Senior Test Engineer | ThoughtLabs Belgium | Strasbourg, France

Position Summary

ThoughtLabs Belgium is seeking an experienced, highly technical, and accomplished Senior Test Engineer with extensive automation, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps testing expertise to join our EU institutions framework client engagement team on a 220-day contract basis in Strasbourg, France (Onsite; European Citizens or Freelancers Only). In this specialized testing and infrastructure validation role, you will spearhead designing, implementing, and executing automated test frameworks for complex cloud platforms, virtualized environments, and hybrid operating systems. You will work closely with system architects, DevOps engineers, and EU institutional stakeholders to guarantee robust system reliability, change management compliance, and continuous deployment quality. Ideal candidates bring a robust academic degree in computer science or engineering, deep practical mastery of Python, PowerShell, Bash, Ansible, Terraform, VMware vSphere, and immediate availability for deployment in Strasbourg.

Detailed Job Description

As a Senior Test Engineer at ThoughtLabs Belgium in Strasbourg, France, you will take full ownership of automated testing, infrastructure validation, environment provisioning verification, and release quality assurance across European institutional projects. Your day-to-day responsibilities encompass authoring robust automation scripts in Python, PowerShell, or Bash, validating infrastructure-as-code deployments utilizing Ansible and Terraform/VMware Aria Automation, testing virtualized workloads on VMware vSphere across Windows Server and Red Hat Linux platforms, and ensuring seamless cloud integration across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud environments. You will enforce ITIL and Change Management compliance protocols and collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering squads to resolve integration defects. Working in a fast-paced European institutional consulting environment, you will drive testing excellence and infrastructure stability.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, execute, and maintain comprehensive automated test suites for cloud infrastructure and platform deployments.
• Author robust automation scripts, test frameworks, and validation utilities utilizing Python, PowerShell, or Bash.
• Validate configuration management, automated provisioning, and orchestration playbooks built with Ansible.
• Test and verify infrastructure-as-code (IaC) modules and automated workflows utilizing Terraform or VMware Aria Automation.
• Perform rigorous systems testing, performance benchmarking, and workload verification across VMware vSphere virtualized environments.
• Validate multi-cloud architectures, resource allocation, and security baselines across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform.
• Execute functional, regression, and integration testing across Windows Server and Red Hat Linux enterprise operating systems.
• Enforce ITIL best practices, structured change management protocols, and quality assurance compliance standards.
• Collaborate proactively with DevOps engineers, cloud architects, and European institutional project stakeholders.
• Maintain comprehensive technical documentation, test execution reports, traceability matrices, and defect logs.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline.
• Minimum 5+ years of professional experience in software testing, cloud infrastructure validation, or DevOps engineering.
• Strong programming proficiency in Python, PowerShell, or Bash for test automation and scripting.
• Deep technical expertise in configuration management and automation utilizing Ansible.
• Practical hands-on experience validating infrastructure-as-code utilizing Terraform or VMware Aria Automation.
• Extensive operational knowledge of VMware vSphere virtualization platforms, Windows Server, and Red Hat Linux operating systems.
• Proven experience testing multi-cloud deployments across Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud platforms.
• Strong understanding of ITIL frameworks, change management protocols, and European institutional standards.
• Mandatory European Citizenship or Freelancer status with availability for onsite contract employment in Strasbourg, France (220 days contract)

Nice-to-Have-Skills

• Professional certifications such as ISTQB Advanced Test Automation Engineer, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer, or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).
• Hands-on experience with containerization tools (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipeline automation (GitLab CI, Jenkins).
• Prior working experience supporting European Union (EU) institutions, agencies, or international public sector clients.
• Advanced knowledge of