Senior .NET Developer @ Seafar

Seafar, established in 2018, has emerged as a trailblazer in the field of remote and autonomous maritime operations. Seafar is an independent ship management company (founded by Louis-Robert Cool), offering services to operate unmanned and crew-reduced vessels for ship owners and shipping companies. Via their Remote Operating Center (ROC), they manage and operate unmanned and crew-reduced vessels, with emphasis on effective and safe operations. In 2020, Seafar achieved a groundbreaking milestone by introducing Europe's first fully remotely operated vessel. This innovation highlighted the company's leadership in harnessing advanced technology to enhance safety and efficiency in maritime operations. Building on this momentum, 2022 was another transformative year as Seafar earned the prestigious ECDIS Digital Innovation Award, recognizing its significant contributions to the digital evolution of the maritime industry. This period also saw the company expand its presence with new offices in Antwerp and Charleroi, reinforcing its commitment to growth and accessibility. The following year, 2023, marked yet another breakthrough as Seafar secured crew-reduction permits on the Rhine. This achievement underscored its dedication to regulatory compliance and its forward-thinking approach to sustainable shipping practices. The company collaborates with a robust portfolio of prominent customers, including HGK, Naval, and the Volharding Group. Its presence in the shipping industry is bolstered by its operational reach across Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany. The ultimate strategic goal from Seafar is ambitious: to scale operations to 1000 vessels by 2030, a significant increase from the current 50. The Senior .NET Developer will join the team at a pivotal time, moving the company from a stable, smaller operation toward this massive scalability and growth. The core purpose of this role is to be the senior technical profile in the team, bringing essential experience and best practices to the table. You will be responsible for shaping the cutting-edge WPF desktop application and the Remote Operation Center, which is one of the most critical, user-facing systems. Your expertise will directly enable the implementation of new features, focusing on key pillars like increasing safety, optimising crew, and scaling operations. This is an opportunity to work on high-impact systems where precision, real-time data, and innovation intersect with the physical world, helping to power the next generation of vessel systems and simulations. You are not just writing code, you are directly influencing the future of remote vessel technology by ensuring the highest quality and performance of the solution. Tasks and responsibilities: Architecture and feature implementation: Technical leadership and strategy: Serve as the senior technical profile, introducing architectural experience and best practices to the team. The role requires driving the technical analysis and implementation of critical ROC features. Platform development: Architect and develop a modern WPF desktop platform built for superior performance and scale, utilizing the latest in .NET 8. Advanced design patterns: Apply Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and adhere to the Reactive Manifesto (using Rx.NET) to ensure the business logic is clean, scalable, and testable. Real-time hardware integration: Integrate real-world input hardware (such as joysticks, pedals, and buttons) and telemetry using reactive programming for high-performance interaction. Simulations: Contribute to the development of vehicle and joystick simulations that accurately replicate real-world scenarios with millisecond precision, which is vital for safe and scalable operations. Quality assurance and system infrastructure: Core systems project: A significant project involves replacing the existing data communication pipeline in Azure, which is highly critical—a failure would lead to a loss of contact with the vessels. This includes evaluating, testing, and ensuring the development of a redundant, fail-safe alternative. Quality standards: Maintain the standard of high quality, requiring a focus on security, performance, and scalability across the entire stack. Testing and validation: Write robust unit and integration tests (using MSTest and Moq) to ensure system quality and stability. DevOps collaboration: Collaborate closely with DevOps to build reliable CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation. System performance must be monitored and fine-tuned using Application Insights. Mentorship and autonomy: Team coaching: Provide daily, informal coaching and mentorship to the three junior developers on the team. This involves leading by example and setting the technical bar for the team. Roadmap execution: Execute the roadmap items and drive them technically in close collaboration with the Product Manager. Decision-making: The role operates with a high degree of autonomy within the small team. While the Software Engineering Team Leader (Aleksander Chernyavskiy) carries the end responsibility, the Senior Developer is expected to drive technical decisions and take ownership of critical systems. Points of attraction and offer: Seafar is the only company commercially operating at scale within the autonomous shipping sector, making it a pioneer in the industry. Join an innovative maritime tech company in full growth mode with opportunities to tackle exciting challenges and make a tangible impact. Help build a transformative technology and service company from the ground up, revolutionizing the shipping industry. Work alongside enthusiastic, talented and determined colleagues in a team driven by shared ambitions and passion. Experience the thrill of groundbreaking moments as you contribute to Seafar's innovative milestones. Be inspired by Seafar's innovative culture, ambitious goals, and entrepreneurial mindset led by a visionary CEO. Work with cutting-edge technology in a company that values innovation and forward-thinking approaches. Background, expertise and competences: You have strong experience (5 years+) in complex software engineering, preferably within high-tech (software) engineering companies. Deep expertise in the .NET framework (preferably .NET 8). Proven professional experience with desktop application development, ideally using C#. A strong, demonstrable architectural background. The ability to fully analyze and handle the high technical complexity of a large codebase (1.000.000+ lines of code) is crucial. A commitment to quality and proficiency in writing robust unit and integration tests (e.g., MSTest, Moq). Extensive experience with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is a plus. Innovation: Foster creativity, openness, and experimentation; challenge assumptions and use first principles and pragmatic critical thinking. Quality: Strive for perfection, never compromise quality or safety, and reduce complexity to breed sustainable solutions. Perseverance: Maintain positivity and unwavering commitment, adapt to change, and view problems as opportunities. Growth: Step out of comfort zones, embrace change, and take ownership.