Strategic Services Lead in Manchester

Location: Fully remote (UK)

Department: Operations (High Value Services)

Reporting to: Chief Operating Officer

Salary range: £60-£80k per annum depending on skills and experience

We’re building something new at Shipnet, and we need someone to help shape it. High Value Services (HVS) is a growing capability at the heart of our product and commercial strategy, combining data analytics with AI-enabled delivery to create measurable value for our customers. We’re looking for a senior, commercially minded builder to make it real.

AI is central to how this team works – not as a buzzword, but as a practical tool for accelerating analysis, surfacing patterns and delivering insight at scale. It’s not a role for someone who wants to run a reporting function or sell “AI magic”. It’s for someone who understands maritime operations, knows what good data insight looks like, and has the commercial backbone to build something that genuinely scales — while being clear about what belongs in HVS versus what belongs in Professional Services (PS) or Product.

What is this role?

The Strategic Services (SS) Lead is responsible for establishing and scaling Shipnet’s High Value Services (HVS) capability — the team that uses analytics, AI, and strategic engagements to make customers’ businesses stronger, and in doing so helps Shipnet move from selling functionality to selling outcomes. You’ll shape what those services look like, and coordinate a small, focused team, including an AI-native engineer, to deliver them.

You’ll work across Product, R&D, Professional Services (PS), Sales, and Account Management (AM). You’ll be trusted to say yes to the right things — and no to the wrong ones.

What you’ll be doing

• Develop the HVS service portfolio: Define and evolve a clear HVS portfolio grounded in real customer pain points, maritime economics, and Shipnet’s data capability.

• Engage customers directly: Lead discovery conversations, insight playbacks, and executive-level storytelling with shipping companies and ship managers.

• Deliver HVS engagements end-to-end: Lead analytical work that turns messy operational data into commercially relevant insight, through to strategic builds and AI-enabled innovation collaborations.

• Build for repeatability and scale: Convert customer-specific work into reusable methods, tools, and service patterns; surface candidates for productisation with Product and R&D where patterns recur.

• Coordinate a small team: Create structure where there is none, set standards, direct quality, and make delivery trade-offs. Initially working alongside one developer (no direct line management responsibilities), with capacity to grow as the function proves out.

• Drive commercial growth: Drive new outcome-based revenue while improving product pull-through, retention, and strategic differentiation.

• Hold the line (HVS vs PS): Maintain the boundary between strategic-transformation HVS engagements and bespoke PS backstop work; uphold honest, evidence-based analysis and resist overclaiming (especially around AI).

This role is perfect for a commercially aware, analytically rigorous, maritime-fluent builder.

We’d love to hear if you have…

• Deep maritime domain knowledge of one or more core areas (e.g., technical management, planned maintenance, voyage operations, commercial performance, fleet operations, or similar). Enough to engage credibly with customers without being a seafarer.

• A track record of paving the way for applied analytics or insight functions, structuring ambiguous operational problems and working with real, imperfect datasets to deliver commercially useful output.

• The ability to distinguish genuinely high-value services from low-value custom reporting, and the willingness to make that call out loud.

• Confidence presenting to directors and C-suite; skilled at translating complex analysis into insight that earns trust.

• Experience creating or scaling a capability, function, or offering from scratch — not just operating inside an established one.

• Confident in embedding AI tools as part of a data analytics workflow. Understands the difference between what AI can do reliably and where human analytical judgement is essential.

• Also comfortable with data warehousing, SQL, BI tooling, and statistical reasoning, without needing to be the strongest engineer in the room.

The kind of person who thrives here…

Beyond experience, we’re looking for someone who is:

• Credible: Carries enough substance and calm authority to be trusted by customers and colleagues in ambiguous, early-stage situations.

• Commercially tough-minded: Doesn’t confuse activity with value and challenges requests that don’t make business sense.

• Honest: Comfortable saying things like “The data doesn’t support that claim” and “This should be a product capability, not a services engagement.” That honesty is a feature, not a flaw.

• Curious: Genuinely interested in how shipping businesses work; asks why as readily as what.

• Structured: Brings shape to ambiguity and creates repeatable ways of working.

• Resilient: Able to build effectively in an environment where priorities and expectations are still evolving.

Who are we?

“The crew you trust when it comes to shipping software”

Shipnet has been at the heart of maritime software for five decades. Our mission is to create innovative solutions to the problems of the shipping industry, which is built by mariners, for mariners.

We’re a remote-first, people-first business with a diverse team spread across multiple countries. Our team – Shipnetters – are the heart of everything we do. We are committed to supporting our people with one goal in mind; to create an open, engaging and inclusive culture for all. Whether you’re collaborating with a colleague in Singapore, India, Dubai, or the UK, we work together to keep the world afloat.

Why Shipnet?

At Shipnet, we offer more than just a job. We offer a supportive and collaborative environment where engagement and connection are at the forefront.

We have:

• Fully remote working with all equipment provided

• Competitive benefits and entitlements across all our operating countries

• Opportunities for learning and development through our platform, Percipio, to help you continuously grow your knowledge and skills

• A genuinely collaborative culture built on the values of Brave, Curious, Kind and Credible

• A strong focus on mental health and wellbeing – including monthly our monthly communication ‘Staying Afloat’, access to an Employee Assistance Programme and Mental Health First Aid Champions to support you

• Career development pathways across the wider Volaris Group

How to Apply

If you are interested in becoming a Shipnetter, please submit your resume via the Apply button by Monday 25th May 2026.