Ships IT Support Engineer (m/f/d)

Parental Leave Cover – 30 hours per week
Start date: 15 February 2026

Sea-Watch e.V. is a non-profit initiative dedicated to the civil sea rescue of people on the move. In view of the humanitarian disaster in the central Mediterranean Sea-Watch provides emergency aid, demands the rescue by the responsible European institutions and publicly stands up for legal escape routes. We are politically and religiously independent and are financed exclusively by donations.

The Sea-Watch IT team is a dynamic and innovative department that is responsible for all of Sea-Watch’s IT infrastructure, both onshore and onboard. We prioritise collaboration, operational excellence, security and empathy for our users. We are a team of 15-20 people working as employed persons, freelancers and as volunteers.
We are seeking an experienced and motivated Ships IT Support Specialist with up to 30 hours per week (including some evenings and weekends) to join our growing Operational IT team ( a team of 5) and contribute to the development and maintenance of our infrastructure and services.
The position is limited to 12 months for a parental leave cover. The role requires travelling in dates dictated by the ships’ operational and shipyard calendar (around 2-3 times per year) as well as regular on call work. We guarantee that the IT runs smoothly during the deployment of our ships in the Central Mediterranean.

Position Overview

As a IT Support Engineer you will play a key role in designing, implementing, and maintaining our Ships IT infrastructure on our two vessels: Sea-Watch 5 (our flagship vessel) and Aurora 1 & 2 (our fast moving assets) as well as providing back office support for ships departments and mission support for all our operations. Working, exchanging and aligning with the IT team and the Ships departments you will carry out first level support, infrastructure and device management and mission support, working to ensure the reliability, usability, scalability, and security of our systems and clients. This role requires a deep understanding of open source technologies, strong problem-solving skills, hands on hardware and cabling skills, excellent communication skills and a passion for staying up-to-date with the latest industry innovations.
You will be based in the Operational IT section of the IT department and will co-lead on developing processes, structure and procedures as well as participating in the on call schedule of Ships and Airborne mission support. We offer you to be part of a team who are supportive and motivated and an organisation where you can actively engage in decision making structures and strategic processes.

General tasks

  • Plan, develop and maintain a working infrastructure (hardware and software) on the ships that meets the needs of the organisation
  • Support the Ship IT operating concept through onboarding, documentation and remote support
  • Handover and induction of new people who are on board as IT volunteers during the operations and shipyards
  • Support and train Ships IT volunteers
  • Maintain contact and exchange with other departments on the ship
  • Process and resolve ships’ related support tickets
  • Receipt accounting and license management
  • Provide cyber security training and awareness for users / ships crews
  • Improve and develop trainings for users with our e-learning platform

 

Tasks during operations and shipyard

Before the ship is deployed, you will train the new on-board IT person on board or remotely and instruct them on the systems. During our deployments, you will provide support to the On-Board IT person and be available to answer questions. During shipyard hours, you coordinate the tasks at hand, distribute them to volunteers and do parts of them yourself. You will be available to the ship’s crew for questions and support regarding IT on the ship.

  • Be in contact with the volunteer IT person on board and facilitate communication with the rest of the IT team
  • Take evening and weekend shifts to provide emergency on-call support to vessels (Ship and AIR) during deployment
  • Monitor infrastructure and troubleshoot issues as they arise
  • Handle IT specific requests from the other departments on board and ships’ back office
  • Assist in planning, prioritising, distributing, and executing tasks for shipyard hours

Your Profile

  • Excellent knowledge in managing network infrastructure and Linux server administration (debian, proxmox)
  • Willingness to familiarise yourself with new, IT-specific problems
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for effective collaboration operational and back office teams
  • Empathy for users who have limited technical knowledge
  • Skilled in addressing technical issues and configurations for Linux Mint and Windows client systems
  • Capable of providing fundamental technical support for iPhone devices used by the Ops teams, including experience in Mobile Device Management (Relution and AnyDesk/Opsi) and security good practice
  • Experience in optimising and debugging internet network connections for seamless operations
  • Comprehensive understanding of IT hardware, including servers, clients, and IP cameras, with expertise in documenting processes and performing diagnostic tests
  • Familiarity with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform)
  • Experience with OpenWrt and multi WAN setups is helpful but not required
  • Ability to reliably plan, conscientiously and independently implement tasks
  • Very good knowledge of English
  • Ability to mediate between different interests and you have a goal-oriented approach to problem solving
  • Strong identification with the goals and contents of Sea-Watch e.V.
  • Ability to travel to our Area of Operations (Italy, Malta or Spain) at least 2-3 times per year
  • Ability to work some weekends and evenings especially during operations
  • Being comfortable with working on heights or in uncomfortable positions while installing hardware on board
  • A good level of physical fitness in order to install hardware on board

Optional

  • Experience in installing network cables
  • Experience in maintaining IT hardware in general, like replacing broken screen of laptops, servers etc
  • Experience with activist or political organisations or groups

We offer you

  • A rapidly growing non-profit organisation with constantly new challenges, ideas and projects
  • A dynamic, varied work environment with flat hierarchies
  • Offers of internal training and promotion of individual further education
  • Place of work in the Berlin or home office
  • Digitisation, agility and participation are an essential part of our everyday life
  • A meaningful, varied job with a lot of responsibility and a monthly gross salary of 2.550 euros for 30 hours per week (increase possible due to various factors*)
  • Special payments and additional benefits, such as company pension scheme.

Are you interested?

We look forward to receiving your application!
Application Process
Please submit your application (CV/resume and cover letter, answer to our questions) by 15th January 2025 at application@sea-watch.org . Attachments please in a pdf-document. max 5MB.
We are committed to an inclusive society without racism and with freedom of movement for all. In case of equal qualification, we favour applications from women*, LGBTQI*, BIPoC, people with disabilities, people with migration experience and people from other groups underrepresented in the maritime and NGO-world. Should you feel addressed here, we invite you to provide relevant information on this in your application. You are welcome to refrain from providing application photos and information on age and marital status

* From January 1, 2024, we have a new salary model that allows for various supplements to the basic salary and takes into account family needs and personal disability. In addition, the salary increases by 3% with every year of service. In addition, there is the possibility of supplements due to previous relevant professional experience based on internal criteria, a maximum of 5 years can be recognized here, a supplement of 3% per year of previous experience is possible.