Head of Design & Engineering

Job Description

Sea Kit is seeking an experienced Head of Design & Engineering to lead its multidisciplinary engineering function for uncrewed surface vessels (USVs). In this role, you will oversee mechanical, electrical and control engineering, ensuring that innovative concepts evolve into reliable, certifiable and scalable offshore products. This role encompasses the engineering of the USV platform, its sensor suite and its payload deployment systems. You will work closely with software development teams and senior technical specialists, including the Lead System Engineer USVs, who owns system architecture and integration. Your leadership ensures that engineering outputs-and their interfaces with software-meet regulatory requirements, support production, and enable long-term platform stability.

Your role

As Head of Design & Engineering, you will be responsible for shaping, governing and delivering Sea Kit's engineering capability. In this role:

• You lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary engineering team across mechanical, electrical and control domains
• You define, prioritise and track engineering deliverables across the product life cycle and ensure timely delivery of engineering outputs and software specifications
• You build a well‑structured engineering organisation with clear ownership of interfaces and systems engineering discipline
• You establish and maintain engineering processes, standards and design assurance for offshore equipment by implementing Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) strategies, processes and standards tailored to USV hardware and integration
• You define and maintain system and software requirements, specifications and interface definitions, ensuring strong collaboration with software teams
• You ensure compliance with marine and offshore regulations, class rules and certification requirements
• You lead design reviews, technical risk management, change control and configuration management
• You provide strategic technical direction for design, development, integration and improvement, and drive platform‑based engineering from early design stages to ensure innovations are translated into producible, maintainable and operationally reliable assets
• You work in close partnership with the Lead System Engineer USVs on system architecture and integration
• You support integration and testing stages to achieve operational readiness through clear requirements and acceptance criteria
• You represent Design & Engineering in management discussions and engage with suppliers, shipyards and certification bodies

Your track record

You bring a strong engineering background, proven leadership and the ability to operate in a fast‑moving offshore environment. We are looking for someone who offers:

• You hold a degree in Marine Engineering, Offshore Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline
• You bring a proven background in the marine offshore domain, including equipment development and realisation
• You have leadership experience in complex, multidisciplinary engineering organisations
• You have experience working within regulatory and certification frameworks
• You operate as a pragmatic, hands‑on leader with strong decision‑making skills
• You navigate real‑world challenges and ambiguities in safety‑critical environments
• You manage stakeholders effectively across operations, production, software, HSE and procurement
• You ideally bring experience with USVs, autonomy, robotics or advanced offshore systems

What Fugro offers

• A competitive salary
• A company car or a mobility allowance
• A bonus, the allocation if which is determined based on carefully established guidelines within Fugro
• 29 holidays per year based on a fulltime employment (of which 4 are appointed by Fugro management) and the possibility to purchase 12 additional days
• Extensive career & training opportunities both nationally and internationally
• Flexible working hours and the ability to work from home in accordance with your manager and corporate policies
• Modern pension scheme
• Collective health insurance
• Possibility to register with our corporate fitness plan
• Coaching options through our EAP (Employee Assistance Program)