POSTED: 20th August 2026
STARTING DATE: As soon as possible
FULL TIME, ROTTERDAM

MISSION TO METRICS

The Ocean Cleanup is a global nonprofit that develops and scales solutions to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, driving systemic change, and creating a lasting positive impact for people, wildlife, and the planet.

The Technology team designs, develops and evolves a portfolio of robust, scalable, technical solutions for River and Pacific plastic cleanup, enabling effective and long-term operations across diverse environments. Our primary objectives are to:

• Develop and maintain a standardized portfolio of river and ocean cleanup technologies.
• Drive innovation through structured R&D and targeted field experimentation.
• Provide methods, tools and guidelines to support and standardized the engineering in the deployment cycle.
• Provide technical solution envelop in early-phase of the deployment cycle.

THE ASSIGNMENT

The Technology Engineer (Junior and Medior) has a broad role within the organization contributing to building the foundations and standardization to enable high-quality and effective technical solutions. Key Deliverables and outcomes:

• Development and validation of cleanup technologies – Validated ocean and river cleanup technologies part of the Portfolio.
• Characterization of technology performance via modelling or testing – Support validation of technologies from portfolio.
• Standardized Methods & Tooling for deployment design – Tools and methods used as standard for efficient and high quality deployment engineering.
• Deployment solutions envelop for future river cleanup per City – Overview of solutions enabling procurement forecast, identification of possible complex deployments or gaps to close within the Technology portfolio.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Technology portfolio:
  • Support concepting, design, testing and continuous improvement of a portfolio of modular, field-validated river and ocean technologies.
  • Ensure solutions are documented, transferable, and repeatable across regions.
• Methods & Tooling - Develops, maintains, and evolves design methods and tooling.
• Support or coordinate characterization campaign of cleanup Technologies (Load and capturing performance tests in basins, representative environments, or in the field).
• Contributes to writing guidelines for engineering way of working and design standardization.
• Provide deployment solutions envelop for future city deployments at an early stage in the deployment cycle. Identify gaps and possible complex deployment for development within Technology portfolio.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

“Even if you don’t meet every professional qualification listed, we strongly encourage you to apply if you believe you have the right skills, experience, and motivation to contribute to our mission. We recognize that talent and potential come in many forms, and we value diverse perspectives and unconventional career paths. If you’re passionate about the work we do and confident in your ability to make an impact, don’t hesitate to submit your application—we’d love to hear from you”

• Engineering degree in mechanical, structural, civil engineering is preferred.
• Junior: Min 1 years (Or extended internship) of working experience in concepting, design and product delivery in civil engineering, offshore engineering or similar.
• Medior: Min 3 years of working experience in concepting, design and product delivery in civil engineering, offshore engineering or similar.
• Proven experience in planning, coordinating work scopes & thorough understanding of how to achieve high quality products on time, within budget.
• Skills with Solidworks is preferred (or similar parametric CAD software, e.g. Catia, Fusion360, Onshape)
• Interest and familiarity for electronics and instrumentation components (ie. load cells, cameras, sensors) is preferred
• Fluent English

While possessing a degree or higher-level qualification is advantageous, our primary focus is on individuals with strong intellectual capacity and quick thinking.

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• You are intrinsically motivated to work on our ambitious and meaningful goal.
• Problem solving, including calm analytical/structured work as well as fast practical/pragmatic work.
• Driven, curious and solutions-oriented.
• Pragmatic and a ”hands-on” mentality, gets things done.
• Motivated and available to go on site when required for example to witness testing, control production for various duration period (from a week to a month).
• Keen eye for potential risks and dedicated to addressing them.
• Effective communicator and good team player but also able to work independently.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• Starting date: As soon as possible
• Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Conducting a pre-employment check may be part of this recruitment process.
• We value a genuine cover letter.
• At The Ocean Cleanup, we believe we are stronger together, while harnessing the uniqueness each individual brings. That is why we take a fair, equal opportunity, and transparent approach to hiring and welcome special needs requests.