The Commissariat General for Refugees and Stateless Persons is a federal independent administration. The mission of the CGVS is to provide protection to individuals who, if returned to their country of origin, would be at risk of persecution or serious harm. In accordance with Belgian, European, and international standards, the CGVS examines each application for international protection on an individual, objective, and impartial basis.

Within the CGVS, a modernization trajectory has been launched, translated into the eDossier program. It is a very ambitious program, consisting of several 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 2027.

One of the profiles we are seeking is an expert (10+ years of experience, mandatory) hands-on Test Engineer. We expect this person to be capable of, based on a test strategy and taking into account the eDossier context (cloud, APIs, zero trust, micro services, etc.), creating an agile operational test plan (business and technical) and implementing it as automated as possible, so that the quality of our eDossier solution (software and hardware) cannot be questioned by internal and/or external stakeholders. You will form a team with other experienced, highly competent, and motivated individuals.

A description of the tasks and required competencies follows below. If you are drawn to the core mission of the CGVS and match the tasks and required competencies, do not hesitate to apply.

If you are looking for a purely lead and/or advisory role, please refrain from applying. The emphasis is on analysis, design, and implementation. If you are looking for four days of telework, you will also be disappointed with us. To foster team spirit and the startup of initiatives, we require attendance at the office three days a week. Our offices are located next to Brussels South station.

• Degree, preferably in IT higher education short or long type, obtained from a recognized European college or university, is mandatory (diploma must be included with CV within the Pro Unity platform)
• Continuously self-educating to stay up to date with the latest sustainable trends and innovations, with a focus on cloud native engineering, development, and testing
• 10 years hands-on experience with testing software solutions
• 5 years hands-on experience with testing cloud (native) software solutions, preferably within the Azure Cloud
• 3 years hands-on experience with TDD
• 3 years hands-on experience with monitoring and observability of software solutions, preferably GRAFANA
• 5 years hands-on experience with test automation
• 5 years hands-on experience with java SE
• 3 years hands-on experience with java SE10+
• 5 years hands-on experience with python and javascript
• 3 years hands-on experience with bash and/or powershell
• 5 years hands-on experience with API test frameworks and tools, preferably BRUNO
• 5 years hands-on experience with UI test frameworks and tools, preferably CYPRESS with a good knowledge of html dom
• 5 years hands-on experience with unit, regression, and integration testing, preferably JUNIT and CUCUMBER
• 5 years hands-on experience with performance, stress, and load testing, preferably using JMETER and GATLING
• 5 years hands-on experience with version management, pull requests, and code quality tools
• 5 years hands-on experience with E2E testing
• 3 years hands-on experience with security testing
• 5 years hands-on experience with build tools, preferably MAVEN
• 3 years hands-on experience with integrating tests in CI/CD pipelines (preferably Azure DevOps)
• 3 years hands-on experience with contract testing, mocking, and service virtualization
• 3 years hands-on experience with using NoSQL databases
• 5 years experience with (collaborative) working within agile delivery teams
• Ability to propose alternative solutions and make recommendations regarding choices, taking the full context into account
• Good listener, flexible attitude, and able to communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience with design/definition and development of APIs is an asset
• Experience with development and integration of micro services is an asset
• Experience with software design (cloud, API, microservice, event) is an asset
• Experience with event driven architecture and systems is an asset
• Knowledge of Event Driven and/or Behavioral Driven Development is an asset
• Knowledge of Domain Driven Design is an asset
• Knowledge of existing building blocks and services within the federal government context is an asset

I. Languages

Due to the nature of the tasks and the customer base (bilingual working 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 necessary.

II. Task Package

II.a. Generic

• You have a broad and diverse set of competencies that enable you to determine, design, implement, and manage the quality level of IT solutions
• You are an energetic Test Engineer with a passion for IT and a positive can-do mentality. You are a team player who works as a core member of a multidisciplinary and cross-functional team with the primary drive being the customer and stakeholders
• As a Test Engineer, you contribute to achieving the team's goal. You support the CGVS in delivering quality products to our internal and external stakeholders. You work together with other engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders. Therefore, a commitment to joint problem-solving, advanced design, and delivery is essential.
• As a Test Engineer, expert level, you must understand the entire eDossier stack & IT-design solution so that you can advise and guide the team in the design and development of high-quality, secure & robust solutions
• You use your technical expertise and experience to contribute to all sprint events (planning, refinements, retrospectives, demos)
• You continuously develop your own expertise while collecting, updating, and disseminating knowledge about new tools & practices within the team

II.b. Specific (non-exhaustive)

• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for the development (and adjustment) of an approach plan for testing within our eDossier solution, as well as for its operationalization
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for functional testing: validating the business logic in microservices and APIs, testing data integrity, and E2E testing of user flows
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for API testing: validation of API contracts (openAPI) and testing for functionality, performance, security, and compatibility between microservices and external systems. Automating API tests for continuous integration will be central here
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for integration testing: testing the interaction between microservices and COTS components, as well as with external APIs and adapters. Here, you also simulate error scenarios to test the durability of the system
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for security testing within a context where authentication, authorization, and encryption are central
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for performance and scalability testing of the microservices and APIs, and the solution as a whole
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for developing and maintaining automated test suites in the CI/CD pipelines so that rapid feedback within the devops processes becomes possible
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for co-establishing monitoring and logging of our solution within our environments (dev, test, acc)