A Belgian federal public service operates a mixed landscape of legacy applications and modern cloud-native services supporting unemployment regulation, payments and financial processing. This Solution & Application Architect role exists to harmonise those systems, improve resilience and lead implementation work with a strong emphasis on Java, containerisation (Docker/OpenShift) and cloud-native architectures.
The mission
The organisation is modernising a complex IT landscape that combines legacy monoliths and new microservice platforms. Work includes reducing technical debt, translating enterprise architecture choices into concrete designs, and implementing NIS2-compliant security measures. The platform handles core regulatory and financial workloads where availability, data integrity and auditability are critical.
In day-to-day work you will split time between high-level design and hands-on delivery, with 20% architecture, 80% lead developer and devops responsibilities. You will lead technical workstreams, implement containerised Java services on OpenShift/Kubernetes, define integration patterns (messaging, REST, GraphQL, event-driven) and coach development teams on secure, testable, scalable patterns.
Your responsibilities
- Define and validate application and data architectures that improve resilience, scalability and compliance, producing concrete designs and migration paths.
- Lead implementation of containerised Java microservices on OpenShift/Kubernetes, delivering measurable improvements in deployment frequency and reliability.
- Drive integration patterns across messaging, REST and GraphQL to ensure consistent data models and performant end-to-end flows.
- Translate NIS2 and security requirements into technical controls, IAM models and audit logging that are deployable in cloud-native environments.
- Mentor and support development teams in coding standards, datamodeling (MySQL), performance tuning and automated testing to reduce incidents and technical debt.
- Run and participate in design reviews and post-implementation reviews to maintain architecture governance and documentation.
Your profile
Essential skills
- 10+ years designing complex IT architectures, able to translate enterprise strategy into technical roadmaps.
- Proven hands-on experience with modern Java (Spring, microservices, API-driven and event-driven design).
- Strong containerisation and orchestration skills, Docker and OpenShift/Kubernetes experience.
- Practical knowledge of cloud platforms and cloud-native principles (GCP, Azure or AWS).
- Integration expertise across messaging systems, REST and GraphQL, and solid MySQL datamodeling skills.
- Applied understanding of NIS2 and security-by-design practices for infrastructure and application development.
- Agile delivery experience, structured communicator with strong analysis and synthesis capabilities, and experience working in a public sector IT service.
Languages
- French, C1
- Dutch, C1
- English, C1
Education
- Master in Computer Science, Engineering or equivalent professional experience. Certifications in cloud platforms or architecture are an advantage.