Senior Proxmox Engineer (3-month contract)

Company Description
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.
Job Description
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
Qualifications
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
Additional Information
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.
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Work arrangement
Yes