Lead System Engineer

Paynovate is a Belgium based fintech with more than 80 talented employees. We’re building a company where dreams are shaped, where bold initiatives are taken, where your leadership, ownership and ability to follow-through are valued. As a growing e-money institution, we are bringing payment solutions to the next level – and you could be a part of that.

We’re in the middle of a major infrastructure evolution — moving from a traditional, bare-metal environment to a modern, scalable AWS setup. The foundations are there, the migration has begun, and now we’re looking for a technical leader who can take it further.

This role blends hands-on engineering with technical leadership: guiding a team, shaping architecture, and rolling up your sleeves to solve complex problems. You’ll be at the heart of one of our most strategic projects, helping us deliver reliable, secure, and future-ready systems in a high-stakes, regulated environment.

• Lead the AWS migration: take our mix of on-prem/data center systems and design, plan, and execute the move to AWS.
• Maintain legacy systems until their migration to the cloud.
• Be hands-on: architect, build, fix, and troubleshoot alongside the team.
• Modernize the stack: Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), Docker, AWS services, MySQL.
• Own compliance: ensure infrastructure meets PCI-DSS and National Bank of Belgium standards.
• Manage databases: backup, recovery, security, performance tuning, and optimization.
• Coach and grow: mentor junior engineers (including a talented but less experienced teammate) and help hire the next one.
• Collaborate cross-team: work with developers to design applications with scalability, reliability, and security in mind, and communicate tech clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Troubleshoot software development infrastructure issues, including build, deployment, and test failures.
• Coordinate: help prioritize and follow up on infra-related projects, oversee third-party solutions and service providers.
• Be on-call: shared 24/7 support, about 1–2 times per month.
• Document: maintain clear and structured technical records.
  

• Minimum 10 years experience in systems engineering.
  • Strong AWS experience (at scale).
  • Expertise in Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible/Incebel.
  • Strong Linux and Docker skills.
  • Proficient in Bash scripting.
  • Excellent understanding of networking
  • Balanced knowledge of on-premise and cloud infrastructure.
  • MySQL database administration (performance, backup/restore).
  • Basic knowledge of HSMs.
  • Experience operating 24/7 highly available production systems.
• Leadership skills
  • Able to coach, delegate, and make decisions.
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
  • Excellent communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Mindset: proactive, organized, communicative, team player, and comfortable stretching beyond your comfort zone.

• An amazing job in a stimulating, profitable and fast-growing sector. Payment solutions is a complex and constantly evolving field, where innovation is key.
• A role where your impact will be tangible. We are a company of owners and believe in empowering people to their full potential.
• A team of talented, motivated and thoughtful individuals, coming together as one to fulfil a common goal – delivering smart, simple and innovative solutions to our clients.
• A dynamic environment full of growth and development opportunities, where your career could take its next major turn. People are our greatest strength, and as an employer, we choose to deliver to you as much you deliver to us.
• A modern and friendly working environment, where work-life balance is enforced as a structural part of the organization (hello hybrid work!).
• And of course, a comprehensive and market-competitive salary package: 32 days holiday, mobility budget, meal vouchers, health and group insurance, phone, homeworking policy and allowance.