agent delegation, parallel execution and review guardrails.
• Own significant technical areas, ensuring quality, system health and maintainability over time.
• Set up guardrails, reviews and architecture to allow safe contributions from other disciplines, including AI‑assisted production releases.
• Work broadly across the stack where it keeps momentum high: backend, frontend, data and infrastructure when useful.
• Take ownership of team results: ship, measure impact on learning and business outcomes, and take action.
• Mentor and act as a sparring partner for the team.
• Foster a strong engineering culture through code reviews, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Skills

Senior Backend Developer

Python

Agent-driven development

API-driven architecture

MySQL data modelling

Software design patterns

Automated testing

Mentoring engineers

English fluency

Security and risk judgment

Tools

AWS

Job description

Amsterdam - Hybrid (minimum 50% at the office)

36-40 hours per week

€4900 - €5600 per month

Futurewhiz is a B Corp

Just a small heads-up regarding logistics: we aren't able to offer visa sponsorship for this role, so we can only consider candidates who already hold a valid work permit for the Netherlands or the EU.

At Futurewhiz, we have one mission: Empowering every child to grow by shaping the future of personalized learning for the next generation.

About Futurewhiz, Squla and StudyGo

For over 16 years, we have led the EdTech market in the Netherlands. Our brands – Squla and StudyGo – help children and teenagers learn and grow at their own level and pace. We are a certified B Corp since 2020, balancing purpose and profit.

Squla is a popular educational brand among primary school children, parents and teachers, engaging more than 160,000 children at home and over half a million in classroom play. We use gaming elements, attractive UX designs and evolving content to help progress through play.

StudyGo, formerly WRTS, is the go‑to platform for secondary students to prepare for exams, offering vocabulary practice, assignments, tutor chats and group lessons. With over 650,000 annual users, it is a key digital channel for secondary education.

What will you do?

As a Senior Backend Developer in our Primary Education team, you’ll build Squla, shaping its technical direction and our engineering practices. This role offers real ownership, autonomy, and space for creativity. Your ideas and decisions will directly influence the product, how we build, and how we deploy solutions.

AI is reshaping engineering – as coding agents handle more implementation, value shifts to judgment: deciding what to build, designing healthy systems, and defining how the team gains speed without lowering quality. You’ll combine hands‑on development with technical leadership, mentoring and architectural decision‑making.

Your role and impact

• Lead backend planning and technical decision‑making with PM and multidisciplinary team.
• Define AI usage in engineering: design workflows around agent delegation, parallel execution and review guardrails.
• Own significant technical areas, ensuring quality, system health and maintainability over time.
• Set up guardrails, reviews and architecture to allow safe contributions from other disciplines, including AI‑assisted production releases.
• Work broadly across the stack where it keeps momentum high: backend, frontend, data and infrastructure when useful.
• Take ownership of team results: ship, measure impact on learning and business outcomes, and take action.
• Mentor and act as a sparring partner for the team.
• Foster a strong engineering culture through code reviews, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Our stack

• Python back‑end
• React front‑end
• AWS

Who are you?

You enjoy taking ownership, making technical decisions, and helping others grow. You thrive where your ideas matter, and your work has visible impact. You are energized, not threatened, by rapid AI changes and aim to define what good engineering looks like.

Qualifications

• Solid experience as a Senior Backend Developer building production systems.
• Strong Python experience and confidence owning technical decisions from idea to production and beyond.
• Daily experience with agent‑driven development: delegating complete tasks to coding agents, running parallel tasks, knowing their strengths and limits, and envisioning a team‑wide agentic workflow.
• Experience designing API‑driven backend architectures and data modelling at scale, especially with relational databases like MySQL.
• Deep understanding of software design patterns, automated testing, and clean code practices.
• Judgment to balance speed against maintainability, security and technical risk.
• Experience mentoring engineers and reviewing production‑bound work from others.
• Comfort working from goals and ambiguity in a multidisciplinary team.
• Fluency in English, written and spoken.

Nice to have

• Hands‑on experience with AWS or other cloud platforms.

What do we offer?

• 24 vacation days + 3 assigned days off + 1 skipping school day.
• Collective pension and health insurance.
• €600 annual learning budget for professional development.
• Unlimited access to external coaches through Inuka Coaching.
• Unlimited access to Goodhabitz training programs for professional and personal growth.

Additional benefits

• Lifetime access to StudyGo and Squla accounts.
• Office next to Bijlmer Arena station, with potential Swapfiets or OV business card if you live over 7km from the office.
• A MacBook for work.
• Payroll Giving option to contribute to a good cause.
• Healthy lunches at the office, unlimited good coffee, fresh fruit, and snacks.
• A Culture Crew organizing fun activities such as outings, pub quizzes, ski trips and laser tag.

About Our Culture and Diversity

We're a passionate and diverse team brought together by a shared mission: helping children thrive and grow through personalized education. Our culture is welcoming and authentic; we welcome individuals who can be themselves. We celebrate diverse backgrounds, ideas and experiences, fostering an environment where everyone can be themselves. Everyone is welcome on this journey.

Our use of AI

We fully embrace AI in our way of working. It accelerates our mission, enabling us to move faster, go further and improve support to children, parents and teachers.

We are excited to hear from candidates excited about the role. We value diverse perspectives and look forward to learning what makes you unique.

Ready to join us? Please submit your application.