Chief of Staff - Robotics in London

We are using and creating technology to transform operations at sea to enable people and the planet to thrive. We are open-minded and fearless in our approach to innovation and don't believe in boundaries. We challenge everything and have massive ambitions to drag aging industries into the tech era. We take safety, equality and education very seriously, and our responsibilities don't stop at our front door. Our business is built on the belief that there's definitely a more environmentally responsible way to operate at sea. We employ people who share our core values. We expect our people to be courageous, trustworthy, and conscientious, driven by a desire to do the right thing. We strive for excellence, work collaboratively, and are genuinely excited by our work. We offer opportunities for our people to develop beyond their role and span a multitude of disciplines. These are open to all, regardless of background and experience level. Working with us means being part of a team that is harnessing technology and creativity to disrupt a traditional industry. We are not your average workplace.

Ocean Infinity is seeking a Chief of Staff to the President of Robotics, to act as a true strategic partner as we build a dedicated Robotics business unit for the future while maintaining focus on delivery today. The role will help connect strategy to execution across asset delivery, vessel/payload operations, engineering, remote operations centres, HSEQ, and facilities, ensuring the unit has the clarity, rhythm, insight and follow-through needed to deliver safely, reliably and at pace. This is a unique opportunity to be involved from the beginning in shaping a capability that is critical to Ocean Infinity’s future success. The Robotics business unit brings clearer ownership to our robotic assets and the standards, systems and support around them, so that assets are designed, built, maintained, available and ready for deployment. Success in this role requires exceptional judgement, strong technical and commercial curiosity, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to challenge norms, simplify complexity and drive change in an environment where we are often doing things for the first time.

What will you do:

• Strategic Alignment & Business Priority Delivery: Support the President in shaping and translating Robotics strategic priorities into clear workstreams, milestones and deliverables. Maintain an integrated view of Robotics priorities across asset delivery, vessel/payload operations, engineering, remote operations centres, HSEQ, and facilities. Track progress of major initiatives, identify interdependencies, risks and decisions, and ensure leaders remain accountable for actions and timelines. Support scenario planning, operating model development, strategic workshops and annual planning cycles for the Robotics unit.
• Acting as a Strategic Integrator & Thought Partner: Serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the President, providing insight, challenge and clarity to support strategic and operational decision-making. Connect insight across Robotics and the wider business, ensuring the President has visibility of the information that matters most across asset readiness, operational performance, engineering delivery and risk. Pre-empt issues, structure options and recommendations, and help the unit make clear choices in ambiguous or first-time situations.
• Asset Readiness, Operating Rhythm & Delivery Focus: Maintain visibility of asset readiness, operational performance, engineering delivery, delivery risks and improvement priorities. Help establish the operating rhythm across asset delivery, vessel/payload operations, engineering, remote operations centres, HSEQ and facilities. Ensure delivery reviews surface the right risks, decisions, dependencies and actions, and that follow-through is clear. Support the President in balancing future Robotics capability-building with operational delivery today.
• Meeting & Operating Rhythm Facilitation: Own the cadence for Robotics leadership meetings, cross-functional working groups and decision forums. Plan agendas, manage pre-read creation, ensure sessions are purposeful, and track outcomes and follow-up actions.
• Internal Communication & Narrative Ownership: Draft internal communications, presentations and messaging on behalf of the President for the Robotics unit. Prepare talking points, briefing notes and updates to ensure consistent, clear communication across Robotics and the wider organisation. Help shape the narrative around the Robotics unit’s purpose, progress and priorities, particularly as the business unit is established and evolves.
• Operational Excellence & Executive Support: Ensure the President’s time and focus are directed toward the highest-value priorities by filtering, organising and prioritising requests. Prepare briefing packs, background summaries and insight reports for key meetings, site visits, vessel visits and business reviews. Travel with the President where helpful, especially early in the role, to build shared context, see what he sees, and understand how the unit operates in practice. Drive continuous improvement across Robotics, helping teams challenge existing ways of working and build practical, scalable approaches.

Who you are:

You are bold, honest and passionate, with the judgement and curiosity to operate across technical, operational and commercial topics. You are comfortable with ambiguity and energised by building something new. You challenge constructively, simplify complexity, and create clarity for others. You combine exemplary behaviours with leadership potential, and you understand that success in this role depends as much on trust, judgement and follow-through as it does on process.

Qualifications and skills:

• Essential: Experience in strategy, transformation, consulting, operations, engineering, programme delivery, PMO, or Chief of Staff type roles. Experience in, or strong exposure to, an engineering and/or operating business. Ability to translate high-level strategy into structured, sequenced and actionable plans. Strong business acumen and excellent judgement in ambiguous, fast-moving or first-time situations. Strong technical and commercial curiosity, with the ability to understand complex operational issues without needing to be the technical expert. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including narrative creation and executive-level messaging. Strong facilitation skills; able to run effective meetings that create clarity, surface trade-offs and drive decisions. High analytical capability: able to distil insight from complex or incomplete data and turn it into practical recommendations. High emotional intelligence and stakeholder management, with the ability to build trusted relationships at all levels. Calm under pressure and able to thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment. Ability to manage sensitive information with discretion and confidentiality.
• Desirable: Experience supporting senior executives directly. Background in organisational transformation, operating model development or change programmes. Exposure to marine, robotics, autonomous systems, asset-heavy, industrial, energy, infrastructure or defence environments. Experience working with OKRs, KPIs, operational performance measures or similar performance frameworks. Familiarity with project management tools, organisational planning methods or business performance reporting.

What we expect:

In your role as a leader at Ocean Infinity, you will be expected to exemplify the leadership behaviours that drive our vision and create lasting impact. Based on our Leadership Charter, here’s what we expect from you as a leader:

• Strategic horizon scanning and customer sense-making: You support Ocean Infinity’s overall strategy (commercial, market, client, brand and people), identify opportunities while adapting to disruptors and trends; and drive value, quality, profitability and sustainable growth for Ocean Infinity.
• Leadership impact across the organisation and team: You generate and share a strategic vision that others can aspire and commit to; embrace new ways of working and provide clarity during challenges and ambiguous situations, and support the team to disrupt, improve and evolve when necessary.
• Leading with integrity and managing risk: You act as a role model, doing what is right for Ocean Infinity, as a necessary part of Ocean Infinity’s success; set and demonstrate high standards of integrity when navigating the politics of situations and resistance along with appropriate risk taking when solving complex problems.
• Collaboration with peers and across the organisation: You lead open and meaningful conversations and sustain long-term relationships to drive a culture of trust, diversity, collaboration, and high performance that maximises value for Ocean Infinity, its clients and its people.
• Delivering transformation and outcomes: You lead and collaborate with stakeholders to champion change, making dynamic decisions that inspire impactful actions; deliver on promised and transformational outcomes, ensuring Ocean Infinity takes focused steps on things which matter the most for the business.
• Effective decision-making: You leverage intelligent data insights to understand issues at hand to make timely decisions (even in ambiguous circumstances); recognising the ongoing nature of sense-making, communicating and translating strategy into actionable roadmaps that ensure Ocean Infinity swiftly delivers against its strategic plans.

By bringing these leadership behaviours to life, you will not only help shape Ocean Infinity’s success but also create an inspiring and inclusive environment where innovation thrives and teams succeed.

Salary for this position: Up to £120,000 per annum. The salary varies for this position as we are recruiting in multiple regional locations and job grades. The salary process is based on skills, abilities, and experience required.

What you can expect: At Ocean Infinity, we believe in creating equal opportunities for all, celebrating each and everyone’s differences. We are driven by transforming the industry, through our technology, thoughts, behaviours and actions. Being inclusive and respectful to all is fundamental to who we are. It is the right thing to do and enables innovation and creativity to thrive. There is more work to be done, and we know that we aren’t perfect, but our commitment to these values is unwavering. They are central to our mission and the impact we have on the industry, meaning, we cannot live without them.