Netherlands' largest rail operator managing 1.2M daily passengers and modernizing transport infrastructure
Nederlandse Spoorwegen operates the Netherlands' primary passenger rail network, moving 1.2 million travelers daily across regional, long-distance, and high-speed services. The tech stack reveals a heavy Microsoft-centric foundation (Azure, Power BI, Azure DevOps) paired with modern data infrastructure (Snowflake, Databricks, Data Lake Storage), while active SAP adoption across Integration Suite, BTP, and S/4HANA signals a multi-year ERP modernization. Hiring velocity is accelerating with engineering-heavy focus (45 roles) on train modernization, preventive maintenance programs, and a dataplatform transition from monolithic to modular architecture.
Notable leadership hires: Tech Lead Innovatie, Blue Team Lead
NS is one of the Netherlands' ten largest employers with over 22,000 staff, operating regional and international passenger services alongside integrated station services, bike rental, retail, and fleet maintenance. The company transports 1.2 million passengers daily, managing on-time delivery, safety, and service quality across sprinter, regional, and high-speed train categories. Beyond rail operations, NS operates OV-fiets bike rental, station retail partnerships (Starbucks, HEMA, Julia's), and travel information services. Current operational focus spans train modernization, multi-year maintenance planning, preventive maintenance program rollout, and coordination of distributed maintenance partner networks.
NS uses Azure (cloud platform), Snowflake and Databricks (data warehousing), Power BI (analytics), SAP (ERP), React and TypeScript (frontend), Python (backend), Kubernetes (container orchestration), and PostgreSQL alongside SQL Server databases.
Major projects include train modernization, preventive maintenance program implementation, transitioning from monolithic to modular dataplatform, building production parts lists in ERP, and implementing security measures. NS is also managing multi-year maintenance plans and designing new operational workflows.
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