Robbe recently joined Essensium as a Portal Engineer. After gaining experience at companies outside Belgium, he was looking for an opportunity closer to home, and found it here. He was drawn to Essensium’s collaborative culture and the variety the role has to offer, working across the entire stack on the portal used by both customers and project engineers. Outside of work, Robbe is a passionate football fan.
We’re very happy to have him on board!
Why did you choose Essensium?
Having worked for companies outside Belgium over the last few years, I was looking for an opportunity closer to home. Essensium stood out immediately. As a smaller company, it offers something very special: the chance to genuinely get to know your colleagues, collaborate closely across teams, and see the direct impact of your own work. That kind of visibility and connection matters to me.
The role itself also sounded very interesting. The variety it offers across different projects, tools, and challenges is exactly the kind of environment where I know I learn and grow fastest.
Can you tell us a bit about your responsibilities?
I joined the Portal Team as a Software Engineer. My main responsibility is contributing to the development and maintenance of the portal used by customers and project engineers. This involves working across the full development cycle, from implementing new features and improving existing functionality to fixing bugs and ensuring the platform remains stable and reliable.
Day to day, I collaborate closely with colleagues across the team to understand what users need and translate that into practical solutions. It’s a role that requires both technical focus and a good sense of the bigger picture, which keeps the work varied and engaging.
What’s the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is being able to solve real-world problems that actually make a difference for the people using the portal every day. As a Portal Engineer, I get to work across the entire stack, including the backend, frontend, and database. This means no two days look quite the same. I really enjoy that variety. It allows me to work on different types of challenges, keeping me sharp and pushing me to think across different layers of a system.
That tangible impact is also what makes the technical challenges feel worthwhile.
What are the biggest challenges in your work?
As someone who recently joined the team, one of the biggest challenges is getting familiar fast with the existing systems, architecture, and database design. The portal has a lot of moving parts, and understanding how everything connects takes time. You want to contribute meaningfully from day one, but you also have to invest in that foundational knowledge first. Finding the right balance between the two is a challenge in itself.
Which things are on your bucket list – what do you absolutely want to have done?
One of my hobbies is playing poker, and if there’s one bucket list item I keep coming back to, it’s competing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Every year in July, players from around the world gather there and the idea of sitting down at one of those tables someday is something I find genuinely exciting.
What do you do in your free time?
I’m a big football fan. I follow it throughout the year and I also play myself in a small indoor football team, which is a great way to unwind and stay active.
With the World Cup coming up soon, the excitement is definitely building. I’ll certainly be watching as many matches as I can.