Lead Technical Specialist - Manning & Automation

Career at Damen

About us

Hop aboard Damen Naval, the naval division of the family-owned Damen Shipyards Group, where 12,000 professionals work worldwide. Damen Naval delivers advanced naval vessels to clients all over the globe. By implementing the most innovative technological developments in practice, we continue to push the boundaries in the shipbuilding industry. You can be part of our team! Are you ready for duty?

The role

As the Lead Technical Specialist Manning & Automation at Damen Naval, you will drive advancements in ship automation to increase operability, support smaller crew sizes, and enhance situational awareness for naval operations. As a recognized expert, you will coordinate and execute research and technology development projects related to automation, digital twinning, system integration, and decision support systems. Your expertise will be integral to the design, proposal, and engineering phases of our shipbuilding projects.

Key accountabilities

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Lead and coordinate a team of technology specialists throughout the research, design, proposal, and engineering phases of shipbuilding projects.
• Provide expert advice in automation and systems engineering to ensure the technical performance of our Smart Ships.
• Conduct and support verification and validation tests and trials during production support and warranty periods.
• Initiate and conceptualize new automation solutions to meet future requirements and promote their application.
• Advise on project activity lists and manhour budget assignments.
• Develop and review deliverables such as functional descriptions, calculations, simulations, technical specifications, and test/validation protocols.
• Support design reviews and contribute to continuous evaluation and improvement of departmental processes and tools.
• Engage in automation design and requirements engineering with subcontractors during the basic engineering phase.
• Specify, evaluate, develop, and test integrated mission management solutions.
• Integrate existing hardware and software products, ensuring compatibility and seamless operation.
• Evaluate the technical performance of new technologies during design, engineering, production, and commissioning phases.
• Serve as a member of technical project teams, ensuring projects are completed on schedule and within budget.
• Strive for highly standardized and modularized automation solutions by defining off-the-shelf building blocks for easy integration into our vessels.
• Fulfill a consulting role for new builds and existing vessels, defining fresh or updated Manning & Automation strategies.
• Maintain strong connections with industry partners, knowledge institutes, and the Royal Netherlands Navy, actively participating in Manning & Automation projects.

Skills & experience

We are looking for candidates with the following qualifications:

• Bachelor or Master degree in a relevant technical field with at least five years of experience.
• Deep and broad theoretical knowledge of specialist subjects for naval vessels or offshore installations.
• Knowledge of commonly used agile software development processes, such as Scrum.
• Proficient in the functional design of control and monitoring systems.
• Familiar with commonly used IT architecture solutions onboard vessels, including service-oriented cloud computing solutions (virtualization, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
• Acquaintance with the latest industrial automation developments, such as the (Industrial) Internet of Things (IIoT).
• Knowledge of classification societies and their rules and regulations is a plus.
• Extensive experience in relevant fields, preferably in complex naval projects.
• Experience in cooperating and communicating with research institutes, universities, vendors, and subcontractors.
• Independent, practical, customer-oriented thinker with excellent communication skills.
• Good command of the Dutch and English language both written and verbal.
• Excellent references, as a security screening is part of the hiring process.
• Permanent EU citizenship and passport are both required. Candidates with EU (work) visa or with both an EU and non-EU nationality and/or passport are not eligible in accordance with the requirements imposed by the military nature of our projects.

What we offer

At Damen Naval, we highly value our employees, and we will support your professional and personal development. We also provide our employees with:

• A competitive salary and 8% holiday pay.
• 27 holidays and 13 ADV days.
• Travel allowance of 23 cents per kilometre.
• PME-pension arrangement with an employer contribution of 60%.
• Profit sharing based on company results.
• Flexibility to work from home up to two days a week.
• Additional benefits including a bicycle plan and company fitness.

Why Damen?

Damen has 35 shipyards on five different continents and operates in more than 100 countries. You contribute to this growth while benefitting from the diverse development and career opportunities that our company offers. We will continue to challenge you. With our extensive portfolio of products and solutions you will never get bored and never stop learning. We offer you a world of possibilities. Working at Damen means contributing to the highest quality in shipbuilding, with an eye to the future and future generations. We want to make the world a better place by becoming the most sustainable maritime solution provider. For that, we need you. Become part of our family.