“Developing my professional skills while making real global impact.” That’s what drove Jochem Goldschmidt (38 years old) to make his move to Boskalis a couple of years ago. He now plays an important part in the energy transition as a tender lead subsea rock installation.
Subsea assets like wind turbine foundations, cables and pipes are exposed to the power of the ocean day in day out. Boskalis has an effective way to protect them from washing away or being damaged by fishnets and anchors. Jochem: “We use large specialized ships called fallpipe vessels to accurately cover subsea structures with rocks. A recent successful tender concerned covering a 250 kilometer long ‘interconnector’ cable, connecting the power grids of Scotland and the Shetland Islands. An impressive project, of course, but there’s one particular type of project that will keep us more and more occupied for decades to come: offshore wind farms. All of the newly placed structures and cables for clean renewable energy have to be protected against the elements.”
“Whenever our subsea rock installation services are required”, Jochem continues, “it’s up to us to perform calculations and make an accurate proposal for the (potential) customer. How many rocks do we need, how long will it take and what is it going to cost? As a tender lead, I make sure the incoming tenders are properly distributed among our seabed intervention tender team. My job is all about getting the right people on the job and assuring the proposal’s quality as a whole. I really enjoy guiding and coaching our diverse team towards a winning tender.”
One of the things Jochem really appreciates, is that he and his tender colleagues are encouraged to leave their desks once in a while to visit project sites during execution. “So when a successful tender is handed over to a project team, we get the opportunity to see how it turns out in practice. Did everything work out the way we expected? Were our calculations spot on? It’s not just amazing to travel the world and see what’s happening on our vessels, but it’s also very valuable in terms of quality improvement, as we can really experience what’s happening at sea. We call this ‘closing the loop’.”
Jochem actually started at Boskalis as a project manager. Moving to tendering allowed him to use his gained knowledge in proposals. “Some time in the future”, he smiles, “I’d like to go back into operations and put everything I learned at the tender department back into practice. I love being able to switch from the more theoretical side of the business to the practical side and vice versa. It keeps you on top of things. Who knows where I’ll be in a couple of years. There are so many opportunities in all of Boskalis’ divisions.”
Do you want to read more about the career opportunities at Boskalis? Read Jochem’s colleagues’ stories here.
Create a job alert
