.png){kind=small}
A common issue encountered by international students and graduates in Groningen is finding English-speaking jobs and companies, which are sometimes hard to find in the Netherlands. Especially if you're seeking positions outside of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and other major cities international job seekers usually aim for.
This article aims at showing the countless professional opportunities Groningen has to offer. Regardless of the field you're interested in, we hope this information will help you find the company and position in line with your professional goals!
Living and working in Groningen
Quality of life
Groningen, known as a major student city, also offers high quality of life for young graduates and families. Counting approximately 220,000 inhabitants (2021), among which 50,000 are students, the city offers a great, may we say "chill" and laid-back environment.
Known as a "World Cycling City" (57% of daily travel made by bicycle!), Groningen is a very culturally diverse city, being home to the internationally renowned University of Groningen.
Groningen offers a very active nightlife, presenting a reasonable amount of restaurants, bars, and clubs. The city is also appreciated for the sense of security it brings to its population.
Employment opportunities in Groningen
Despite being more isolated than other Dutch cities, Groningen hosts a large business ecosystem and start-up network, from locally founded SMEs to large companies.
Whichever industry you wish to work in, you'll likely find interesting work opportunities in Groningen. Technology enterprises, IT services, digital consulting companies, educational institutions... Check out what's out there below!
How these companies were chosen
These companies were mostly sourced from the website of Make it in the North, a job portal helping English speakers find jobs in the northern part of the Netherlands, in Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe.
We then checked whether these companies:
Were still operating and recruiting in 2022
Open to recruiting English-speaking talent
Were home to an international team
Great companies to work for in Groningen in 2022
Disclaimer: this is not a ranking!
1) University of Groningen
Well, this is not a company per se, but definitely a great avenue to consider for employment in the city of Groningen.
The University of Groningen is a public research university, the second oldest in the Netherlands (founded in 1614!). The institution lists a great number of academic and non-academic employment opportunities, including student assistant jobs, PhD positions and office assistant jobs for example.
Typical job and internship opportunities at the University of Groningen:
Student Assistant
Junior-Senior Lecturer
PhD position (e.g.: "Energy Law")
Postdoctoral Positions
Course Coordinator
Human Resources Officer
The interesting part about working at the University of Groningen, especially for academic positions, is the variety of fields you can aim for given the number of faculties the institution possesses (Faculty of Economics and Business, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences among others).
2) Youwe
Based in the southern part of Groningen city, Youwe is a full-service digital agency providing strategy and organisation, digital marketing, e-commerce, and data intelligence consultancy services, amongst others! The agency operates from many other offices across the Netherlands and worldwide, including from Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Kyiv, London, Stockholm, Helsinki and even Indonesia.
The above speaks for itself, Youwe is an international-friendly company, constantly open to recruiting international talent, including in Groningen! Visit their job portal to check out the company's most recent vacancies (from many different fields).
Typical job and internship opportunities at Youwe:
Business Analyst
Integration/Implementation Consultant
(Junior) Delivery Manager
UX Designer
HR Coordinator
Frontend Developer
3) Chordify
Chordify's headquarters are in Zuiderpark, right on the edge of Groningen city centre (which literally means a 1-minute bike ride). The company presents itself as a music e-learning platform having developed an AI able to automatically transform music into chords.
According to the company website, Chordify employs 50 individuals from 12 different nationalities, thus offering an international professional environment. The business regularly has job openings both in its Utrecht and Groningen offices, whether in the design, technology or marketing departments.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Chordify:
UX Designer
Online Marketer
Software Engineer
Front-end/back-end developer
4) Convident
Convident is a Groningen-based digital agency aiming to help companies develop professional websites, and webshops and implement effective online marketing campaigns.
Potentially a great place to work for software developers, digital marketers, SEO and SEA advertising experts for example.
The company accepts applications on the official Convident LinkedIn page. If no postings are available, sending a professional message to the contact email stating your interest won't hurt anyone.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Convident:
Online Marketer
SEO/SEA expert
Front-end/back-end developer
5) Let's Get Digital
Founded in 2017 and located in the outskirts of Groningen, Let's Get Digital develops services and solutions to help event organisers create unique online, hybrid and physical events around the world.
Let's Get Digital is growing its international team of 45+ members by notably recruiting sales and IT teams. Details about the business evolution, business spirit and the place the company holds in the industry are well described in the company's "About" section.
This is also where you will find current job openings at Let's Get Digital's business headquarters in Groningen.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Let's Get Digital:
Sales Lead
Sales Consultant
Backend Developer
Delivery Consultant
6) Klippa
Among the companies regularly offering job opportunities in Groningen: Klippa. The Groningen and Amsterdam-based company develops automated document processing solutions aiming to help companies develop their business in more efficient manners.
The business currently counts 50+ employees catering to the needs of clients from 26 countries around Europe and the world. Growing at a very high pace, Klippa is constantly seeking new talent in various departments, including marketing and communication, AI engineering, PR, software development, and sales. All job openings are listed on the company vacancies page.
Here's a list of typical job and internship opportunities at Klippa:
Back-end Developer
Full Stack Developer
Marketing and Communication
Design/UX
Sales Officer
Legal & Finance
7) PAteam
Among the technology companies based in Groningen, PAteam. PAteam is a consultancy aiming to support companies to scale their business through automation. More specifically, the company helps its clients adopt software bots and other AI-based tools to make their business processes more efficient.
While counting 60+ employees in Europe and across the world, PAteam has a team in Groningen, consisting of marketing, engineering and commercial functions. The company lists job openings on its website, in the Careers section.
Here's a list of typical job and internship opportunities at PAteam:
Sales Engineer
Marketing Specialist
Customer Success Manager
Infrastructure Engineer
8) PayPro
PayPro is a payment services provider based in Groningen, operating across the Netherlands and worldwide.
PayPro regularly posts both full-time and part-time English-speaking job vacancies on its job portal in Groningen. The company seeks to grow its team of 20+ employees to continue delivering its services to entrepreneurs and help them grow their business in the Netherlands and around the world.
Typical job and internship opportunities at PayPro include:
Software Engineer
Product Owner
Operations Manager
Sales Representative
9) Reconcept
Groningen-based Reconcept is a SaaS (Sales as a Service) platform used by medical doctors and healthcare organizations. The technology company develops solutions to facilitate practical training for health professionals, such as doctors and nurses for instance.
Like many other companies in Groningen, Reconcept currently has a number of job vacancies, notably in software development and UI/UX design. Dutch fluency doesn't appear as a requirement in the company's job descriptions.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Reconcept include:
Support functions (ideal for medical or business students)
Front End Developer
Back End Developer
10) SG Papertronics B.V.
SG Papertronics is an on-site chemical analysis venture based on the Zernike campus of the University of Groningen. In addition to other R&D services, the company notably developed a patented, portable, user-friendly, accurate and affordable test machine able to provide quality control for craft breweries.
A team of 14+ engineers, beer sommeliers, product designers and passionate founders is working to revolutionize lab testing for the beer industry. While the company doesn't have a portal presenting vacancies, you might want to check out SG Papertronics' LinkedIn page or reach out directly with a professional CV and cover letter.
Typical job and internship opportunities at SG Papertronics include:
Software Engineer
Product Designer
Project Manager
11) Slimmer.ai
Slimmer.ai is an AI venture studio located within a few of minutes cycling outside of Groningen. The business and its team of AI and software engineers help entrepreneurs build B2B SaaS ventures and develop scalable AI products and services.
In this booming industry, Slimmer.ai has assembled a team of engineers, founders, marketers and even investors coming from 16 different countries around Europe and the world. And still recruiting via its own job portal.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Slimmer.ai include:
Software Engineer
Fullstack Developer
Front End Developer
Product Lead
Graphic Design
12) Belsimpel
Headquartered in Groningen, Belsimpel is a (web)shop selling mobile phones, mobile subscriptions, tablets, and accessories. Fun fact: Belsimpel opened its first physical store on Vismarkt in 2014!
The company is probably one of Groningen's largest employers and has countless job openings in various departments, including marketing, HR, facility management, finance, data science... and we could go on. The job portal is very job-seeker-friendly for English speakers, as each listing title specifies whether the job is open to English speakers (e.g.: iOS Developer (NL/ENG)). In addition, Belsimpel offers a large number of traineeships, and Master thesis project positions, which is just perfect for students and graduates.
Typical job, internship and traineeship opportunities at Belsimpel include:
Master's Thesis Computing Science
Software Engineer
Marketing Traineeship
IT Support Engineer
Business Analyst
Data Scientist & Analyst
13) Parkos
Parkos was founded by former travel bloggers, who decided to launch a platform where travellers could easily compare and reserve affordable and reliable parking across European airports and more recently in America and Australia. Today, Parkos presents itself as the number 1 airport parking comparing and booking website in the Netherlands.
Parkos is very international-friendly, as a lot of the communication in the company is in English. In addition, the award-winning e-commerce platform is actively hiring and presents a wide selection of vacancies on its job portal.
Typical job and internship opportunities at Parkos include:
Product Owner
Customer Service Agent
Front End Developer
Country Manager (Italy, Germany, Netherlands and most countries Parkos operates in)
Team Lead Customer Support
14) The Northern Times
NorthernTimes.nl is an English news website covering stories and events taking place in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. As an initiative of the International Welcome Center North, The Northern Times presents daily news for internationals wishing to stay tuned with everything happening in this Northern part of the Netherlands.
For communication specialists or journalism graduates, for example, The Northern Times could constitute a great company to work at!
Owned by the Tammeling Press Agency, your best bet is to directly send a message with a CV and an impactful cover letter to demonstrate your strong interest and motivation to join the team!
Typical job and internship opportunities at The Northern Times:
Communication Officer
Editor
Journalist
Producer
About us
Our logo says it all: we're CV & cover letter writers.
Based in Groningen, we provide CV, cover letter, and Linked optimisation, writing, proofreading and translation services, in English, French, German, and Spanish.
In addition, in collaboration with Make it in the North, we provide free CV critique sessions every other Friday.
Applying for jobs? Book a meeting with us today and get free feedback and advice on your CV!
Any other questions? We'd be glad to hear from you, feel free to contact us!