Director IT, Engineering & IT Service Management

As part of our Global IT organization, the Engineering, Architecture and Operations (EAO) department plays a key role in shaping and enabling our digital transformation journey. The EAO function drives the strategic design, development support, and operations of our enterprise-wide IT platforms, tools, infrastructure, and engineering practices. With centers in Hamburg, Chennai, and Gdansk, EAO ensures delivery of innovative, scalable, and reliable technology services aligned with business goals.

We are currently seeking a highly motivated and experienced IT Director to lead the IT Service Management and Engineering function that is part of the EAO organization. In this role, you will lead a large and growing organization of various service and product teams, and cooperate strongly with teams and stakeholders across other locations. The teams under your leadership are responsible for various areas, for some of them you would be the people manager for Gdansk based teams while your counterparts from other locations would be accountable for the products, and for other areas you would have full accountability for both the technology and the staff. This director role is a member of the EAO Leadership Team, as well as the Gdansk Tech Centre leadership team.

• Accountability of implementation and ongoing delivery of IT Service Management capability with the use of ServiceNow and Jira environments.
• Overall accountability for IT Asset Management process
• Act as the lead for EAO in Gdansk and contribute to shaping and executing global IT strategies from a regional standpoint.
• Ensure effective global delivery and operations of IT platforms and tools that support software delivery lifecycle and IT operations.
• Oversee the development, maintenance, and enhancement of service management and software engineering tool ecosystems.
• Drive engineering excellence, architectural alignment, and operational stability across all relevant teams.
• Leads team of approx. 90 of HL employees located in Gdansk (Poland) as well as contracted external workforce for project delivery.
• Provide coaching and career development to direct reports and support team leaders in people management practices.
• Foster a culture of accountability, agility, and continuous improvement.

• 10+ years of experience in IT leadership roles with a focus on at least two out of the following areas: IT Service Management, Software Engineering, IT Operations, Enterprise Architecture.
• Background in leading enterprise scale ITSM processes and platforms implementation and operations.
• Proven experience managing large-sized technology teams in a matrix or global setup.
• Strong track record in people leadership, organizational development, and talent retention.
• Strategic thinking combined with hands-on execution skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
• Good understanding of Agile and DevOps, and ITIL best practices.
• Experience with modern infrastructure and cloud-based delivery models is advantageous.
• Fluent English is mandatory; German is a plus

With a fleet of 308 modern container ships and a Vessel Capacity of 2.4 million TEU, as well as a Container Capacity of 3.7 million TEU including one of the world’s largest and most modern reefer container fleets, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. In the Liner Shipping segment, the Company has around 17,100 employees and more than 400 offices in 140 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a transport volume of 12.5 million TEU per year. A total of 135 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports across the world. In the Terminal & Infrastructure segment, Hapag-Lloyd has stakes in 21 terminals in Europe, Latin America, the United States, India, and North Africa. The employees assigned to the Terminal & Infrastructure segment deal with terminal-related activities and provide complementary logistics services at selected locations.