Senior Application Software Engineer

Are you passionate about building automation-first software engineering platforms that help teams ship reliably and safely? Do you enjoy designing CI/CD pipelines, workflow orchestration, and developer experience that turn complex R&D into repeatable, production-grade delivery? Then you might be the Senior Application Software Engineer who will join us in Leuven, Ghent or Antwerp!

Who we are

Within imec, the Software Development & Prototyping (SD&P) department focuses on designing, developing, and prototyping innovative software solutions that enable, accelerate or even define imec’s R&D activities in various areas. SD&P is home to ~40 software engineers, working out of Belgium and the Netherlands. We have teams specializing in “full-stack” (web/mobile) applications, cloud-based data/compute platforms, and embedded software. SD&P-built solutions range from exploratory PoC’s and demonstrators on one end, to production-ready business critical systems on the other.

What you will do

Your primary assignment will be to play a key role in our efforts to build robust, scalable, secure software systems with an emphasis on automation of software delivery and operations. You’ll help us make engineering outcomes repeatable: from commit to production, from experiment to reliable service, and from manual processes to automated workflows.

Depending on the project, your work may involve:

1. Build automation-first delivery foundations

• Design, implement, and evolve CI/CD pipelines that make building, testing, scanning, and deploying software fast and trustworthy.
• Automate release workflows (versioning, artifact management, promotion across environments) and establish quality gates that ensure consistent delivery.
• Drive “pipeline as product” thinking: reusable templates, golden paths, and self-service tooling for engineering teams.

2. Workflow orchestration & system automation

• Engineer workflow orchestration for complex processes and integrations: reliable job execution, retries, observability, and state management across systems.
• Collaborate with domain experts to translate R&D processes into automated, auditable, and maintainable workflows.
• Improve operational robustness through automation (e.g., automated rollbacks, environment provisioning, and operational runbooks-as-code).

3. Modern cloud-native engineering (built for automation)

• Implement and optimize containerization strategies and cloud deployments that are reproducible and automation-friendly.
• Contribute to architectural decisions, ensuring scalability, security, resilience, and “operability by default.”
• Strengthen automation around infrastructure and deployment patterns so teams can ship with confidence.

4. Full-stack delivery, quality & team impact

• Develop and maintain fullstack applications, from robust backend services to intuitive frontend interfaces — while embedding automation and quality throughout the SDLC.
• Drive software quality: clean, testable, maintainable code; pragmatic testing strategies; strong review culture.
• Mentor and guide team members, sharing knowledge on modern engineering, automation, and DevOps practices.

Moreover, as Senior Software Engineer within SD&P, you may also contribute to software engineering projects that enable other R&D activities at imec, in domains such as Health, Automotive, Industry & Consumer, and IC design/manufacturing services.

What we do for you

We offer you the opportunity to join one of the world’s premier research centers in nanotechnology at its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. With your talent, passion and expertise, you’ll become part of a team that makes the impossible possible. Together, we shape the technology that will determine the society of tomorrow.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and proud of our open, multicultural, and informal working environment with ample possibilities to take initiative and show responsibility. We commit to supporting and guiding you in this process; not only with words but also with tangible actions. Through imec.academy, 'our corporate university', we actively invest in your development to further your technical and personal growth.

We are aware that your valuable contribution makes imec a top player in its field. Your energy and commitment are therefore appreciated by means of a market appropriate salary with many fringe benefits.

Who you are

We are looking for an experienced Software Engineer who thrives on tough technical challenges and approaches them with a combination of deeply understood first principles and pragmatically applied best practices. We imagine an ideal candidate to roughly have these skills:

Must-haves (essential skills):

• Senior-level software engineering experience in a professional context, including architectural responsibility and demonstrated ownership of substantial systems.
• Master or PhD degree in Computer Science (or related), or proven equivalent track record.
• Proven ability to design and deliver automation that scales:
• CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices (e.g., GitHub Actions or similar) — designing for reliability, speed, and security.
• Workflow orchestration and automation of complex, multi-step processes and integrations.
• Proven experience designing, implementing & delivering scalable, production-grade applications (full-stack and/or cloud services).
• Strong programming skills in Python, TypeScript, Go, Kotlin, or similar modern languages.
• Solid experience with:
• Data modelling and system integration.
• Containerization (i.e. Docker) and orchestration technologies (i.e. Kubernetes).
• Cloud infrastructure and ecosystems (such as Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Strong engineering fundamentals: clean architecture, testing strategies, version control, peer code reviews.
• Have a well-defined understanding and practical experience using agentic workflows to automate parts of the software development lifecycle
• Comfortable working in a multidisciplinary, multicultural team.
• English proficiency (professional level) / Dutch is nice-to-have.

If you do not fully match this description but still think you have what it takes to fit our needs: don’t worry, get in touch and convince us!