[MSO] Senior Proxmox Engineer (3-month contract)

Software Mind develops solutions that make an impact for companies around the globe. Tech giants & unicorns, transformative projects, emerging technologies and limitless opportunities - these are a few words that describe an average day for us. Building cross-functional engineering teams that take ownership and crave more means we’re always on the lookout for talented people who bring passion and creativity to every project. Our culture embraces openness, acts with respect, shows grit & guts and combines employment with enjoyment.

Project - the aim you’ll have

We are looking for a Proxmox Engineer to join a Dutch engineering team delivering private cloud services to government and regulated-market customers in the Netherlands. The client is a managed services provider operating that platform.

This is a three-month full-time assignment with the possibility of extension. The purpose of the role is to verify that the client’s Proxmox environments - the out-of-band environment and the environment supporting the OpenStack platform - are correctly configured and built according to good practice, to bring them to a stable state, and to transfer that knowledge to the engineers who will operate them afterwards.

The assignment runs in three phases. First, an assessment of the current state of the environments: how they are built and configured, where the gaps and risks are, and what needs to change. Second, stabilisation: correcting the findings and verifying that the sizing matches the actual and expected load, so that the platform behaves predictably rather than only until it is pushed. Third, working alongside the operational engineer who will run the environment, so that the knowledge is transferred through practical day-to-day work rather than a document handover.

Role - how you’ll contribute

• Assess the existing Proxmox VE environments - cluster configuration, storage, networking, HA, backup - against good practice, and document what you find
• Identify configuration gaps, single points of failure and operational risks, and propose concrete remediation
• Verify sizing and capacity against the actual and expected load, and say clearly where the environment will not hold
• Implement the agreed corrections and improvements, and confirm they work
• Validate backup and restore, including whether recovery actually works end to end
• Work with the OpenStack team to make sure the Proxmox layer supports what the platform above it needs
• Produce documentation and runbooks that someone else can work from
• Work alongside the client’s operational engineer, transferring knowledge through shared day-to-day work
• Report progress and findings directly to the client’s engineers and managers in the Netherlands

Expectations - the experience you need

• 10+ years in IT infrastructure and virtualisation, including at least 2 years with Proxmox VE in production
• Strong hands-on experience with Proxmox VE in production, including cluster setup, configuration and upgrades
• Experience with the storage layer behind Proxmox and an understanding of its performance characteristics
• Linux system administration at an advanced level (Debian-based distributions in particular)
• Networking in a virtualisation context - bridges, bonds, VLANs, SDN - and the ability to troubleshoot across compute, storage and network together rather than within a single layer
• Capacity and performance analysis: able to judge whether an environment is correctly sized for its load, and to back that judgement with data rather than impression
• Backup and restore in a production environment, including verifying that restores work
• Scripting for automation (Bash, Python or Ansible)
• Experience assessing an environment you did not build and documenting the findings in a form the client can act on
• English at C1 - the working language with the client

How you work with others:

• Works independently from an open-ended question: you will not be given a task list. You are expected to decide what needs checking, in what order, and to say what you found
• Communicates findings in a way the client can act on, including the uncomfortable ones - if the sizing is wrong or the configuration is unsafe, you say so plainly and early
• Separates what is critical from what is nice to have, and can justify the priority
• Teaches rather than just does: the operational engineer working alongside you should be able to run the environment after you leave
• Keeps people informed: says where something stands, flags a delay early, and does not let a problem go quiet
• Builds working relationships at a distance - most contact with the Dutch team is remote, so trust comes from reliability and clear communication rather than corridor conversations

Additional skills - the edge you have

• OpenStack - understanding of how it uses the infrastructure underneath it
• Experience with other virtualisation platforms (VMware, KVM/libvirt) and with migrations between them
• Ceph at scale
• Infrastructure as code (Ansible, Terraform)
• Experience working in a regulated or government environment
• Any level of Dutch

What we offer:

• Flexible and remote cooperation options
• International projects with leading global clients
• Travels related to international projects
• Non-corporate atmosphere
• Access* to language classes
• Access* to knowledge-sharing initiatives
• Access* to private healthcare and life insurance
• Access* to multisport card

*The availability and terms of individual benefits may vary depending on the chosen form of cooperation.