30-06-2026

Brussels

Senior DevOps Project Leader & Ansible Expert

Location: Ringstation II, Belgium
Start Date: 1 January 2027
Duration: Until 31 December 2031
Employment Type: Full-time
Experience: 10+ years (Expert)

About the Role

We are looking for a highly experienced Senior DevOps Project Leader & Ansible Expert to join a mission-critical ICT department responsible for the real-time management of Belgium's railway traffic.

The department develops and maintains over 20 business-critical Java applications, supporting operational railway systems such as Traffic Management, Incident Management, and Train Positioning. As the technical project leader within the DevOps team, you will combine strong project management capabilities with deep hands-on DevOps expertise, particularly in Ansible automation.

This long-term role offers the opportunity to lead complex DevOps initiatives in a highly available, safety-critical environment while working closely with multiple Scrum teams and business stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead DevOps projects from planning through delivery.

• Manage project scope, budget, timelines, quality, and risks.

• Coordinate technical analysis, development, testing, and deployment activities.

• Gather and validate business requirements for functional analysis.

• Lead multidisciplinary DevOps and Scrum teams.

• Facilitate daily stand-ups and Agile ceremonies.

• Communicate project progress to management, business stakeholders, and internal customers.

• Resolve project issues proactively while maintaining delivery timelines.

• Ensure compliance with organizational standards, procedures, and governance.

• Contribute to the quality, stability, and evolution of mission-critical applications.

• Participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation after completing the onboarding process.

Required Experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience in DevOps application projects.

• Minimum 5 years as a DevOps Project Leader.

• Minimum 5 years as Scrum Master.

• Extensive experience leading software development teams.

• Strong experience facilitating Scrum ceremonies and Agile workshops.

• Experience mentoring and coaching junior colleagues.

• Experience delivering projects in high-availability enterprise environments.

Technical Skills

DevOps & Automation

• Ansible (10+ years)

• AWX

• Jenkins and/or GitLab CI/CD

• Docker

• Kubernetes

• OpenShift

Monitoring & Operations

• ELK Stack

• Elasticsearch

• Zabbix

• Application Monitoring

• High Availability architectures

• Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)

Development & Infrastructure

• DevOps for Java applications

• Databases

• Hazelcast

• Tibco RDV

Security

• NIS2 Cybersecurity

• OpenID Connect (OIDC)

• OAuth 2.0

Agile & Project Delivery

• Scrum / Agile

• DevOps Leadership

• Jira Agile

• Confluence

• Professional Scrum Master certification

• DevOps Leader certification

Language Requirements

• Native-level Dutch or French (C2)

• Basic knowledge of the second national language (A2)

• English (C1)

Education

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in Information Technology or Computer Science.

Soft Skills

The ideal candidate is:

• An inspiring technical leader

• Strong communicator

• Highly organized and proactive

• Results-driven and quality-focused

• Comfortable working under pressure

• Skilled at stakeholder management

• A collaborative team player

• Professional and reliable

• Passionate about mentoring others

• Able to bridge business and technical teams effectively

Nice to Have

• Experience with railway or transportation systems

• Experience supporting mission-critical operational platforms

• Strong Java application ecosystem knowledge

• Experience in safety-critical or highly regulated environments

Why Join?

This is a long-term opportunity to lead the DevOps evolution of one of Belgium's most critical railway ICT environments. You'll combine strategic project leadership with deep technical expertise, working on highly available Java platforms that support the country's real-time railway operations while collaborating with experienced Agile teams and modern DevOps technologies.