Senior Backend Software Engineer – Build the Future of Railway Compensation in Europe

Department: Engineering

Location: Kraków

Compensation: 15000 – 21000 PLN gross/month for employment or 18000 – 25000 PLN net + VAT/month for b2b contract

Description

AirHelp has been transforming air passenger rights across the globe – now we’re expanding that mission to rail travel. We’re building a new European railway compensation product designed to help passengers claim what they’re owed quickly and seamlessly. With a proven model in one market, the next step is to scale fast across Europe. We’re looking for a Senior Backend Software Engineer to help us make it happen.

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

Location: Poland (Kraków, Gdańsk, or Warsaw). If you’re based in Poland, regular travel to our Amsterdam office will be required to collaborate closely with the core team.

You might be interested in checking our open source contributions https://github.com/AirHelp and our tech blog: https://airhelp.tech/

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 the 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 will you achieve in your first 12 months:

• By month 3: Deliver an MVP (Eligibility Checker pipeline) for a new EU market and contribute to the initial backend architecture for EU expansion.
• By month 6: Deliver a fully functional automation pipeline, extending the eligibility checker with claim submission capabilities, improving trip import workflows for partners, and achieving a high eligibility success rate for your EU market.
• By month 12: Evolve the MVP into a robust, scalable system by replacing third-party components with in-house algorithms. Use this foundation to lead the rollout across additional European markets – refining, optimizing, and scaling the automation playbook you helped create.

Are you curious about firsthand experiences? Dive into our bonus material showcasing employees’ stories in the engineering team.

What sets you apart

• Experienced backend builder with 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).
• 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; bonus points for fluency in German, French, or Spanish.

Why AirHelp?

• Impact from day one: Play a key role in building AirHelp’s new railway compensation product and shaping its European expansion.
• Collaborative environment: Work from Poland (Kraków, Gdańsk, or Warsaw), but you’ll travel regularly to Amsterdam to work closely with the core team.
• Growth potential: Join at the ground floor and grow with us as we scale across Europe.
• Lean, ambitious culture: A small, high-impact team, no corporate bureaucracy, lots of learning.
• Perks: Private healthcare, wellness budget, travel stipend, gym/transport subsidy, free access to AirHelp services, and more.

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