SmartSea, is ready for its next leap. Our foundations are solid — infrastructure is modernised, key platforms are live, and commercial ambitions are scaling. What we need now is a Director of Technology who can accelerate technological delivery without losing operational coherence.
This is not a maintenance role. The technology leader at SmartSea is expected to set direction, enable delivery, and build the operating rhythm between Product and Engineering. The immediate mandate is clear: ramp and optimise the ODC delivery capability, establish low-code platform standards, deliver SmartSea Vision within three years, and manage the transition away from legacy and other currently utilised systems. To be effective, the role requires explicitly defined ownership boundaries and decision rights across Product, Engineering, and the ODC model.
Mission:
Own SmartSea’s technology direction and engineering delivery, with clear decision authority across Product, Engineering, and the ODC delivery model. Govern the platform, accelerate SmartSea Vision, lead the teams, and execute the legacy systems transition cleanly — building a modern, resilient technology foundation for maritime.
Operating Model & Decision Rights:
- Product leadership: The role partners with the CEO and Product leadership to agree priorities, outcomes, and delivery milestones, and to resolve trade-offs through a defined governance cadence.
- Engineering leadership: accountable for engineering standards, architecture governance, and delivery execution across internal teams, ensuring consistent SDLC, quality, security, and operational practices.
- ODC delivery model: where the ODC operates via a partner/BOT construct, the role sets delivery expectations, metrics, and ways of working, and governs performance through agreed contractual and operational mechanisms.
- Decision rights: the role requires explicit authority for platform standards (e.g., low-code, integration, security), architecture decisions, and delivery commitments, with escalation paths defined for cross-domain dependencies.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Technology Vision & Innovation Leadership
- Define and own the technology strategy, innovation roadmap, and architectural vision for the SmartSea Vision platform, aligned to the product outcomes, delivery milestones, and platform evolution required over the next 3 years.
- Act as the technology radar for SmartSea Vision: identify emerging technologies (e.g., AI/ML, edge computing, digital twins, APIs, low-code platforms, containerisation) and assess their practical applicability to Vision use cases and the product roadmap.
- Lead Vision-focused innovation initiatives from concept through proof-of-concept, pilot, and production—prioritising speed-to-value, operability, security, and measurable user/customer impact.
- Establish and lead a Vision Architecture & Platform Governance capability (covering solution architecture, platform standards, and technical decision-making) to support consistent delivery across Vision squads and the ODC.
- Maintain a lightweight Vision technology horizon-scanning practice, translating relevant trends into platform decisions, engineering standards, and roadmap proposals for Vision governance forums (and escalating only when cross-company alignment is required).
2. SmartSea Vision Platform — Technical Delivery Ownership
- Own the SmartSea Vision platform delivery, which must be completed within 3 years. This is the primary product mandate of the Director of Technology role.
- Ensure the ODC delivery capability is ramped, stable, and aligned to SmartSea ways of working (SDLC, quality, security, DevOps) under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
- Mandate and govern our low-code platform as the primary development standard for all SmartSea Vision product delivery through the ODC.
- Ensure all product squads operate to a defined SDLC — building engineering discipline from discovery through to operate and learn from the ground up.
- Partner with Product leadership (where it sits) to align prioritisation, roadmap, and delivery cadence; establish clear interfaces and governance between Product and Engineering to remove ambiguity and accelerate execution.
- Deliver SmartSea Vision as the target platform that will progressively replace legacy systems (including transition planning, phased migration, parallel running where required, and structured decommissioning once cutover is complete).
3. Shared Services Governance
- Govern Enterprise Architecture as a shared horizontal capability — setting standards, running the Architecture Review Board (ARB), and publishing Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) consumed by all teams.
- Govern Data & Analytics as a shared platform capability — canonical data models, data quality, self-service BI, and the AI/ML roadmap serve all products and functions.
- Govern Platform & Integration as a shared engineering service — Cloud platform and direction, the the Mendix low-code platform instance, DevOps pipelines, API gateway, and developer portal are shared across all product squads.
4. Engineering Culture & Team Leadership
- Build, inspire, and retain a high-performing technology organisation — fostering a culture of curiosity, accountability, and relentless improvement.
- Develop career pathways and technical excellence programmes that attract and retain top engineering talent across the ODC and onshore teams.
- Champion psychological safety, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional collaboration between engineering, product, and commercial teams.
- Coach and develop senior engineers and architects into future technology leaders.
5. Strategic Stakeholder Engagement
- Serve as the primary technology voice in executive and board-level conversations — translating complex technical strategies into clear business outcomes.
- Represent SmartSea in external technology forums, maritime industry bodies, and internal technology governance groups.
- Build and maintain relationships with key technology vendors, ODC partners, academic partners, and maritime technology innovators.
Required Experience:
- 10+ years of progressive technology leadership, with at least 5 years in a Director of Technology, CTO, VP Engineering, or equivalent senior technology leadership role.
- Proven track record of leading technology delivery — not just managing existing platforms — with demonstrable examples of taking products from concept to commercial reality within defined timeframes.
- Experience building and scaling Agile/DevOps engineering organisations in a product-led or SaaS/PaaS environment.
- Strong architectural background spanning cloud infrastructure, API design, microservices, and distributed systems.
- Experience governing an ODC or similar remote/nearshore delivery model, ideally on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis.
- Experience with low-code or rapid application development platforms (Mendix, OutSystems, or equivalent) in a product delivery context.
- Experience managing legacy system transitions — including parallel running, data migration, and structured decommission — in a live operational environment.
- Experience in maritime, or an adjacent industry sector, or a demonstrable ability to absorb domain complexity rapidly.
- Commercial acumen: You understand how technology decisions translate into revenue, margin, and competitive positioning.
Preferred Experience:
- Exposure to maritime technology ecosystems.
- Experience with AI/ML product development.
- Board-level reporting experience and comfort operating in a matrix organisation under a global technology parent.
- Familiarity with maritime regulatory frameworks (IMO, ISPS, cybersecurity directives) or aviation IT standards.
- Familiarity with fleet management systems (AMOS, or similar vessel management platforms).
Business & Strategic
- Mapping technology to business vision & roadmap
- Digital business literacy
- Technology trendspotting
- Strategic planning & investment
- IoT data & connected systems knowledge
- ODC / offshore delivery governance
- Legacy transition & decommission planning
Behavioural
- Creative & innovative thinking
- Strategic thinking
- Conceptual thinking
- Out-of-the-box problem solving
- Decisiveness & accountability
- Communicating to technical & non-technical audiences
- Coaching, delegating & developing talent
- Influential & persuasive
- Collaboration & cross-functional teamwork
- Results orientation
Technical
- Understanding digital technologies & vendor landscape
- Designing & guiding solution development
- Applying lean startup & Agile/DevOps methods
- API, microservices & containerisation
- Digital product development & management
- Information security & cyber resilience
- EA methodologies & architecture governance
- Low-code platform governance (Mendix/OutSystems)
- Fleet management systems (AMOS or equivalent)
- Secure by design methodology considering latest cyber security frameworks
What we offer:
- Competitive salary and discretionary bonus
- Thirteen Salaries
- Pension Fund
- Medical Insurance
- Opportunities for professional growth and development
- A collaborative and innovative startup culture
SmartSea is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values a diverse workforce with many different countries and cultures represented in our business.
