Marco De Magistris is the UK Engineering Lead within the Engineering & Software department at Global Maritime Consultancy Ltd. With over 16 years’ experience in offshore energy, floating production systems and offshore design, he leads the engineering team and delivery across UK offices.
He has deep technical expertise across oil & gas and offshore renewables, including FPSO, FLNG and FSRU assets, floating wind systems, mooring and station-keeping, life extension, integrity management and marine operations.
In this Q&A, Marco provides an insight into life as UK Engineering Lead, sharing what inspired his career in offshore engineering and the projects that continue to drive his passion for the industry. He discusses the importance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing at Global Maritime, the opportunities presented by the energy transition, and how engineering innovation is helping clients navigate increasingly complex offshore challenges.
What does a day in the life of UK Engineering Lead look like?
As UK Engineering Lead at Global Maritime, my role combines technical leadership, people management, innovation and project delivery across the offshore industry. I lead a multidisciplinary team of Structural Engineers and Naval Architects, while also acting as a line manager focused on developing people, building capability and ensuring we deliver high-quality engineering solutions.
A typical day involves balancing technical oversight, supporting project delivery, resource management, client engagement and helping solve complex engineering challenges. I also work closely with other Global Maritime business streams and regional teams, ensuring a globally present and locally active approach that allows us to deliver projects efficiently across different regions, disciplines and time zones.
Innovation and digitalisation are also an important part of my role. We support software development initiatives and new ways of working that improve efficiency and enhance engineering capability. With the offshore energy sector evolving rapidly, particularly through energy transition, a key focus is ensuring our teams and solutions remain forward-looking, collaborative, and ready for future challenges.
What inspired you to pursue a career within our industry?
What attracted me to the offshore industry was the combination of technical complexity, innovation and the real-world impact of the work we do. Offshore projects constantly push engineering boundaries and the industry is often at the forefront of developing new technologies and innovative solutions to solve increasingly complex challenges.
What has kept me engaged throughout my career is that success in this industry is rarely achieved in isolation, it requires multidisciplinary collaboration, bringing together different expertise and thinking outside the box to develop solutions that are not only technically sound, but also safe, practical and efficient
What’s your favourite thing about being part of the Global Maritime team, beyond the day-to-day work?
What I enjoy most about being part of Global Maritime is the people and the collaborative culture. We have a strong pool of expertise across disciplines and regions and everyone is approachable and willing to share knowledge, which makes teamwork very effective.
The company culture is very supportive, with a real emphasis on listening, inclusion and giving everyone the opportunity to contribute and take ownership. It creates an environment where people’s input is valued and directly contributes to project and company success.
For me, it’s also a place where you are constantly learning from others, whether technically or through different ways of thinking and solving problems.
What’s something exciting you’re currently working on?
One of the most exciting areas I’m currently involved in is offshore renewables transport and installation studies, particularly around enabling new concepts and ensuring safe, efficient execution of increasingly complex offshore developments. These projects are pushing us to think differently and apply innovative engineering approaches to support the growth of the renewables sector.
Alongside that, I’m also heavily involved in FPSO life extension projects, which are technically challenging and highly valuable for our clients. These studies require a deep understanding of structural integrity, fatigue behaviours and operational history, and they often involve finding practical, cost-effective solutions to safely extend asset life while maintaining compliance with applicable rules, regulations and safety standards.
Both areas are particularly rewarding because they combine technical depth with real-world impact, and they reflect how the offshore industry is evolving across both energy transition and asset optimisation.
In your opinion, what’s the key challenge facing the offshore energy sector right now, and how do GM’s capabilities help overcome it?
One of the key challenges facing the offshore energy sector right now is managing the increasing complexity of projects while maintaining safety, cost efficiency and schedule certainty, particularly as we transition towards offshore renewables and extend the life of existing assets such as FPSOs and semi-subs. The industry is being asked to deliver more, in less time, and often in more demanding technical and commercial environments.
Global Maritime is well placed to address these challenges through its strong multidisciplinary capability and global delivery model. By combining expertise across offshore engineering and design, geoscience and marine operations across regions and business streams, we are able to deliver integrated, practical solutions that span the full asset lifecycle, rather than isolated studies.
In addition, our focus on innovation and digital tools is helping to improve efficiency, consistency, and decision-making across projects.
For more information about our engineering capabilities, visit here: Engineering – Global Maritime
