Staff AI Engineer – Agentic Shopping

Staff AI Engineer - Agentic Shopping | Engineering | Picnic CareersThis is PicnicAbout PicnicWorking with usBlogsSustainabilityTechOperationsWork in Picnic’s OperationBecome a Warehouse WorkerBecome a Delivery DriverGraduate programsTeamsAnalyticsConsumerCreativePeople & FinanceSupply ChainCustomer SuccessStudentsAll jobsThis is PicnicAbout PicnicWorking with usBlogsSustainabilityTechOperationsWork in Picnic’s OperationBecome a Warehouse WorkerBecome a Delivery DriverGraduate programsTeamsAnalyticsConsumerCreativePeople & FinanceSupply ChainCustomer SuccessStudentsAll jobsStaff AI Engineer - Agentic ShoppingEngineering📍AmsterdamApply DirectlyIn a nutshellTricks of the tradeWe’re looking forPicnic PerksIn a nutshell Build the intelligence that helps households get the week sortedAgentic grocery assistance: Picnic brings together something unusually powerful for an AI builder: a direct customer relationship, a live grocery assortment and the operational system that takes every order from intention to delivery. That gives you the opportunity to build an assistant that does more than talk; it can understand a household’s plans and constraints, assemble a grounded basket, explain its choices and learn from what customers accept or change. You will decide where models, retrieval, ranking and deterministic services add real value, balancing customer control, correctness, latency, reliability and cost. Technical leadership & vision: As a Staff AI Engineer, you will be the hands-on technical lead for Agentic Shopping. You will own technical direction, architecture and model-strategy decisions; solve the hardest production challenges yourself; and establish evaluation, observability, safety and fallback patterns that other teams can reuse. Tricks of the tradeBuild Picnic’s shopping assistant: Lead the technical direction for agentic shopping experiences that help millions of people plan and shop effortlessly.Technical leadership & architecture: Lead the system architecture for multi-turn conversational agents, balancing latency, safety guardrails, and inference costs. Technically mentor engineers across the organization to execute on building production-grade agentic systems.Rapid prototyping & productionization: Drive a fast-paced, iterative engineering cadence. Build initial prototypes, establish architectural patterns, and write production code when necessary to unblock complex technical challenges. Model fine-tuning & context engineering: Design and implement systems architectures for multi-turn, conversational agents using open-weight models and techniques like fine-tuning, distillation, and RAG.Evaluation & safety feedback loops: Establish continuous offline and online evaluation for mission completion, basket correctness, customer effort, clarification quality, acceptance and corrections, safety, reliability, latency and cost.Cross-functional alignment: Collaborate with product, design, and product teams to define technical trade-offs, align on agent capabilities, and ensure a seamless, safe user experience.We’re looking forProven track record of taking complex multi-turn conversational AI systems from architectural design to high-scale production.Experience training, fine-tuning, and optimizing open-weight LLMs for production deployment.Hands-on expertise building production RAG systems, context management, and state handling for multi-turn dialogues.Experience designing robust evaluation loops, continuous monitoring systems, and automated safety/guardrail mechanisms for customer-facing applications.Demonstrated ability to lead technical direction, perform design reviews, and mentor engineering teams without relying on hierarchy.Strong Python skills and demonstrated ability to choose and productionize appropriate model, orchestration, retrieval, evaluation and inference tooling. Experience with tools such as PyTorch, LangGraph, vLLM, Pydantic AI, Qdrant or DeepEval is useful, or similar framework tools is required.+ Bonus points!Experience taking retrieval, ranking or recommendation models from problem definition to measurable production impactIn-depth expertise in deep learning for sequence modelling, representation learning, or retrieval and rankingA degree in Computer Science, AI (or a related field), a PhD, open-source contributions, or peer-reviewed research are considered strong plusesPicnic Perks 🫱🏼‍🫲🏾 Teamwork makes the dream workWith 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!💡 Make a differenceYou’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! 🥗 Fresh Lunch, coffee, and snacks Our offices are equipped with fully-fledged coffee bars and a kitchen and chefs. They prepare delicious fresh and warm lunches every day so you can keep your energy up.🚲 Health insurance discount & bike planWe have a partnership with CZ (a health insurance provider). Picnic employees get a discount on CZ insurance packages between 5% and 15%. Furthermore, through our partnership with Lease a Bike, you can rent-to-own a new (e)bike at a discounted rate🌎 RelocationIf you’re moving from another country to join Picnic we make it as smooth as possible for you. We’ll cover your flight costs for you and your partner and kids, your first month's rent and moving costs (up to €2000), and help you with the 30% tax ruling setup and application. 📆 All the rest At Picnic you get 25 holidays, we cover your travel expenses and offer a pension plan. And your phone and laptop are on us, as well. ‌‌‌‌‌‌Building the supermarket on wheels togetherPicnicBusinessOperationsTechDelivery DriverWarehouse WorkerResourcesFAQRelocationBlogsCompanyAbout usSustainabilityPrivacy policyCookie preferences© 2026 PicnicA bit about usWhen you join Picnic, you’re joining the shopping revolution, delivering groceries to millions of people across Europe, and we’re growing fast. Think super fresh products and personal service, but in a modern, sustainable way. The tech team at Picnic is at the core of Picnic. From deep learning models to forecast orders to delivery algorithms to warehouse logistics: we’ve built it all from the ground up. You’ll thrive here if you’re a problem solver with a pro-active mindset who’s not afraid to be challenged daily. Recruitment Process1CV screening2Phone screening3Online test4Interviews5Assessment day6OfferCommitment to equal opportunitiesPicnic is an equal opportunity employer—this means that all decisions regarding applications will be based on qualifications and merit. Applicants will be regarded independently of age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, skin color, civil status, religious beliefs, physical or mental disability, or any other factors protected by law. At Picnic, we celebrate and value our differences and are committed to building a safe and inclusive working environment where everyone can be themselves. Our MentalityAt Picnic, we build from scratch with an owner’s mindset. We dive into the unknown, taking end-to-end responsibility for every outcome, going the extra mile to tackle complex challenges. We turn insights into action, working as a team to get things done. We move fast, never compromising on quality or long-term impact. With grit and commitment we build what has never been built before!Get in touch with our recruitersGet in touch with our recruitersSebastian Shelton - RecruiterOther vacancies you might like Tech Lead (Java)Engineering📍 AmsterdamFront-End Engineer (React / React Native) – Store & WebEngineering📍 AmsterdamProduct Manager - Consumer AppEngineering📍 AmsterdamProduct Manager - Supply ChainEngineering📍 AmsterdamSenior Machine Learning EngineerEngineering📍 AmsterdamSenior Software Engineer (with Java) - Warehouse SystemsEngineering📍 AmsterdamSoftware Engineer (with Java) - Store Engineering📍 AmsterdamSoftware Engineer (with Java) - Warehouse SystemsEngineering📍 Amsterdam