Senior Platform Engineer | Diegem, Belgium | Full time | Hybrid | Permanent

How Will We Deploy the Next Generation of ILIAS Products?

Our software can operate in isolated or fully air-gapped defense environments, where remote access becomes extremely limited after installation. Product updates still need to be deployed reliably and securely, without depending on manual intervention.

That is the challenge you will help us solve.

Today, ILIAS products run on Docker Swarm. We are now designing and building a new Kubernetes-based platform for the next generation of ILIAS products.

You join while that foundation is still taking shape. Together with the team, you help shape cluster design, networking, storage, RBAC and multi tenancy, while keeping today's environment healthy.

Build what comes next while understanding what needs to keep running today.

Meaningful Work

The Technology Behind Readiness

ILIAS helps defense organizations connect operations, maintenance, logistics, training and configuration to understand and prepare their operational readiness.

Your work sits underneath that capability. The Kubernetes foundation you help build will support how ILIAS products run, recover and remain secure across different defense environments.

What you build at platform level helps ILIAS support readiness at operational level.

You combine architecture with deep technical ownership.

You work across Kubernetes, Linux, Docker, Docker Swarm, networking, storage, RBAC, observability, capacity, backup and recovery. GitOps and automation make changes reproducible, traceable and reversible.

When something behaves unexpectedly, you follow the problem through the technical stack until you understand the cause. Building the architecture is only part of the job. You need to understand it deeply enough to keep it healthy in production.

Security is part of that thinking from the start. Identity, secrets management, policy enforcement, SBOMs, signing and provenance contribute to a trusted and auditable software delivery chain.

You also create guardrails and automation that allow engineering teams to take ownership themselves. A strong foundation should enable teams rather than make you their gatekeeper.

Build it. Understand it. Keep it alive.

What You Bring

You have built Kubernetes environments from scratch and operated them in production.

You know what happens when architecture becomes reality because you have owned systems when they worked and when they did not.

You bring:

• Deep, hands-on Kubernetes expertise
• Strong Linux knowledge
• Deep experience with Docker and Docker Swarm
• Experience moving containerized workloads towards Kubernetes
• Advanced troubleshooting across the technical stack
• GitOps and infrastructure automation experience
• Production ownership, including observability, upgrades, backup and recovery
• Strong system thinking
• Experience in regulated or security-sensitive environments

Experience with air-gapped infrastructure, accreditation, defense, government, STIG or FIPS adds valuable context.

Our environment includes technologies such as Keycloak, OpenBao, Mend, SonarQube, Nexus, PostgreSQL, MinIO and Apache Spark. Experience with some of them will make it easier to get started, but we don't expect you to know them all.

What matters most is your in-depth knowledge of Kubernetes, your ability to understand the complete system, your experience in demanding environments and the way you work with others.

You join while important engineering decisions are still ahead.

That gives you the opportunity to help shape the Kubernetes foundation, bring it into production and see how your choices perform in real operational environments.

You work across architecture, engineering, operations and security. Along the way, you gain experience with technical challenges ranging from cloud infrastructure to isolated defense environments where remote access can be extremely limited.

As part of Patria Group, ILIAS combines the focus of a specialized defense software company with the reach of an international defense and technology organization.

As the foundation develops, your experience and influence can grow with it.

Build the foundation while helping shape what comes next.

Contact

Some of the most interesting engineering work happens while the architecture is still taking shape. Want to understand more about the current Docker Swarm environment, what still needs to be built or how this technology supports ILIAS products?
Feel free to contact [email protected] for more context or questions about the role.