Senior Director of Engineering

The Senior Director of Marine Engineering provides enterprise-wide leadership for the safe, reliable, and compliant operation of Hornblower Group vessels, setting fleet engineering strategy and standards, and leading a team of technical staff to ensure vessel availability, safety, and operational excellence.

Location: United States

Salary: $160k–$165k

Responsibilities

• Lead the marine engineering function across Hornblower Group and associated entities, setting standards, governance, and expectations for safe and compliant vessel operations.
• Develop and lead a team of port engineers, technical managers, and shoreside support staff; set goals, coach leaders, and build succession plans.
• Establish and manage fleet maintenance and reliability programs (PM/CM), including CMMS governance, critical spares strategy, and equipment standardization.
• Direct technical planning and execution for dry docks, shipyard periods, and major repairs/overhauls; develop scopes of work, schedules, and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure regulatory compliance and audit readiness for USCG, class societies, flag requirements, and company SMS/ISM processes, coordinate inspections, surveys, and corrective actions.
• Own engineering risk management: condition assessments, safety-critical equipment integrity, defect elimination, incident investigations, and root-cause corrective actions.
• Partner with Marine Operations, HSSQE, and Port leadership to optimize vessel uptime, crewing interfaces, and operational procedures that impact engineering performance.
• Assist the Senior Vice President of Marine Operations to manage marine engineering budgets, forecasting, and capital planning (maintenance, dry dock, and lifecycle capex); develop business cases and ROI-based investment recommendations.
• Lead vendor and shipyard management, including contractor qualification, bid packages, change control, quality assurance, and warranty claims.
• Define and report fleet engineering KPIs (availability, out-of-service time, maintenance compliance, cost per operating hour, repeat defects) and present updates to executive leadership.
• Perform other position-related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture, or related field required; advanced degree preferred (or equivalent experience)
• 12+ years of progressive marine engineering experience, including 5+ years leading managers and multi-site/fleet technical teams
• Demonstrated success improving vessel reliability and availability through disciplined maintenance, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement.
• Strong technical depth across marine propulsion, power generation and distribution, HVAC, hydraulics, firefighting/lifesaving systems, and vessel control systems; able to guide technical tradeoffs and root-cause decisions.
• Working knowledge of USCG regulations and inspection processes, class society requirements, and safety management systems (SMS/ISM); proven audit/inspection readiness.
• Experience planning and executing dry docks/shipyard periods, major repairs, and modernization projects, including scope development, contract management, and quality assurance.
• Proficiency with CMMS and maintenance planning processes; strong command of metrics, standard job plans, and reliability best practices.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; able to translate technical and regulatory issues for senior leaders, port teams, and external partners.
• Commitment to safety-first leadership, ethical decision-making, and maintaining confidentiality of sensitive operational and employee information.