Lead / Senior Lead Research Engineer

The Centre of Excellence in Maritime Safety (CEMS) is a national R&D centre jointly established by the Singapore Polytechnic and the Singapore Maritime Institute. It collaborates with the maritime industry and research community to develop innovative digital solutions and training systems to enhance maritime safety, through state-of-the-art research facilities at CEMS, such as South-east Asia's first navigation research simulator.

The appointee will be part of the CEMS AI & Software team in developing digital solutions to enhance simulator training and assessment, innovate in training pedagogy for the maritime industry.

Responsibilities:

. Lead projects and provide technical contributions across the full software development lifecycle (SDLC), including requirements gathering with industry partners and internal stakeholders.

. Work closely with the AI team at CEMS to deploy and integrate AI solutions-such as Natural Language Processing, computer vision, and data analytics -into simulation platforms to enhance training and assessment capabilities.

. Collaborate with third-party simulator technology and solution providers to design and develop reusable code libraries and scalable APIs for integration and interoperability.

. Drive improvements to existing software systems by identifying performance bottlenecks, refactoring codebases, and enhancing maintainability and scalability.

. Contribute to the conceptualization, proposal development, and implementation of new research and development projects aligned with CEMS's strategic objectives.

. Guide junior software engineers and student interns in software development best practices, code quality, and project execution.

. Prepare and deliver regular project updates and technical presentations for CEMS Governing Board and senior management meetings.

Requirements:

. Relevant qualifications in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.

. Relevant experience in the following areas: Production-grade software development, Backend and/or frontend application development, RESTful API design and implementation using modern frameworks (e.g., ASP.NET Core, Spring Boot, Django, Express.js)

. Strong programming skills in one or more modern languages (e.g., C#, C++, Java, Python), with the ability to quickly learn new technologies and frameworks.

. Experience working with relational and non-relational databases (e.g., MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB).

. Good understanding of object-oriented design, software design patterns, and CI/CD practices.

. Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git, GitLab).

. Hands-on experience with containerization tools such as Docker.

. Ability to build quick prototypes, tools, or scripts to support development or testing.

. Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills effective in collaborative and fast-paced environments.

. Experience with end-to-end AI solution implementation using frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch is a plus.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The successful candidate will be offered an initial 2-year contract.