Principal Systems Engineer (Architecture, Network Design and SATCOM) for NATO with security clearance
WLG Braine-l'Alleud, Wallonia, Belgium
Financial Services · 2-10 employees
About the role
Lead the development and architecture of complex, mobile communications solutions including satellite and wireless systems. Manage technical standards, project requirements, and cross-functional stakeholder communication to ensure stable and compliant system designs.
What they look for
Requirements
Requires a Master's degree with five years of experience or a Bachelor's with eight years in a related discipline. Candidates must hold a valid security clearance, be a citizen of a NATO member country, and possess expertise in architecture frameworks and deployable CIS technologies.
Full description
A NATO organisation in Braine-l'Alleud is looking for a principal solution engineerto lead the architecture of complex communications solutions — the deployable, dispersible andhighly mobile kind, where power, wireless and satellite all have to work together in the field.This is a senior post: you would set the standards other projects build to.
What you would be doing
- Leading the development of architectures for complex solutions and keeping them consistentwith agreed requirements.
- Setting the policies, principles and practices for selecting solution architecturecomponents.
- Managing trade-offs between functional, service quality and systems management requirements,and communicating the decisions to stakeholders.
- Coordinating the target architecture across several projects at once, keeping the designstable and standards-compliant.
- Driving scoping, requirements definition and prioritisation on large initiatives —establishing baselines, negotiating competing priorities, and managing changes properly.
- Setting systems development policy and making security and privacy integral to it, andmanaging the resources, technical, financial and quality targets across all stages.
- Producing or approving network architectures, topologies and configuration databases, andspecifying design parameters for connectivity, capacity, speed, interfacing, security andaccess.
- Assessing network risk and specifying recovery routines and contingency procedures, withdesign views for each stakeholder group.
What they are looking for
- A Master's degree in a related discipline with five years of relevant experience, or aBachelor's with eight.
- Proven experience leading teams of technical staff.
- Current and future deployable, dispersible and highly mobile CIS technologies.
- Design and systems integration experience covering AC power distribution, emergencygeneration and fuel storage, and UPS.
- A good grasp of wireless technologies including satellite communications.
- Architecture modelling languages — UML, SysML or ArchiMate — preferablyinside an architecture framework (NAFv4, TOGAF, DODAF, Zachman) and model-based systemsengineering.
- Quality assurance practice, and solid experience developing, implementing, fielding, testingand maintaining modern communications equipment.
- ITIL Foundation and PRINCE2 Foundation (or an equivalent project managementcertification such as PMP).
Nice to have
- NATO Architecture Framework version 4, and Federated Mission Networking applied in servicedesign.
- PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent, and ArchiMate or TOGAF certification.
- An international environment with both military and civilian colleagues.
Practical detail
- Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium — full time on site, normal office environment, withtemporary duty to other NATO sites in Belgium one to two times a month.
- 28 September to 30 December 2026, 488 hours in total.
- Graded at the equivalent of NATO G20.
- You must hold a valid clearance and be a citizen of a NATO member country with the right towork in Belgium.
If you have taken deployable communications from a requirement to something that actually worksin the field, this is a role with real scope.