Senior/Lead Research Engineer (Software) - Centre of Excellence in Maritime Safety (CEMS)

[What the role is]

Plaque of Commendation (Gold) – NTUC May Day Awards 2026
Most Positive Workplace Collaboration Award – Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) Awards 2025
The Straits Times Singapore’s Best Employers for 2024, 2025 & 2026
The Centre of Excellence in Maritime Safety (CEMS) is a national R&D centre, a collaborative effort between Singapore Polytechnic and the Singapore Maritime Institute. We focus on developing innovative digital solutions and training systems to enhance maritime safety. Our state-of-the-art research facilities, including South-east Asia's first navigation research simulator, setting us as an innovation champion.
About the Role
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. The role may also involve contributing to department- and school-level software initiatives that support digitalisation and automation across R&D, operations, and education.

[What you will be working on]

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.

[What we are looking for]

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.