The Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons is a federal independent administration. The mission of the CGRS is to provide protection to persons who, if returned to their country of origin, are at risk of persecution or serious harm.

In accordance with Belgian, European, and international standards, the CGRS examines each request for international protection in an individual, objective, and impartial manner.

Within the CGRS, a modernization trajectory has been initiated, translated into the eDossier program. It is a very ambitious program, consisting of a number of projects with a very tight timeline. To further shape and develop the program, we are looking for strong profiles who are willing to commit temporarily (fixed-term contracts, immediately terminable, extendable upon positive evaluation) until delivery, expected at least until the end of 2028.

One of the profiles we are seeking is a hands-on Data Manager and Engineer, expert level (+10 years of experience, mandatory). We expect this person to flawlessly and independently take on data management and data engineering activities within the eDossier initiative and within the organization. You will form a team with other experienced, highly competent, and motivated individuals. You can always rely on the knowledge and competences of our architecture team and our data cell.

A description of the tasks and competences can be found below. If you are inspired by the core mission of the CGRS and you match the tasks and required competences, do not hesitate to apply.

If you are looking for a purely lead and/or advisory role, we ask that you refrain from applying. The emphasis is on analysis, design, and implementation. If you are looking for 4 days of telework, you will also be disappointed. To foster team spirit and the startup of the initiatives, we ask for a presence of 3 days per week at the office. Our offices are located next to Brussels South station.

• A degree in computer science, short or long type higher education, obtained at a recognized European college or university, is mandatory (the diploma must be present along with the CV in the Pro Unity platform),
• Continuously self-educating to stay up to date with the latest sustainable trends and innovations, primarily focusing on data management of structured and unstructured data within complex organizations and data engineering within cloud environments,
• 10 years of hands-on experience with data management within complex organizations (≠ departments or companies, each with their own master data and metadata, unique way of working, etc), including:
• 5 years of hands-on experience with master data management and metadata management within complex organizations,
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data quality and data governance within complex organizations,
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data integration and data security within complex organizations,
• 5 years of hands-on experience with predictive and prescriptive data analysis,
• 10 years of hands-on experience with on-prem and cloud data engineering of structured and unstructured data within complex organizations (≠ departments or companies, each with their own master data and metadata, unique way of working, etc), including:
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data pipelines (workflow automation, batch and real-time),
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data storage and architecture,
• 3 years of hands-on experience with data migrations from on-prem to cloud environments,
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data collection and processing,
• 3 years of hands-on experience with SAP BO and Power BI as data visualization tools,
• 5 years of hands-on experience with data transformation and integration,
• 3 years of hands-on experience with setting up as well as using Azure Cloud data platforms,
• 5 years of hands-on experience working within agile teams,
• Ability to propose alternative solutions and formulate recommendations regarding choices to be made, taking into account the full context, both for a technical and non-technical audience,
• Good listener, flexible attitude, possessing the ability to communicate, collaborate, goal- and results-oriented,
• Experience with design/definition and development of APIs is a plus,
• Experience with development and integration of micro services is a plus,
• Experience with software design (cloud, API, microservice, event) is a plus,
• Experience with event driven architecture and systems is a plus,
• Knowledge of Event Driven and/or Behavioral Driven Development is a plus,
• Knowledge of Domain Driven Design is a plus,
• Knowledge of existing building blocks and services within the federal government context is a plus.

I. Languages

Due to the nature of the tasks and the client base (bilingual work environment), as well as our internal way of working, a very good knowledge of English, as well as a very good knowledge of Dutch or French, is required.

II. Task package

• Within your data management role, you will elaborate master data management and metadata management into a data glossary and data dictionary, both for the eDossier initiative and for the organization, taking into account the complexity of the environment,
• Within your data management role, you ensure high-quality and secure data analysis to move from descriptive to predictive and prescriptive analysis. For this, you take responsibility for all activities, ranging from data collection through modeling to visualization, taking into account the needs and requirements of the organization and its stakeholders,
• Within your data engineering role, you ensure that our current (on-prem) and future (cloud) data is transferred to the Azure Cloud data platform, either via available cloud services or with commercial off-the-shelf solutions, taking into account established security policies and architecture,
• Within your data engineering role, you are involved in implementing appropriate solutions to provide internal and external stakeholders with understandable, readable, and usable reports and statistical data. Therefore, you need relevant experience managing data visualization tools, especially Power BI, to assist in creating suitable dashboards or visual tools that meet the needs of the stakeholders,
• Within your data engineering role, you are perfectly capable of creating and presenting an architectural data design, as well as translating it into action points to ensure its implementation,
• Within your data management and data engineering role, you help our organization grow in its “data maturity” and work together with our stakeholders to develop CGRS as a data-driven organization,
• You are part of a team consisting of technical and non-technical profiles (internal within the organization). You must be able to listen and communicate well with all stakeholders of the project (both technical and non-technical).

III. The interview

Based on the pre-selection of the platform, candidates are invited for an individual interview. During the interview, the following items will be examined: knowledge of asylum authorities and asylum procedures (the necessary information can be found online via www.cgvs.be, a fairly good knowledge is required—mandatory), motivation and understanding of the position, required soft skills and hard skills (requested competences, experience level, expertise level, language skills).

Invitations for interviews are made in waves/contingents of up to 5 people. If no candidate from a wave or contingent is selected by the jury, then candidates from the next wave are invited for an individual interview. This process is repeated until the jury has selected a candidate.