Amsterdam has one of the largest concentrations of international employers in the Netherlands, and plenty of roles are advertised in English only.
The trick is knowing which channels actually carry them, rather than searching Dutch-language job sites that assume fluency you don’t have yet.
Start With Boards Built for Internationals
General Dutch job boards mix in postings that require Dutch from the first line, which wastes time for a newcomer.
Boards built specifically for expats and internationals in the Netherlands filter that out, listing roles by category such as IT and technology, customer service, sales, and engineering, and by required language.
These sites also let you set up an alert so new English-language postings reach your inbox instead of you re-checking daily.
Before applying anywhere, it helps to read Finding a Job in Amsterdam: What to Do First, which covers the groundwork worth doing before you send out a single application.
Understand the Market You’re Entering
Amsterdam’s job market splits fairly cleanly into sectors that run in English and sectors that don’t.
International headquarters, tech companies and multilingual customer service teams routinely hire without Dutch; local retail, healthcare and public-sector roles almost always require it.
Amsterdam Employment Market Guide for Job Seekers lays out that split in more detail, including which industries and contract types are realistic for someone starting from English alone.
Knowing this before you apply saves you from chasing roles that were never going to consider a non-Dutch speaker.
Recruitment Agencies That Work in English
A number of Amsterdam recruiters specialize in placing internationals, and they interview, coach and submit candidates in English as standard practice.
Undutchables is the best known of these, but it isn’t the only one working this way, so it’s worth comparing a few before committing your CV to one agency.
How to Choose a Recruiter in Amsterdam explains what to check before signing up with any of them, and how to tell a genuinely useful recruiter from one that’s just collecting CVs.
If you want the mechanics of how an agency like Undutchables actually works once you’re on their books, that’s covered separately.
Temp and Staffing Agencies for a Faster Start
If you need income while you search for something permanent, temp and staffing agencies place people into English-language roles faster than a direct application usually does.
Many of these placements are in warehouses, logistics, customer support and hospitality, sectors that are often short-staffed and willing to onboard in English.
Best Temp and Staffing Agencies in Amsterdam for Expats lists the agencies that specifically work with internationals, rather than ones that will simply add you to a general pool.
A temp role can also be a way into a company that later hires you directly.
Sectors Where English Alone Is Enough
Tech and IT roles are the most reliably English-only part of the market, since many teams in Amsterdam operate entirely in English internally.
Multilingual customer service is the other major category -- companies serving European markets from Amsterdam often hire for German, French or Nordic languages paired with English, with no Dutch requirement at all.
Supply chain, logistics and finance back-office roles at international firms follow a similar pattern.
If you want a sense of what these roles actually pay before you apply, Average Salary in Amsterdam by Job and Industry breaks salaries down by field.
NGOs and International Organizations
Amsterdam hosts a number of NGOs, foundations and international organizations that operate in English by necessity, given their international staff and donor base.
These roles don’t always appear on the mainstream job boards, so they’re worth searching separately.
Working for a Nonprofit or NGO in Amsterdam: Where to Look covers where these postings actually surface and what the hiring process tends to look like.
It’s a smaller pool than corporate tech, but a realistic one if the sector fits your background.
Get Your Application Right Before You Send It
A Dutch employer, even an English-speaking one, often expects a CV rather than the resume format used in the US.
Getting this wrong doesn’t disqualify you outright, but it does make you look less prepared than candidates who took the time to adjust.
CV vs Resume: What Job Seekers in the Netherlands Need to Know explains the practical differences before you submit anything.
It’s a quick fix that costs nothing and removes one easy reason to be passed over.
Where to Actually Go First
In practice, the fastest path is to run these channels in parallel rather than one at a time: set an alert on an international job board, register with one or two recruiters who place internationals, and check whether a temp agency can get you working sooner.
None of these guarantees a job on their own, but together they cover most of where English-speaking work in Amsterdam is actually advertised.
