As part of the development and evolution of BorderTask, we are looking for a Full-Stack Developer capable of working across the entire development cycle.

Project

BorderTask is an ecosystem of applications used within the framework of Belgian border control. It notably covers Aerotask for air transport, Aquatask and EMSW for maritime, ETIAS for travel authorizations, EES for Schengen area entry and exit, as well as a mobile version intended for field inspections.

These applications process alphanumeric and biometric data of travelers, ensure exchanges with the central European systems, and integrate with the national border control applications.

This is a national project of the Federal Police, operating in a high-availability environment, handling sensitive data and subject to European regulatory constraints. The impact of developments is directly visible in the field.

Mission

The current platform still partially relies on a PHP 5.6 / 7.4 stack, CodeIgniter, Smarty, AngularJS, and jQuery. The goal is to gradually evolve it towards a more modern environment, mainly based on PHP 8.2+, Laravel 12+, and Vue 3. Migration constitutes an important part of the mission: understanding a critical and complex application already in production, securing it, maintaining its operation, and gradually evolving its architecture without service interruption.

Your tasks

• Design, develop, test, and maintain web applications.
• Handle development across the entire stack, from backend to frontend.
• Develop and integrate REST APIs.
• Understand and evolve an existing legacy codebase.
• Participate in its security and progressive modernization.
• Restructure code when necessary to improve separation of responsibilities and maintainability.
• Participate in technical analysis and problem-solving.
• Ensure code quality, stability, and security.
• Participate in code reviews and testing.
• Document the developments made.
• Collaborate with developers, analysts, and other project partners.

The applications are used daily by police officers working at border posts: airports, Brussels-Midi international train station, and seaports. Users are therefore directly confronted with the developed features and can provide concrete feedback on their use.

Occasional visits are organized with partners and users to observe the applications in their real usage context and to better understand operational needs.

The BINAT section has around 40 staff members. The BorderTask team, the largest in the section, brings together about fifteen people. It is structured like a classic development team, with a project manager, a technical lead, functional analysts, developers, a copywriter, and a UX/UI designer.

The team works in agile mode and developments are subject to regular code reviews.

Profile

• You demonstrate strong expertise in PHP.
• You have a good command of modern JavaScript.
• You master at least one modern PHP framework. Experience with Laravel is preferred, but solid knowledge of Symfony is also suitable.
• You master at least one modern JavaScript framework. Experience with Vue.js is an advantage.
• You are able to work autonomously on both backend and frontend.
• You master SQL, REST APIs, and Git.
• You are comfortable with taking over, maintaining, and evolving legacy code in production.
• You have already taken responsibility for and evolved complex applications used in production.
• You are able to identify and fix security issues in an existing codebase.
• You know how to progressively evolve an architecture and better distribute responsibilities in the code.
• You apply best development practices: architecture, code quality, security, testing, error management, and maintainability.
• You are able to analyze a complex technical problem, propose a suitable solution, and assess its impact on the existing system.
• You can quickly find your footing in an existing codebase and become operational fast.

No prior experience with CodeIgniter, Smarty, AngularJS, or jQuery is required. We are primarily looking for someone able to understand and take over legacy code, not necessarily someone who has worked with these specific frameworks. Beyond technical skills, we place particular importance on autonomy, motivation, and learning ability. We are looking for someone able to quickly ramp up in technologies they are less familiar with and genuinely interested in working across the whole stack.

Technical environment

Existing stack: PHP 5.6 / 7.4 · CodeIgniter · Smarty · AngularJS · jQuery

Target stack: PHP 8.2+ · Laravel 12+ · JavaScript · Vue 3

API: REST

Database: PostgreSQL

Versioning: Git / GitLab

Containerization: Docker / Podman

Servers: Linux / Red Hat Enterprise Linux

CI/CD: CI/CD practices and tools

Conditions

• Professional English required, both spoken and written.
• The candidate may be French-speaking or Dutch-speaking; neither national language is favored.
• The mission is part of a long-term collaboration, contractually organized in renewable six-month periods.
• Remote work up to three days per week.
• The use of AI tools is subject to the internal policy and security constraints of the Federal Police. Tools that send code to an external service are not permitted; any other use requires prior approval from the security team.
• Occasional travel to operational sites should be expected.

Assets

• Proven experience with Laravel and/or Vue.js.
• Experience with Symfony, React, Angular, or equivalent technologies.
• Experience in taking over and modernizing a legacy application.
• Good knowledge of application security.
• Experience with critical or high-availability applications.
• Experience in the public sector.

Practical information

Start date: 01/12/2026

End date: 31/12/2026 (renewable the following year)

Working hours: Full time (40h/week)

Work location: rue Royale 202A 1000 Brussels

Working conditions: Presence in the office at least 2 times per week depending on tasks and in agreement with the team, remote work allowed at home or at the employer’s premises (in Belgium)

Team: multidisciplinary, mix of internal and external collaborators