Chief Operating Officer

Opportunity

Join Svitzer and become part of an exciting, market leading, and vibrant company within the maritime industry. Svitzer is seeking a proven Leader of Leaders to manage the diverse Europe Operations that consist of critical business areas such as Fleet and Technical Management, Procurement and Marine Standards across multiple geographies.

As a member of the European Leadership Team, you will be responsible for ensuring our operations run safely and efficiently to deliver a better service to Svitzer’s customers every day, and in compliance with both internal and external requirements, as well as drive forward Svitzer’s ambition to decarbonize the towage industry. You must be comfortable working in a matrix organisation engaging with internal stakeholders both in the Europe region and the Svitzer Group. You are skilled in dealing with external and internal stakeholders including customers and national authorities, across seniority levels.

Svitzer Europe is one of the four regions in the Svitzer Group, a Business Unit in the Maersk Group.

This position offers the right candidate an opportunity to join an ambitious, international and growing company with the possibility of continuous professional and personal development, both within Svitzer and the Maersk Group.

Reporting to our Managing Director Svitzer Europe, the role is based in the Regional Office in Copenhagen, where a lean and flat structure creates a performance driven culture with significant independence to impact the position and ultimately the performance of our company.

The Regional Operations function provides you with functional responsibility for the front-line business as well as specialist skills within Procurement, Marine Standards, Fleet and Technical Management. You will be directly responsible for an organisation of 20 people reporting to you through your 5 direct reports – as well as indirect leadership and impact on the wider operations.

The European Region currently operates 125 vessels in more than 30 ports across Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Georgia and the UK.

The region is organized in 3 clusters. The role requires regular travel, expect a minimum of 60 days per year.

Key responsibilities

• Accountability for the delivery of efficient, safe and cost-effective marine services to customers.
• Overall responsible for Procurement, Technical, Fleet management and Marine Standards.
• Co-create the overall regional long-term strategy.
• Ensure that fleet investments and operational capabilities are scaled and geared to match the regional strategy.

• Develop and maintain superior operational knowledge within the department, including fleet management, operational excellence and technical and safety.
• Lead the Decarbonization of the fleet with both short- and long-term initiatives within behavior, fuel and equipment
• Lead change management projects, both operational and strategic including new business opportunities.
• Set targets and follow up on operational, technical and safety performance.
• Provide input to regional level financial forecasting.
• Ensure optimal allocation and deployment of the fleet in terms customer focus and cost effectiveness
• Always keeping the customer at center, challenge the existing organisation and way of doing things to identify and execute on improvement opportunities
• Drive continuous improvements, standardization and best practices in a multi local business.

Who we are looking for

Masters / MBA in relevant business or commercial management.

• Proven track record min. 8 years in asset heavy operational management, preferably in the Maritime sector
• Strong business acumen and negotiation skills
• Ability to influence and create followership.
• Excellent stakeholder management
• High level of analytical capacity
• Structured and data driven, and well versed at driving this into the business.
• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills and the capability to deal with a diverse international group of people at a broad range of levels
• High level of professionalism, honesty and integrity
• Excellent organizational, time management and planning skills
• The ability to think conceptually while managing the detail
• Strong understanding of change management and the ability to work effectively in a matrix structure
• Detailed understanding of the various links with other functional areas. Ability to provide leadership, obtain cooperation and promote a team environment to meet objectives.
• Develops people – coaching and mentoring to build organizational capability, talent and bench strength.
• Continuous improvement mindset

Building a Diverse Workplace

In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likely to apply for jobs if they don’t meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you!

How to Apply

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