Seafar is making shipping smarter, more innovative, and more sustainable by operating vessels remotely from our Remote Operations Centers (ROCs). We believe in a maritime future where technology enhances human capabilities, and where efficiency, innovation, and sustainability go hand in hand.
As our Customer Operations Lead, you are the face of Seafar to the shipowner and the boatmaster. You make sure every installation stays on track, every crew is properly trained, every escalation gets picked up fast, and that every customer who activates one vessel comes back for the second and the third.
Your mission
Seafar is scaling from a pioneering startup into a commercially operating maritime tech company. Our delivery process works ,but it was built for a handful of vessels, not for a fleet. And customers expect the same experience on vessel twelve as they had on vessel one.
You own the full customer journey after signature: installation, training, day-to-day support, and account growth. You are the single point of accountability across Project Management, Field Service, IT, Training, and the ROCs, and you and your team are the voice to the customer when something moves.
This is not a back-office role. You are in the shipyard, on the vessel, in the ROC, and in the boardroom of the shipowner. You lead through the process, not through the org chart. And you build trust in the weeks nobody writes a case study about — face to face.
Core responsibilities
Your job is to align every team in the service delivery chain - Project Management, Field Service, IT, Training, Monitoring and the ROCs - around one thing: the customer sailing safely, on time, and with confidence in us. Each of these teams is strong on its own; you make them work as one process. Where the handovers between them are today is where the customer feels the friction, and closing those gaps is the core of this role.
You lead through the process rather than the org chart. Each of these teams has its own lead, and they keep it: you don't take over their work, you connect it. You set the shared priorities, chair the moments where the teams meet, decide when something has to give, and hold the whole chain to what was promised to the customer. Alongside that you carry real management responsibility for the customer operations side, and you do all of it in direct contact with the customer: on board, in their office, in the ROC, and in the reviews where the relationship is actually decided.
Install
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Own the delivery outcome from sales handover to project review, and align the project team, Field Service and IT around it. The Project Team Lead runs the project; you make sure it lands with the customer.
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Keep the plan honest and visible in Odoo, dates, dependencies and budget, and challenge it when the picture on board doesn't match the picture in the system.
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Be the single voice to the customer when a date moves, and the person who makes sure it moves as rarely as possible.
Test & train
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Get the customer's captains through the full training path: theory, procedures, station user guide, communications, practical and through the assessment on the vessel.
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Own attendance, completion and quality. A crew that finished the modules but isn't confident at the station is not a finished job.
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Feed what you learn in training back into the product and the courses.
Support
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Be the escalation owner across Technical Support, Field Service, Internal IT and 24/7 Monitoring: calm under pressure, decisive, and present where it matters.
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Make sure the right team is on it, the customer always knows where it stands, and the SLA is something we manage rather than something we discover.
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Turn recurring failures into engineering tickets instead of letting them stay recurring failures.
Grow
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Run the account after go-live: performance reviews, adoption, renewal, and expansion to the next vessels in the fleet.
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Partner with the Account Executives on new opportunities: you bring the operational credibility, they close.
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Make sure a customer's second order is easier than their first.
Does this sounds like you?
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5–10 years of experience owning customers, service delivery or technical projects — ideally in a safety-critical or regulated environment: maritime, industrial automation, energy, aviation, or rail.
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Proven track record in operational delivery: you've run projects with hardware, deadlines, and customers who notice when you're late.
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Technically credible: you don't need to configure a firewall, but you know when the answer you're given doesn't add up.
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A natural leader of people you don't own: you've managed teams, you coach rather than micromanage, and you hold specialists accountable through credibility and clarity — not hierarchy.
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Genuinely customer-facing: you are calm and credible in front of shipowners and boatmasters, including on the days when the news is bad.
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Structured and evidence-driven: projects, tickets, and training records are current because you keep them current — not because someone asks.
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Hands-on: you get on a ship, stand in a shipyard, and work from a ROC.
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Excellent communicator in Dutch and English (German or French is a plus).
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Bonus if you have inland or short-sea shipping experience, a nautical certificate, or experience running a support escalation process.
What’s our offer?
Seafar is the only technology and service company in the smart shipping sector that is commercially operating at scale. By joining us, you will:
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Accelerate your career at a fast-growing, innovative maritime tech company, working on cutting-edge challenges that shape the future of shipping.
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Be part of building, from the ground up, the technology and operational backbone transforming the global maritime industry.
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Receive a competitive, tailored compensation package aligned with your experience and needs.
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Make a real impact, surrounded by a team of driven, hands-on colleagues who share your ambition.
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Celebrate true industry firsts: working at Seafar often feels like landing on the moon for the very first time.
Excited?
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Don't hesitate to apply! Get on board because we need you over here!
