Software Engineering Manager Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) – Tech Domains

 About Tidalis
Do you want to be part of our innovative engineering team that helps protect “The Great Barrier Reef”, make our waterways safer, combat illegal drug smuggling, and optimize the efficiency of the world’s largest ports? Then keep reading! We serve clients around the globe with advanced solutions in the areas of maritime traffic, ports, and terminals. Together, we ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods in the maritime world.

Your Role
The Engineering Manager – VTS Tech Domains is responsible for leading the engineering execution, and technical excellence across all Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) product lines and technology domains. This role ensures that our VTS solutions are built to the highest standards of reliability, scalability, and performance while supporting the company’s product-led growth and global expansion objectives.

Acting as a bridge between technology, product, and solution delivery, the Engineering Manager will oversee multiple engineering teams (4), shape the technical roadmap, and ensure that the VTS domain evolves to meet customer and regulatory demands in a rapidly changing maritime landscape.

What will you do?

 Leadership & Domain Ownership

• Own and execute the engineering strategy for all VTS-related products, platforms, and capabilities.
• Own the long-term technical vision and ensure alignment with product strategy and customer outcomes.
• Partner with Product Management to shape the VTS roadmap, ensuring scalability, modularity, and extensibility of solutions.
• Drive continuous improvement and innovation in VTS technologies, leveraging modern architectures, cloud-native practices, and emerging maritime standards.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, mentor, and scale high-performing engineering teams across multiple VTS technology domains (e.g., traffic management, sensor fusion, communication systems, decision support, user interfaces).
• Build a strong leadership bench by developing Engineering Managers, Principal Engineers, and Technical Leads.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, collaboration, and accountability across distributed teams.

Delivery & Execution Excellence

• Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of VTS software components and solutions, aligned with product milestones and customer commitments.
• Establish and oversee engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, DevSecOps, and site reliability.
• Partner closely with Solution Delivery to support customer deployments and integration efforts.
• Oversee frontend-deployed engineering capacity in VTS streams to ensure field adaptability and customer satisfaction.

Technical Governance & Architecture

• Provide architectural leadership and ensure coherent system design across all VTS modules.
• Champion engineering standards, security-by-design principles, and regulatory compliance (e.g., IALA, IMO, IEC 62443).
• Review and approve key technical decisions, technology stack choices, and platform evolutions.
• Drive modernization initiatives (e.g., containerization, microservices, event-driven architecture).

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Product, Platform Engineering, Customer Engineering, and Solution Delivery to ensure end-to-end value realization.
• Represent engineering in customer discussions, proposals, and strategic projects as a domain expert.
• Contribute to strategic partnerships and technical alliances in the VTS ecosystem.

What do you bring?

• Strategic Leadership: Proven experience defining and executing engineering strategy aligned to business outcomes.
• Technical Depth: Expert understanding of distributed systems, microservices, real-time data processing, and cloud-native platforms.
• Delivery Excellence: Strong track record of delivering complex software products with high reliability, scalability, and security.
• Team Leadership: Experience building and scaling high-performing engineering teams across geographies.
• Customer Orientation: Ability to bridge technical execution with customer outcomes, especially in mission-critical domains.

Key qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success delivering mission-critical or safety-critical software systems (e.g., maritime, aerospace, transportation, defense).
• Proven experience leading multi-team engineering organizations in a SaaS or platform environment.
• Deep knowledge of real-time control systems, sensor integration, data streaming, and/or maritime communications (AIS, radar, etc.) preferred.
• Familiarity with secure software development practices and regulatory compliance.
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP), and containerized architectures.

Preferred Domain Experience (Highly Advantageous)

• Maritime VTS, coastal surveillance, or navigation technology solutions
• Sensor fusion and maritime situational awareness platforms
• Large-scale distributed systems or mission-critical SaaS products

What do we offer you?

• A dynamic and international working environment in a fast-growing company.
• Competitive salary and performance-based bonuses.
• Comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plans, and more.
• Opportunities for continuous learning, development, and career growth.
• A collaborative culture that fosters innovation and teamwork.

Excited?
Send your CV and a motivation letter to jolijn.bos@tidalis.com and tell us why you’re the perfect fit for our team! If you have questions about the position, feel free to reach out. We look forward to hearing from you!

As part of the procedure, candidates will be required to undergo a screening process.