Graduate AI Software Engineer

About the role

Bending Spoons aims to build a world-class company that serves a large customer base, helps its people grow at a fast pace, and operates with exceptional efficiency and high ethical standards. The business acquires and improves digital products to own and run them for the long term, making substantial changes where needed to accelerate innovation, improve customer outcomes, and strengthen performance. Teams are intentionally small, highly capable, and low on hierarchy. The company also uses AI extensively across its day-to-day work so that human judgment and machine intelligence complement each other.

This role is intended for a motivated, collaborative person who wants rapid growth, meaningful ownership, and the chance to contribute to products used by millions.

What you will do

• Develop product experiences powered by AI, working with product teams to find high-value opportunities and turn them into production-ready solutions that are dependable, reproducible, and built to scale.
• Use advanced AI tools throughout the development cycle, including design, implementation, testing, and documentation, while maintaining strong standards for accuracy, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
• Work confidently across multiple technology stacks and choose the most appropriate tools for each problem, ranging from monoliths and microservices to gRPC, REST, Kubernetes, Docker, Python, and Rust.
• Take end-to-end ownership of software that reaches a large audience and continue improving it as it grows.
• Continuously reduce unnecessary complexity by improving architectures, pipelines, and codebases so they remain simpler, easier to scale, and easier to support.

What the company looks for

The ideal candidate is a strong problem solver who can reason from first principles, organize ideas clearly, and focus on the details that truly matter. The role also calls for significant ambition, self-driven effort, persistence, and a strong sense of responsibility for outcomes. A collaborative mindset is important too: you should be willing to support the best idea, contribute without hesitation, and work with honesty and transparency. Strong English skills in reading, writing, and speaking are also expected.

What is offered

You will join small, entrepreneurial teams made up of highly capable people and have the chance to grow quickly by taking on increasing responsibility. Compensation is competitive and includes equity for permanent contracts. Benefits include flexible working hours, remote work, unlimited support for learning and training, top-tier health insurance, relocation support, parental benefits, and an annual retreat to a beautiful location. The company also offers flexible start dates and part-time beginnings, with the option to move into full-time work while finishing a degree.

Compensation

For candidates with limited experience, the typical annual salary is €66,065 elsewhere in Europe and £85,797 in London. For candidates assessed as having substantial relevant experience, the usual range is €107,837 to €188,848 elsewhere in Europe and £112,189 to £250,512 in London. Exceptional candidates may be offered pay above these ranges. If a permanent contract is offered, part of the compensation may be received as company equity at a discount. Relocation to Italy may also include a 50% tax cut.

Commitment and contract

This is a permanent or fixed-term full-time role.

Location

The position can be based in Milan, London, Madrid, or Warsaw, or performed fully remotely from eligible countries. For the first few months, the company expects most workdays to be spent in the Milan office to help with onboarding, culture building, and team integration. Travel and accommodation support is provided for that period. Afterward, work may continue from an office or remotely, depending on the agreement at offer stage.

Selection process and application notes

Applications are reviewed for strong, verifiable evidence of excellence, regardless of seniority. There is no special application route beyond what the application shows, and all candidates are evaluated through the same process. If you feel underqualified or worry that your CV is not perfect, you are still encouraged to apply if the role interests you.

Applicants who progress may need to complete one or more challenging tests, which can involve unfamiliar problems and take several hours. The company may keep a role open for a long time or repost it multiple times while searching for the right fit. Reasonable accommodations are available for candidates with disabilities.

If you have applied before and were not offered the role, the recommendation is to wait at least one year before submitting another application. The work environment is demanding and expects a high level of commitment, but it also offers strong learning and career growth.

There is also a flexible start date, and candidates are not required to wait until graduation to apply. Part-time arrangements may be available initially, with a transition to full-time as studies are completed.