Head of Technical

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Head of Technical is the most senior shore-based technical authority, accountable for the material integrity, reliability, regulatory compliance and operational availability of the fleet.

This is not a maintenance-administration role, a vessel-level superintendent post, or a scheduling desk. It formalizes the technical function as a standing executive capability. The role carries a standing authority to withhold a vessel from service, or to require rectification before release, when material condition or statutory status requires it — exercised in consultation with Operations and Commercial, and not subordinate to commercial pressure.

The Head of Technical holds the Company's engineering judgment. Every vessel released to service, every survey certified, and every Rupiah of technical spend rests on that judgment. The role balances engineering judgment against commercial discipline, statutory compliance against operational availability, and preventive maintenance against lifecycle economics.

TECHNICAL DOMAINS IN SCOPE

The mandate is fleet-wide and lifecycle-wide — because a docking decision is simultaneously a compliance decision, an availability decision, and a cost decision.

•      Reliability and maintenance — planned maintenance system ownership, condition monitoring, the critical-equipment register, spare-gear strategy, and root-cause discipline on every failure

•      Dry-docking and surveys — the multi-year docking plan, specification and yard selection, attendance, sea trials, delivery and post-docking close-out

•      Class and flag compliance — statutory certification, conditions of class, survey planning, flag State liaison, and the technical interface to the safety management system

•      Retrofit and environmental compliance — ballast water treatment, energy-efficiency and carbon-intensity obligations, hull coatings, and readiness for the forward regulatory agenda

•      Technical budget and procurement — technical opex and capex, repair-versus-replace judgment, technical specification, and lifecycle cost

•      Vessel performance and energy efficiency — fuel and lubricant consumption, main-engine load trend, hull and propeller condition, and execution of the ship energy-efficiency plan

•      Emergency technical response — breakdown recovery, casualty, salvage and pollution interfaces

WHAT YOU WILL DELIVER

You will be evaluated on the condition and availability of the asset base, not on activity completed.

Fleet reliability and availability

•      Own the planned maintenance system and the condition-monitoring programme across the fleet — vibration, lubricating oil analysis, thermography, consumption trending

•      Maintain the critical-equipment register and match spare-gear and redundancy strategy to operational risk

•      Direct breakdown response — riding crews, superintendent attendance, in-water survey and salvage interfaces — so vessels return to service with the least off-hire achievable

•      Institutionalize root-cause analysis so every technical failure yields a documented preventive action

Dry-docking, surveys and statutory compliance

•      Deliver scheduled dockings, intermediate and special surveys on time and within budget, from specification and yard tender through attendance, sea trials and close-out

•      Act as lead interface with classification societies and the flag State for all statutory surveys, certificates and conditions of class

•      Keep class and statutory documentation complete and current for every vessel

Technical cost and lifecycle economics

•      Own the technical operating and capital budget and steward spend against agreed envelopes

•      Set technical specifications and partner with Procurement on cost, quality and lead-time discipline

•      Bring repair-versus-replace and renewal decisions forward with a lifecycle cost case, not a single-year cost case

Vessel performance and environmental compliance

•      Drive continuous efficiency improvement across consumption, engine load trend, and hull and propeller condition

•      Deliver retrofit and environmental compliance projects ahead of regulatory deadlines

•      Maintain the fleet's carbon-intensity standing and execute the ship energy-efficiency plan in full

Technical capability and succession

•      Build and develop the shore technical team and define the competence framework for technical roles

•      Maintain an identified successor and a documented development plan for every superintendent position

•      Exercise technical authority over vessel commanders in a way that raises engineering standards afloat

THREE HORIZONS

The role holds all three at once, with progress demonstrable on each:

•      Immediate — safe operation and availability today: vessels on hire, defects contained, no overdue critical work

•      Annual — the maintenance, survey and budget cycle: docking plan delivered, certificates current, spend within envelope

•      Multi-year — asset life, renewal and the regulatory horizon: lifecycle plan agreed, retrofits ahead of deadline, renewal case prepared

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITY

At executive level

•      Lead the technical function and set the engineering standards the Company operates to

•      Own the technical budget and the multi-year docking and capital plan, jointly baselined with Finance

•      Sponsor docking, retrofit and compliance projects from specification through close-out

•      Present fleet condition, technical risk and capital requirements to the President Director and the Board

Across the executive team

•      Operations — vessel availability, voyage feasibility, planned off-hire windows

•      Commercial — on-hire performance, charterer technical requirements and vetting

•      Finance — investment discipline, lifecycle cost, return on technical capital

•      Procurement — technical specification, sourcing, quality and lead time

•      Safety and environment — the interface with the Designated Person Ashore

•      Crewing and People and Organization — competence of engineers afloat and the technical career ladder ashore

Fleet-wide authority

•      Holds technical authority over Masters and Chief Engineers on technical matters

•      Serves in the emergency response organisation and leads the technical workstream during any casualty

•      Builds a repeatable technical capability, not a sequence of recovered breakdowns

REPORTING

•      Reports to the President Director

•      Member of the senior leadership team; reports to the Board on fleet condition, technical risk and capital requirements

•      Direct reports: Technical Superintendents and technical support

•      External interface: classification societies, flag State authorities, shipyards, OEMs, H&M and P&I underwriters and surveyors, naval architects and marine consultants, and charterers' technical representatives

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Experience

•      A substantial maritime career, with a material period in shore-based technical management of a commercial fleet

•      Command of the statutory framework — SOLAS, MARPOL, MLC and the ISM Code — together with classification society rules and the environmental regulatory agenda

•      Hands-on dry-docking and retrofit project management, with proven on-time and on-budget delivery

•      A demonstrated record of leading superintendents and of engaging classification societies, flag authorities, OEMs and shipyards

Qualifications

•      Degree in marine engineering or naval architecture; postgraduate qualification in shipping, maritime management or business an advantage

•      Senior certificate of competency at Chief Engineer level strongly preferred

•      Auditor certification for safety management and quality systems, dry-docking and repair management, and a project management qualification expected

•      Condition-based monitoring, incident investigation and energy-efficiency training preferred

Capabilities

•      Sound engineering judgment under commercial and time pressure

•      Command of technical budgeting, lifecycle cost and investment appraisal

•      Fluency in planned-maintenance and fleet-management platforms, and in performance data and analytics

•      Technical negotiation strength with shipyards, OEMs and underwriters

•      Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and English, written and spoken, with the confidence to present to the Board

Leadership style

•      Rigorous, yet pragmatic

•      Decisive under cost and schedule pressure

•      Firm on safety, environmental and statutory compliance

•      Develops engineers rather than merely deploying them

•      Candid with the Board about asset condition and technical risk

This appointment is made with succession in mind. We are looking for the character, resilience and breadth of a candidate for a wider fleet, operations or enterprise leadership mandate — not solely a functional technical head.

WHAT WE OFFER

The role is positioned in the upper quartile of senior executive compensation for comparable shipping and marine services groups, reflecting the scarcity of shore-based technical authority at fleet scale and the value at risk in the asset base. The package combines base salary, a performance bonus linked to fleet availability, docking delivery, statutory compliance and technical cost performance, a multi-year instrument tied to fleet lifecycle value, and senior leadership benefits.

Incentive design deliberately weights sustained asset condition over short-term cost suppression. Deferred maintenance is not treated as a saving.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED

Performance is assessed on three dimensions: the condition and availability of the fleet, the discipline of technical spend and the lifecycle plan, and the strength of the technical capability left behind in the organisation.