About the role
At the heart of every successful voyage is a highly skilled and motivated crew. As Head of Crew Operations (m/f/d), you will play a pivotal role in ensuring that our vessels are staffed with the right people, at the right time, while maintaining the highest standards of safety, compliance, and crew welfare.
Leading a team of approximately 10 crewing professionals, you will shape and drive our global crew operations strategy across the fleet. You will work closely with seafarers, manning agencies, vessel management teams, and internal stakeholders. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced maritime leader who combines strong operational expertise with a genuine passion for people and performance.
What You'll Be Responsible For
- Leading and developing the Crew Operations team
- Oversee crew planning, recruitment, deployment, retention and performance management across the fleet
- Manage relationships with international manning agencies and other crewing partners
- Ensure compliance with MLC, flag state regulations and company requirements
- Work closely with Technical, HSQE and Fleet Management teams to support safe vessel operations
- Manage crewing budgets and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and control costs
- Promote crew welfare, engagement and long-term retention
- Drive improvements in crewing processes and contribute to the development of the overall crewing strategy
Your profile
What We're Looking For- A degree in Maritime Studies, Shipping, Business Administration, HR or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience
- Extensive experience within crew management, crewing operations, or ship management in an international maritime environment
- Proven experience in leading and developing teams
- Strong knowledge of international maritime regulations, including MLC and flag state requirements
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
- Strong commercial awareness, planning capabilities and budget management experience
- A proactive and solution-oriented mindset with exceptional organizational and problem-solving skills.
- Fluent in written and spoken English
Our benefits
Why Join Us?
This is more than a crewing role. It is an opportunity to influence the performance of an entire fleet, lead a dedicated team of professionals, and make a direct impact on the experience, wellbeing, and success of our seafarers worldwide. You will join a family-owned international maritime organization where people, safety, and operational excellence are at the center of everything we do.We would like to welcome you on board!
Do you think the position matches your expectations? Then we look forward to receiving your application, either online via the application form or by e-mail.
Please state your salary expectations and the earliest possible starting date.
If you have any questions, Jan Wichers, our Recruiting Specialist, will be happy to help you: career@doehle.de
Please, find our data privacy statement here. About us
With it's 2,000 employees ashore and 4,900 crew members at sea the Döhle Group is one of the leading providers of shipping services worldwide.
Founded 1965 in Hamburg, the family-owned company operates a modern fleet of about 500 container vessels, multi-purpose vessels and bulk carriers. Besides the core competences of chartering and sale & purchase of ships, the Döhle Group offers a wide variety of further services. The spectrum ranges from financial, commerical and technical support to insurance services and crew management, full agency services, bunker services as well as development of shipping software.
The Döhle Group acts as exclusive chartering broker for a fleet of 500 container ships, bulk- and multi-purpose vessels.
Today's fleet encompasses container vessels with a capacity of 300 up to 13,000 TEU, multi-purpose carriers and bulk carriers ranging from 1,800 to about 210,000 dwt deadweight.
PETER DÖHLE Schiffahrts-KG is a provider of global maritime services with roots in Hamburg and home ports all over the world.
We see ourselves as a traditional yet forward-looking group of companies that offers customised solutions for the entire shipping industry.
