Port Engineer

A port engineer looks after the technical and mechanical condition of ships or port infrastructure on behalf of the owner or operator. In the shipping sense (the more common use of the title), you are the shore-based engineer responsible for a small fleet of vessels - planning their maintenance and dry-docking, approving repairs, managing budgets and keeping them compliant with class and flag requirements. In the harbour/civil sense, the title can instead mean the engineer responsible for quays, berths, lock gates, dredging and other port structures.

Starting salary: £26k–£35k
Live graduate jobs: 1 open now
Main way in: Coming ashore after serving at sea as a marine engineer officer
They usually ask for: For the ship-side role

Approximate graduate salary

For graduate-level entry roles alongside this function (technical assistant, assistant superintendent, graduate scheme), typically around £26,000–£35,000 to start, though this varies widely by employer, location and sector. People coming ashore from a Chief Engineer's position usually enter well above that, reflecting their sea-going experience rather than graduate status.

What you'd actually do

Reviewing defect reports and maintenance requests sent in by ships' chief engineers, deciding what gets fixed now, what waits for the next dry-docking and what needs a spare part shipped to the next port
Getting quotes from repair yards, workshops and spare-part suppliers, comparing them and raising purchase orders - a lot of the week is email, phone calls and chasing
Attending vessels in port or in dry dock to inspect machinery, witness repairs and sign off work (this means travel, sometimes at short notice and often abroad)
Writing and updating the planned maintenance schedule and technical budget for each vessel you are responsible for, and explaining overspends to the fleet or technical manager

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Preparing for and attending surveys with classification societies (the organisations such as Lloyd's Register or DNV that certify a ship is built and maintained to standard) and flag state inspectors
Investigating machinery failures - working out whether it was a design issue, poor maintenance, a bad spare or crew error - and writing up the findings
In the civil/harbour version: inspecting quay walls, fenders, piles and lock machinery, specifying repair works, managing contractors on site and liaising with the harbour master about which berths can be taken out of service

How graduates get in

Coming ashore after serving at sea as a marine engineer officer - this is by far the most common route. You'd typically do an engineering cadetship (often a foundation degree or HND combined with sea time, sponsored by a shipping company or a training provider), work your way to Second or Chief Engineer, then move to a shore role. A graduate going straight into a port engineer job with no sea time is unusual in ship management.
Graduate schemes at ship management companies, shipowners, ferry and offshore operators - these exist but are relatively small in number. They usually rotate you through technical, operations and purchasing, with the expectation that you'd grow into a port/technical superintendent role over several years.
Direct entry as a technical assistant, assistant superintendent, fleet support engineer or purchasing/technical buyer in a shipping company, then moving up. This is a realistic graduate entry point if you don't have sea time.
For the harbour/civil engineering version: a civil or structural engineering graduate scheme with a port authority, a major port group, or a consultancy with a maritime team, working towards chartered status with the Institution of Civil Engineers.

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Degree apprenticeships and sponsored cadetships in marine engineering, offered by some shipping companies and training providers - a good route if you're deciding before or instead of university.
Moving across from shipyard, shiprepair, naval or offshore engineering roles, where you already know how machinery and dry-dock work actually gets done.

What employers ask for

For the ship-side role: a marine engineering background is close to essential. That usually means either a Certificate of Competency (the MCA/STCW engineer officer licence, commonly Chief Engineer or Second Engineer level) earned at sea, or a marine/mechanical engineering degree plus hands-on experience. Employers vary a lot on whether they'll take degree-only candidates.
Relevant degree subjects where a degree is the route in: marine engineering, mechanical engineering, naval architecture, or - for the port infrastructure version - civil or structural engineering. The subject genuinely matters here; this is not a role open to any discipline.
Typically a 2:1 for structured graduate schemes, though smaller shipping and ship management companies often care far more about practical engineering experience than classification.
Working towards or holding chartered status - CEng through the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) or IMechE for marine, or ICE for port civils. Not usually required to start, but expected as you progress.

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A valid passport, willingness to travel at short notice, and in many cases offshore survival or port safety training paid for by the employer.
Familiarity with the regulatory framework - SOLAS, MARPOL, ISM Code and class rules. Most people learn this on the job or at sea rather than at university.

Skills that matter

Diagnosing machinery faults remotely

You often have to work out what's wrong with a main engine or a separator from a crew member's description and a few photos, because the ship is mid-ocean and you are in an office.

Budget and cost control

Each vessel has an annual technical budget you own, and a large part of the job is deciding whether a repair is worth the money now or can be deferred without creating a safety or compliance risk.

Reading technical drawings, manuals and class rules

Specifying a repair or a dry-dock job list means working from engine manuals, piping diagrams and classification society requirements rather than guesswork.

Negotiating with repair yards and suppliers

Dry-dock quotes and variation orders are where money is won or lost, and yards will add extra work to the bill unless you challenge it clearly and quickly.

Working with crews from many nationalities, often under pressure

You rely on chief engineers you may never meet in person to give you honest information, and that relationship breaks down fast if you come across as blaming the ship.

Clear technical writing

Dry-dock specifications, incident investigations and reports to owners and insurers all have to be unambiguous, because other people act on them without you in the room.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Assistant/trainee technical superintendent or fleet support engineer - learning the systems, supporting a senior colleague's vessels, doing purchasing and paperwork. Length varies widely; those who already have sea time often skip this.
Port engineer / technical superintendent with your own small group of vessels (the number depends on vessel type and complexity).
Senior superintendent or fleet manager, responsible for a larger fleet and for the superintendents looking after it.
Technical Director, Head of Fleet or Marine Superintendent-type roles, or a move sideways into HSQE (health, safety, quality and environment), newbuilding project management, marine insurance surveying, or class society work.
Timelines vary enormously and there is no standard clock on this. Someone arriving from sea as a Chief Engineer may be running vessels within a year or two; a graduate entering without sea time will typically take considerably longer and may need to go to sea at some point to be taken seriously in ship management.

What people get wrong

“The job is mostly spent in a port, on ships.”

Most of it is desk work - email, spreadsheets, quotes, budgets and reports - punctuated by travel to vessels and dry docks. The travel is real but it's a minority of your time, and it's often airports and shipyards rather than scenic harbours.

“"Port Engineer" always means the same thing.”

It is used two quite different ways in the UK. In shipping and ship management it is largely interchangeable with technical superintendent - a shore-based engineer managing vessels. In harbour authorities and some port groups it means a civil/structural engineer looking after quays, berths and dredging. Read the advert carefully before applying.

“It's a purely technical role for someone who likes machinery.”

A big part of it is commercial and political: negotiating with yards, defending budgets to owners, and deciding when to take a ship out of service - which costs the commercial side real money. Engineers who can't argue a case in business terms struggle.

“You can walk into it straight from an engineering degree.”

In ship management it's usually a second-career role for people who have been to sea. Graduates generally enter alongside it - as technical assistants, purchasers or on a graduate scheme - and grow into it, or go to sea first via a cadetship.

Where this varies

Practice differs a lot by employer type. Third-party ship managers typically give each superintendent several vessels and a heavy travel load; an owner-operator with a small UK fleet may give you fewer ships and deeper involvement in each. Ferry, offshore support, dredging, tanker and cruise operators all have very different maintenance rhythms and regulatory pressures. Geographically, UK shipping and ship management jobs cluster around London, the South Coast, Aberdeen (offshore), Glasgow and Merseyside, while port authority civil engineering roles are spread across the major ports. Pay and travel expectations differ sharply between these.

See all 1 live Port Engineer jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.