The Commissariat General for Refugees and Stateless Persons is a federal independent administration. The mission of the CGRS is to provide protection to individuals 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. This is a very ambitious program, consisting of a number of projects with a very tight schedule. To further shape and develop the program, we are seeking strong profiles who are willing to commit temporarily (fixed-term contracts, immediately terminable, renewable upon positive evaluation) until delivery, planned at least until the end of 2028.

One of the profiles we are looking for is an expert (10+ years of experience, mandatory) hands-on Test Engineer. By hands-on, we mean: actually having implemented, integrated, and used it oneself within the last 5 working years, and NOT: having set up, implemented, or used it by other people or teams!

We expect this person to be able, based on a test strategy and taking into account the eDossier context (cloud, APIs, zero trust, microservices, etc.), to draw up an agile operational test plan (business and technical) and to implement it themselves as automated as possible, so that the quality of our eDossier solution (software and hardware-wise) 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 job responsibilities and competencies can be found below. If you are inspired by the core mission of the CGRS and match the job responsibilities and required competencies, don't hesitate to apply.

Those looking for a purely lead and/or advisory role, please abstain. Those seeking 4 days of telework will also be disappointed with us. To foster team spirit, we require presence in the office 3 days a week. Our offices are located next to Brussels South station.

• Degree in computer science, higher education short or long type, is mandatory (diploma must be included together with CV within the Pro Unity platform)
• Continuously self-educating to stay up to date with the latest sustainable trends and innovations, focusing on cloud native engineering, development, and testing
• Hands-on experience setting up and implementing monitoring and observability of software solutions, preferably GRAFANA, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and implementing test automation, 5 years
• Hands-on programming experience with Java SE10+, 3 years
• Hands-on experience with scripting languages (Python, JavaScript), 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing API test frameworks and tools, preferably BRUNO, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing UI test frameworks and tools, preferably CYPRESS with a good knowledge of HTML DOM, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing regression and integration tests, preferably JUNIT and CUCUMBER, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing performance, stress, and load tests, preferably via JMETER and GATLING, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing E2E tests, 5 years
• Hands-on experience with build tools, preferably MAVEN, 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and implementing CI/CD pipelines and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines (preferably Azure DevOps), 5 years
• Hands-on experience setting up and executing contract testing, mocking, and service virtualization, 5 years
• Hands-on experience using SQL databases, 3 years
• Experience (co-)working within agile delivery teams, 5 years
• Ability to propose alternative solutions and formulate recommendations regarding choices to be made, 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 microservices 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 job responsibilities and client 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 required.

II. Job Responsibilities

II.a. Generic

• You possess 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 acts as a core member of a multidisciplinary and cross-functional team, with the primary motivation being the client and stakeholders
• As a Test Engineer, you contribute to achieving the team's goal. You support the CGRS in delivering quality products to our internal and external stakeholders. You work together with other engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders. Therefore, commitment to joint problem-solving, advanced design, and delivery is essential
• As an expert-level Test Engineer, you must understand the entire eDossier stack & IT-design solution so that you can advise and guide the team in designing and developing high-quality secured & 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 gathering, updating, and sharing knowledge about new tools & practices within the team

II.b. Specific (not exhaustive)

• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for developing (and adjusting) 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 performing 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. Here, automating API tests for continuous integration will be central
• 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. You will also simulate fault 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 to enable rapid feedback within the DevOps processes
• As a Test Engineer, you are responsible for co-establishing monitoring and logging of our solution within our environments (dev, test, acc)

III. The Interview

Based on the pre-selection of the Pro Unity platform, candidates are invited for an individual interview. During the interview, soft skills and motivation will be discussed, as well as the candidate's view of the position and hard skills (required competencies, level of experience, level of expertise, language proficiency).

Invitations for interviews are organized in waves/batches of maximum 5 people. If none of the candidates from a wave or batch are selected by the jury, the candidates from the next wave will be invited for an individual interview. This process is repeated until the jury has selected a candidate.