Context

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) uses intelligent cameras that recognize license plates. The system then compares these scanned license plates with already available data (stolen or reported vehicles, whether or not they are allowed to drive in certain areas, etc.). Within the police, ANPR is used in the context of traffic safety and judicial assignments.

The ANPR project is housed within the Directorate of Police Information and ICT (DRI) of the Federal Police. The directorate is responsible for preparing policy and rules for information management and processing, developing the police information concept, establishing technical norms and standards, and implementing information and communication systems.

Within the ANPR ecosystem of the Federal Police, various themes have been identified to maximize operational effectiveness. An important theme is intervention, which focuses on deploying ANPR technology to support field interventions. This is made possible by generating hits via the ANPR system, which are then managed by specialized services within the police to determine and prioritize actions in the field, enabling the police to respond more quickly and effectively to urgent situations. To effectively support these tasks, significant improvements to the IT landscape are required. These include the development of new central IT components designed to strengthen the operational capabilities of the entire Integrated Police (GPI).

FEBLAM, a new component within the ANPR ecosystem of the Federal Police, will focus on optimizing and centralizing hit generation at the national level by flexibly integrating data from various sources.

Hit Gateway will be responsible for centralizing and facilitating the management of “hits” across the various systems of the integrated police and its partners.

Role: Software Engineer full stack (senior)

As a senior software engineer within the ANPR team at DRI, you are responsible for developing, designing, and supporting the integration of ANPR-related software products as software applications, ensuring seamless integration between front-end and back-end systems.

As lead engineer, you are expected to work independently on tasks and to coach/support other members of the development team where necessary. You communicate smoothly with the project manager and the functional analyst to achieve the project objectives for FEBLAM and other intervention themes.

You are not afraid to take the lead and assume a motivating, advisory, and facilitating role towards fellow engineers and developers.

Code is expected in PHP8+ (both Laravel framework and PHP slim).

Tasks and responsibilities:

Main tasks:

• Taking final responsibility for the code written by yourself as well as other team members. Actively performing refactoring and making daily decisions to ensure the quality of the code base.

• Reading/understanding functional analysis documentation to implement it at the code level.

• Test-driven development: Testability and continuous improvement of the code are your priorities.

• Working with RESTful APIs and API first approach.

• You take on E2E tasks, QA of your own code is part of your duties.

• Collaboration: working with product managers, designers, technical engineers and QA engineers to deliver user-friendly and powerful software. This includes collaborating with suppliers and integrators who directly own software components whose codebase is not directly available internally. Collaborating with various teams, including hardware, AI/ML and UX, to deliver seamless, powerful ANPR solutions.

• Code review: participating in pair-programming, providing constructive feedback, and ensuring the quality of the code.

Education, experience, and competencies:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, IT, or computer science.

• At least 10 years of professional experience in full-stack software development.

• Languages and frameworks: front-end coding in JavaScript (Node.js, React, Angular or Vue.JS) and back-end with languages such as Python, Ruby, Java, SCALA or PHP, including frameworks such as PHP-SLIM. Any strong experience with similar microframeworks (e.g., Lumen, Silex) is a significant distinguishing factor.

• Knowledge of Visual Basic 6.0.

• Demonstrable experience with PHP frameworks and PHP codebases in general, especially for back-end scenarios. Experience with PHP frameworks (SLIM, Laravel, Symfony) is a plus.

• Familiarity with version control systems (Git, GitLab/GitHub).

• You are proficient in Vue.js and modern front-end tools (Vue CLI, Vite, Webpack).

• Database management: Demonstrable experience with PGSQL is required. Experience with both relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and non-relational databases (e.g., MongoDB) is welcome. Experience with document-oriented OpenSearch or ELK stack is highly valued.

• Strong knowledge of Linux-based environments and shell scripting.

• Familiarity with test frameworks such as SonarQube.

• Insight into development security best practices, both in Front End and Back End. Practical knowledge of JWT, OAuth2 or other modern authentication mechanisms.

• API development: some experience in designing and using RESTful APIs and/or GraphQL.

• Demonstrable experience in brokering and queueing: demonstrable experience with tools such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.

• Experience with Agile and traditional project methodologies; familiarity with JIRA and Confluence is a plus.

• Experience with (automated) code documentation generation.

• Punctual and result-oriented work.

• Good communication skills and team player.

• French or Dutch as native language, with a strong passive knowledge of the other language.

• Passive knowledge of English (reading documentation) is a plus.

Practical

• Desired start date: 1 December 2025

• Duration: until end of 2025 (extendable)

• Regime: fulltime

• Main address: Koningsstraat, 202 A – 1000 Brussels

• Work arrangement: minimum 2 days/week presence in the office, depending on tasks and agreements with the team; telework allowed at domicile or employer’s address (Belgium)

• Team: multidisciplinary, mix of internal and external staff