Principal Engineer

Principal Developer – Platform EngineeringSelf Employed position- 1 year initial contract plus extensionsIdeal start date: March 2026Hybrid BrusselsRole OverviewWe are seeking a Principal Developer to lead the design, development, and operation of a mission-critical enterprise platform.This platform integrates OpenShift, Azure IaaS, HashiCorp Vault, Jenkins, Keycloak, Okta, ELK, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, MinIO, Solace, Confluent Kafka, custom Kubernetes operators, NGINX reverse proxies, and an API Gateway, providing secure and resilient digital services for air navigation, network management, and operational data exchange.The role demands a hands-on technical leader capable of bridging software engineering, infrastructure automation, and enterprise-grade reliability and security in alignment with aviation safety and data protection standards.Key Responsibilities:Platform Design & EngineeringArchitect, implement, and continuously evolve a container-based platform on OpenShift and Azure IaaS to support the digital services portfolio.Develop and maintain custom Kubernetes operators for lifecycle automation of critical services (databases, observability stacks, messaging, and APIs).Design and implement secure multi-tenant architectures, leveraging Vault, Keycloak, and Okta for identity, secrets, and policy enforcement.Lead the development of CI/CD automation pipelines with Jenkins, ensuring consistent, traceable, and auditable software delivery.Collaborate with product teams to integrate data services (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, MinIO) into the platform ecosystem.Platform Operations & ResilienceOversee high availability and disaster recovery strategies across distributed Azure and OpenShift environments.Implement observability frameworks (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana) to ensure proactive monitoring and compliance with defined SLOs/SLIs.Champion Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices and continuous improvement of operational processes.Drive infrastructure as code (IaC) and configuration as code (CaC) adoption using Terraform and Ansible, ensuring reproducibility and auditability.Security, Compliance & IntegrationIntegrate and manage secure communication layers, including NGINX reverse proxies, API gateways, and TLS certificate management.Manage event-driven integration patterns using Solace PubSub+ and Confluent Kafka, supporting real-time aviation data exchange.Collaborate with cybersecurity and compliance teams to implement zero-trust networking and policy-as-code controls.Leadership & CollaborationAct as technical authority and mentor for platform engineers and developers, guiding architecture, design, and operational excellence.Spend 15-20% of time to provide support to the product developers who are the customers of the platform.Provide architectural reviews and governance for platform components and integrations.Liaise with internal stakeholders, partner organizations, and external technology providers to ensure platform evolution aligns with the strategic digital objectives.Required Skills & ExperienceTechnical Expertise10+ years of professional experience in software/platform engineering, including 3+ in a principal or lead developer capacity.Proven experience with OpenShift/Kubernetes (operator SDKs, Helm, ArgoCD, cluster management, GO programming language).Deep understanding of Azure IaaS, virtual networking, and hybrid cloud architectures.Expert in CI/CD automation (Jenkins, GitOps, or ArgoCD).Advanced proficiency in Vault, Keycloak, and Okta for security and identity federation.Strong experience with relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch) and object storage (MinIO).Experience with event streaming platforms (Solace, Confluent Kafka).Knowledge of NGINX and API Gateway technologies for secure service exposure.Solid background in Terraform, Ansible, and containerized application delivery.Understanding of observability stacks (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana) and log/metric correlation techniques.Leadership & Domain KnowledgeDemonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and set architectural direction.Strong communication skills with the ability to work in a multi-national, safety-critical organization.Deep understanding of cybersecurity, compliance, and operational resilience in regulated domains.Preferred QualificationsCertified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Application Developer (CKAD).HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate.Azure Solutions Architect Expert or Azure DevOps Engineer certification.Experience with service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) and OpenTelemetry for advanced observability.