Building a 6-Person Alternative Fuels Technical Team from Scratch

Maritime Logistics Group (MLG), a diversified shipping and logistics company based in Singapore, committed to operating a fleet of 8 methanol dual-fuel vessels by 2027. They had no internal technical expertise in alternative fuels and needed to build a specialist team from zero.

The Challenge

Six roles needed to be filled: a Head of Alternative Fuels, two Senior Technical Superintendents, a QHSSE Manager with alternative fuels experience, a Bunker Operations Specialist, and a Regulatory & Class Affairs Advisor. No single agency had placed all six role-types in combination before.

MLG's HR team had already spent three months attempting to fill the Head of Alternative Fuels role through job boards without success. The talent market for this profile is global, not local — and requires active headhunting rather than reactive advertising.

DSG's Approach

We scoped all six roles simultaneously, identifying the candidate universe for each in parallel. For the Head of Alternative Fuels, we identified 14 credible global candidates and approached 11 directly. For the Superintendent roles, we leveraged crossover talent from the chemical tanker and LNG sectors — professionals with transferable cryogenic and hazardous cargo handling experience.

"The team DSG built has become our single biggest competitive advantage for our decarbonisation programme." — Group Technical Director, Maritime Logistics Group

The Outcome

All six roles were filled within 91 days. The Head of Alternative Fuels joined from a European energy major. Both Technical Superintendents came from chemical tanker backgrounds, precisely as DSG had recommended when scoping the brief. The QHSSE Manager was sourced from the offshore sector and had direct ammonia handling experience.