Technical Lead – USV Automation
Location: Den Hag, Netherlands
Salary: Competitive
Industry: Maritime / Autonomous Systems
Overview of the role:
We are working with a well-established organisation operating at the forefront of maritime technology. They are looking to hire a Technical Lead to drive the development of an Automation Platform for Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs), across sectors including autopilot systems, propulsion control, and PLC-based vessel automation. This is a full-time, permanent hybrid position combining technical leadership with people management, guiding a multidisciplinary engineering team to deliver robust, scalable, and reusable automation solutions across multiple USV classes.
Requirements
Essential:
- Degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Automation Engineering, or a related field
- 5+ years of experience in industrial automation, embedded systems, or marine control systems
- Strong hands-on experience with PLC programming (CODESYS, e!COCKPIT, IEC 61131-3)
- Proven leadership experience in a technical or team lead capacity
- Familiarity with communication protocols including NMEA, CAN, Modbus, and MQTT
- Experience with agile development methodologies (Scrum, SAFe, or similar)
- Strong communication and coordination skills with a proactive, ownership-driven mindset
Required / Highly Preferred:
- Experience aligning technical decisions with product roadmaps, working alongside Product Owners and Project Managers
- Ability to lead sprint planning, code reviews, and technical decision-making processes
- Experience coordinating with geographically distributed teams
- Track record of ensuring compliance with safety, cybersecurity, and marine standards
- Hands-on experience during testing, commissioning, or system integration
Beneficial:
- Experience collaborating with external suppliers to source and integrate software components
- Familiarity with ensuring platform scalability and reusability across different vessel classes or hardware platforms
- Background in continuous improvement of development processes and system architecture
Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
Oliver Stewart