Hey there! I'm Maarten, a Solution Architect who specialises in making complex enterprise systems work together without breaking. Currently at Brussels Airport Company, I focus on practical architectural solutions for operational systems.
My approach tends towards upstream problem solving: I'd rather address architectural issues before they become delivery blockers. I have a strong bias for reliable, forkable technology over whatever's trending this month, and I believe in embedding security and compliance into designs from day one rather than bolting them on later. However, my current project has taught me that this idealistic approach isn't always the realistic approach. That's where I apply my pragmatic mindset: making incremental steps in the right direction based on current possibilities whilst keeping long-term goals in mind. Sometimes the best architecture is the one that actually gets implemented.
I'm the person organisations call when their systems are a mess and they need someone to impose architectural coherence whilst still shipping features. My specialty is event-driven architecture: building robust, scalable systems using CQRS, hexagonal architecture, and other patterns that sound fancy but actually solve real problems.
I don't just draw diagrams and disappear. I implement what I design, coach teams on architectural patterns, and evangelise better ways of building software. Sometimes this means being the awkward person in the room asking why we're adding another integration layer when we could fix the underlying design.
QA Automation at VRT: Where I learnt that prevention beats detection, and that architectural thinking starts with understanding how systems fail.
DevOps at DPG Media: Designed the foundation of the new group-wide website stack and managed all business-hosted applications and websites. Also deployed the first enterprise-wide GDPR compliance tool. Nothing teaches you about data architecture like having to track every piece of personal data across dozens of legacy systems.
Cloud Architect at Telenet: Large-scale AWS migrations and dabbling in data lakes for telemetry analysis. Learning that "lift and shift" is usually neither.
Systems Integration at Bosch: Connecting SAP to OpenShift-based tools, designing API contracts that survive organisational changes, and discovering that good architecture is as much about people as it is about technology.
Solution Architect at Brussels Airport Company: Currently working on business-oriented projects, focusing on practical architectural solutions for operational systems.
These days, I'm all about finding practical solutions that survive messy organisational realities whilst maintaining technical excellence. Whether it's through personal projects or enterprise work, I'm always looking for ways to make systems more reliable, maintainable, and elegant.