Working at ING in the Netherlands: an honest look inside the orange machine

ING is the largest retail bank in the Netherlands by customer count — 9 million account holders, over 8,000 employees at its Amsterdam headquarters, certified Top Employer by the Top Employer Institute — and yet anonymous reviews from Glassdoor, Indeed NL, and Breakroom tell a more complicated story than the polished careers page suggests. The recurring themes: genuinely good work-life balance, an international and technically literate culture, and a brand that opens doors. But also slow promotion, bureaucracy that would frustrate a Dutch tax office, and a compensation package that lands solidly in "above average — but not exceptional" territory for most roles. This is the unfiltered picture.

Open roles right now

As of March 2026, ING has approximately 187 English-language vacancies across the Netherlands listed on LinkedIn, with 73 roles visible on Glassdoor and around 54 on Indeed NL. Browse finance jobs on our board by city and role. The discrepancy reflects ING's practice of posting some Dutch-only roles exclusively on native platforms. The active hiring pipeline skews heavily toward:

• Tech and engineering: software engineers, DevOps engineers, data engineers, cloud architects
• Risk and compliance: KYC analysts, credit risk modellers, ESG risk specialists, model validation experts
• Data and analytics: data scientists, business analysts, product analysts
• Wholesale banking: relationship managers, credit officers, trade finance specialists
• Finance and treasury: financial analysts, treasury specialists, financial risk officers
• Customer journey and product: customer journey experts, product owners, agile chapter leads

What's conspicuously absent from the active hiring list: large-scale intake for junior or entry-level corporate roles outside the formal graduate programmes. If you're a recent graduate without a traineeship offer, your realistic entry points are internship-to-permanent pipelines or direct applications to analyst-level positions in compliance, KYC, or data — areas where ING runs perpetual demand.

The salary picture: better than a Dutch bank's reputation, worse than a US tech firm

ING's compensation earns a 3.9 out of 5 for pay on Glassdoor from Netherlands-based employees — respectable, but not a ringing endorsement. Here is what the aggregated data from Glassdoor NL, Levels.fyi, TechPays Europe, and Indeed NL shows across key roles. To turn gross figures into net pay, use our Netherlands salary calculator.

All figures are gross annual including 8% vakantiegeld (holiday allowance). ITP trainees in Amsterdam now typically receive a total cash package exceeding €60,000 when factoring in a 13th month and a flexible benefit budget — a significant correction from prior years when trainee pay lagged inflation. For tech roles, the median total compensation sits around €75,000–€80,000 according to TechPays Europe data from 49 data points.

The honest assessment: ING pays well by Dutch banking standards, and acceptably by Dutch tech standards. Where it falls short is at senior and specialist levels, where Amsterdam's fintech scene (Adyen, ASML's ecosystem, Booking.com) and international tech firms routinely offer 20–30% more in total comp. A senior software engineer at ING earns around €90,000–€100,000 all-in; a peer at a product-led tech company in Amsterdam might earn €110,000–€140,000. ING knows this and has adjusted trainee and junior compensation upward since 2023 to compete for early-career talent — but the gap widens at seniority.

One underappreciated benefit: the effective hourly rate. ING operates on a 36–40 hour working week with genuine respect for contracted hours. A senior engineer earning €95,000 for a 38-hour week comes out ahead per-hour versus an investment banking peer earning €120,000 across 70+ hours. That calculus matters, and many employees factor it in explicitly.

What ING actually hires for — and the one thing everyone misunderstands

ING is not a traditional bank. It adopted the "Spotify model" of agile organisation in 2015 — squads, tribes, chapters, and guilds replacing the old hierarchy. This is the single biggest thing candidates misunderstand going in. Your direct manager might be your "chapter lead" who has almost no say in your day-to-day work; your squad lead runs the delivery but doesn't handle your performance review; and your "tribe" might span 200+ people across four floors of the Bijlmermeer campus.

This creates a genuinely flat day-to-day culture — reviewers consistently praise the openness and lack of formal hierarchy in meetings — but it also creates structural ambiguity around promotion, ownership, and accountability. Understanding the squad model before you arrive is not optional.

The highest-volume hiring departments are tech (ING runs as much software engineering as many product companies, with proprietary platforms servicing 9 million retail customers), KYC and compliance (post-2020 regulatory tightening has made this a permanent high-headcount function), and data and analytics (ING's 2024–2027 strategy centres on data-driven personalisation). Wholesale banking relationship roles and risk modelling round out the perennial openings.

What 630 employee reviews actually say about culture

ING scores 4.0 out of 5 on Glassdoor from around 597 Netherlands-based reviews, with 83% saying they would recommend the company to a friend. The Amsterdam-specific figure is 4.1, with 91% recommending. These are strong numbers — but as with any large employer, the averages smooth out sharp edges worth examining.

What employees genuinely value. Work-life balance is the most consistently praised element, scoring 4.2 out of 5 on Glassdoor — well above the Dutch corporate average. Hybrid working (roughly two days per week in the office) is the norm and appears to be respected in practice, not just on paper. The international team composition is praised almost universally: "diverse," "open," and "flat" appear across review platforms in both Dutch and English. One Amsterdam Glassdoor reviewer described the culture as feeling more like a tech firm than a bank. Multiple reviewers note the quality of colleagues as a genuine retention factor.

The learning infrastructure is real and not just marketing: ING University, extensive LinkedIn Learning access, internal mobility across 40 countries, and formal coaching programmes for trainees.

What employees consistently criticise. Three themes dominate the negative reviews.

First, bureaucracy and decision-making speed. Across Indeed NL and Glassdoor, "bureaucratic" and "slow approvals" are recurring frustrations even from people who otherwise rate ING positively. One SAP consultant with three-plus years at ING described the culture and salary as excellent, then added a single-word con: "bureaucratic." A data scientist noted that as a large institution, ING "suffers from a lot of bureaucracy, thus limiting technological advancements." The irony is that ING adopted agile specifically to kill bureaucracy — the model helps, but 60,000 global employees and financial regulation create irreducible friction.

Second, promotion pace. The phrase "hard to move up" or its Dutch equivalent appears across review platforms with notable frequency. One Indeed NL reviewer put it directly: "It takes years compared to other companies, and salary is under average mostly." The agile org model partly explains this: there are no traditional "rungs" to climb, and internal mobility often requires either landing a formal trainee programme or navigating an opaque internal job market. A Dutch reviewer with 12 years at ING noted they had never received a Christmas package or bonus — pointing to how wide the experience gap is between formal graduate-track employees and operational staff.

Third, internal politics and offshoring tension. A Dutch IT reviewer on Indeed NL was blunt: "It's really a men's world within IT, and a lot of old-boys-network politics." The same reviewer noted growing resentment at aggressive offshoring to Romania, Poland, and India, which they felt was "splintering team cohesion." This is a real structural tension — ING's ING Hubs model means that a growing share of engineering and operations work is done outside the Netherlands, creating friction with Amsterdam-based staff who feel their roles are being hollowed out.

Interns and trainees rate ING much more highly. This pattern mirrors what we see at other large Dutch employers. Graduate-track employees experience a more curated, mentored, and structured version of ING — access to events, rotations, coaching, and a clear peer community — that differs meaningfully from the experience of a permanent employee hired directly into an operational role.

Career progression: two completely different companies depending on your entry point

The career experience at ING diverges sharply at the point of entry, and understanding this upfront will save considerable frustration.

Track 1: The International Talent Programme (ITP) is ING's flagship graduate scheme — three rotations over 18 months, including one international placement, covering tracks in Tech, Risk, Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Operations & Change, Finance, Analytics, and HR. The acceptance rate is brutal: roughly 2–3% from approximately 6,000 applicants for 100–150 global spots, placing it on par with Tier-2 strategy consulting firms. Amsterdam is a primary base for several tracks. Compensation is €45,000–€55,000 all-in at entry, escalating with each rotation review. ITP alumni land well: senior analyst, consultant, and chapter lead roles within 5–8 years are realistic outcomes, and international mobility is genuinely encouraged.

A realistic progression for an ITP joiner looks roughly like: Year 0–1.5 as trainee across three rotations; Year 2–3 as junior consultant, analyst, or squad member in a permanent home role; Year 4–6 as senior analyst or chapter co-lead; Year 6–9 as expert, chapter lead, or product manager. Reaching a senior management or director-level role before year 10 is possible but uncommon outside tech functions.

Track 2: Direct hire into permanent roles is where the experience varies most. Ambitious, technically strong employees in data, engineering, and risk do progress — but the path is self-directed, not institutionally managed. You own your own mobility. The chapter model means there is no obvious "next rung" unless you actively navigate the internal job market. Several reviewers who went this route describe feeling stagnant without proactive effort to move squads or functions. The absence of a clear promotion structure is either liberating or frustrating depending on personality type.

Internships (3–9 months, available across nearly every function) serve as a genuine pipeline. ING explicitly encourages internships as a try-before-you-apply mechanism and many ITP trainees are former interns. Pay for internships is above the Dutch student norm at most departments.

Benefits: solid Dutch package with one standout

ING's benefits align with what you'd expect from a major Dutch financial employer, governed by the banking CAO (collective labour agreement):

• 25–28 vacation days per year for full-time staff, with additional loyalty days accruing over tenure
• 8% holiday allowance (vakantiegeld), paid annually in May
• 13th month or year-end bonus for most employee groups — though reviews suggest this is not universal, particularly for contact centre and operational staff
• Pension via the Pensioenfonds Metaal en Techniek or ING's own scheme, with employer contribution meaningfully above the statutory minimum
• NS Business Card (OV-fiets and train travel reimbursement) for commuters — a genuine perk in a country where rail costs are significant
• Flexible benefit budget (for ITP and many professional roles), convertible into extra holiday, gear, training, or salary
• Hybrid working as standard: approximately 2 days in the office per week, with flexibility by squad
• Gym subsidy and employee wellbeing programmes

The one standout benefit that gets underreported: internal mobility at scale. With operations in 40+ countries and a genuinely international workforce at Amsterdam HQ, internal transfers abroad are real — not just a careers page promise. ITP trainees have one rotation explicitly abroad; for other employees, international moves are possible through the internal job market with manager support. This is meaningfully more accessible than at most Dutch employers of comparable size.

The honest editorial take: ING is a tech company that hasn't fully convinced itself of that yet

Here is the tension at the core of working at ING that no careers page will tell you. ING adopted agile, built proprietary tech, talks about "empowering customers," and has more data scientists on payroll than many Amsterdam fintechs. It genuinely competes with tech employers for engineering talent, and in some ways the day-to-day experience of a software engineer there feels more like a mid-stage tech company than a bank.

But ING is still a regulated financial institution with all the compliance overhead, risk committee approvals, and audit scrutiny that entails. Regulatory tightening since 2020 — particularly around KYC, AML, and ESG reporting — has pulled focus and headcount toward control functions in a way that sits awkwardly with the "orange, innovative, challenger bank" identity. Multiple tech reviewers note that their work has "shifted enormously toward risk," that the interesting engineering has moved to the hubs in Romania and Poland, and that the Amsterdam campus increasingly feels like a coordination layer on top of delivery happening elsewhere.

For the right person, that's fine or even preferable. The culture is genuinely flat by Dutch corporate standards, the work-life balance is excellent, and the brand is portable internationally. But ambitious tech engineers who want to build consumer-scale products should know: the most technically interesting work at ING increasingly happens in ING Hubs, not Amsterdam HQ.

The Dutch banking sector's occupational hazard is also ING's: it tends to attract people who value stability and structure, and that shapes the culture even when the org model tries to fight it. It's a culture of measured ambition, not startup hunger — and there's nothing wrong with that if you go in with clear eyes.

The honest verdict: exceptional for early career, complicated for mid-career, dependent on your track

ING Netherlands is a genuinely strong choice for two types of people: graduates who can land the ITP (exceptional programme, excellent compensation, real international exposure), and experienced tech or risk professionals who value work-life balance over maximum total comp and want a stable, intellectually credible environment. The brand travels well, the colleagues are consistently described as intelligent and collaborative, and the hybrid working culture is among the best in Dutch financial services.

The person who will struggle is the mid-career professional hired into a non-graduate-track role expecting clear promotion paths and aggressive salary progression. The agile org model is not designed to hand you a roadmap; you have to build your own. And if you're a senior engineer comparing total comp against Amsterdam's tech scene, you will likely find ING 15–25% below market at the top of the range — a gap that the excellent work-life balance may or may not compensate for, depending on what stage of life you're in.

The smartest play: join ING early via the ITP or an internship-to-permanent route, build cross-functional expertise across tech, data, or risk during years one through five, leverage the international mobility, and then make a deliberate choice — either move into a chapter lead or expert track internally, or take the ING credential to a fintech or product company for the salary correction. That combination of structured early-career platform and deliberate exit or acceleration is where the real value lies.

Sources

Employee reviews and compensation data

• Glassdoor — ING Netherlands Reviews (597 reviews, Netherlands filter)
• Glassdoor — ING Amsterdam Reviews (703 reviews, Amsterdam filter)
• Glassdoor — ING Software Engineer Salaries, Netherlands
• Glassdoor — ING Data Analyst Salaries, Netherlands
• Glassdoor — ING Risk Analyst Salaries, Amsterdam
• Glassdoor — ING KYC Analyst Salaries, Netherlands
• Glassdoor — ING Business Analyst Reviews
• Glassdoor — ING Data Scientist Reviews
• Glassdoor — ING Jobs in Netherlands (March 2026)
• Indeed NL — Werken bij ING (630 reviews)
• Indeed NL — ING Netherlands Culture Reviews (479 reviews)
• Indeed NL — ING Pay & Benefits Reviews

Salary benchmarks

• Levels.fyi — ING Software Engineer Salaries, Netherlands
• TechPays Europe — ING Amsterdam tech salaries (49 data points)
• TechPays Europe — ING Netherlands senior tech salaries
• 9cv9 — Salary Levels in the Netherlands 2025

Graduate programmes and career progression

• GetSmartResume — ING Graduate Program 2027 (ITP acceptance rates, compensation breakdown)
• ING Careers — International Talent Programme
• ING Careers — Early Careers Netherlands
• ING Careers — Internships FAQ
• Work in the Hague — Traineeship Operations & Change 2024

Company information and open roles

• ING Careers — Working in the Netherlands
• ING Careers — Working in the Netherlands Culture
• ING Jobs Netherlands (vacancy listings)
• LinkedIn — ING Nederland English jobs in Netherlands (187 roles)
• Glassdoor — Interview experience, Netherlands (701 interviews)