Director, Human Resources Business Partner

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd; Miami (FL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Cruise privileges

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Life and disability insurance

Stock purchase plan

EAP

Professional development

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Royal Caribbean Group’s Human Resources Team seeks a Director, Human Resources Business Partner to lead strategic people, competence, and culture initiatives for Newbuild, embedding Designed to Endure across sites including Miami, Turku, Saint-Nazaire, and beyond.

This onsite, senior leadership role partners with EVP Maritime and other executives to shape organization design, talent strategy, and workforce planning, ensuring a high-quality employee experience and strong leadership pipeline.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the principal advisor to the EVP, Maritime and the Newbuild leadership team on organization structure, leadership effectiveness, talent, competence, and culture.
• Set the multi-year people, competence, and culture strategy for Newbuild and contribute to business strategy and operating plans, ensuring people priorities are integrated into planning and decision-making.
• Act as a member of the leadership team, challenging assumptions and providing data-driven insight on people’s risks and opportunities.
• Lead people-related integration of programs and partnerships, ensuring organizational readiness and knowledge continuity as the business scales.
• Lead workforce planning aligned to the Newbuild project pipeline, including capacity, critical skills, and project staffing needs across all Newbuild locations.
• Design and evolve the organization structure to support growth, operational excellence, and delivery of complex newbuild programs.
• Own succession planning and talent reviews for Newbuild, building a robust leadership pipeline and development plans for critical roles and high-potential talent.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition and Learning & Development to attract, develop, and retain specialized technical, engineering, and project management talent.
• Define the capabilities Newbuild needs for future ships, in line with Designed to Endure, and translate them into a multi-year competence plan by discipline, role, and site.
• Assess current capabilities against that plan and close the gaps through hiring, development, rotation, and partnerships, acting early on fit gaps.
• Own knowledge continuity: build the practices and routines that keep critical technical, naval architecture, and yard knowledge in Newbuild when people move on.
• Report regularly to the EVP, Maritime on competence coverage, critical-skill risk, and knowledge-continuity risk.
• Own the Newbuild culture agenda: build one Newbuilding culture across Miami, Turku, and Saint-Nazaire, bringing together site, national, and yard differences while respecting local strengths.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, collaboration, and inclusion across a multicultural workforce.

Job description

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Director, Human Resources Business Partner

Journey with us! Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our exciting team of employees. Royal Caribbean Group is pleased to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.

We are proud to be the vacation-industry leader with global brands — including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises — the most innovative fleet and private destinations, and the best people. Together, we are dedicated to turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations for our guests.

The Royal Caribbean Group’s Human ResourcesTeam has an exciting career opportunity for a full time Director, Human Resources Business Partner reporting to the AVP, HR Shared Services.

The position is onsite and based in Miami, Florida.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the location where this position is based. The position is not eligible for immigration or work-visa sponsorship now or in the future.

At Royal Caribbean Group (RCG), we care about your health, financial security, and overall well-being. That’s why we provide a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support what matters most to you across every area of life: physical, intellectual, emotional, and social. Here’s an overview of the benefits available to you, including but not limited to:

• Cruise and Travel Privileges
• Health and Wellness Benefits
• 401(k) + Employer Contribution (US Only)
• Company-Paid Life and Disability Insurance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Training & Professional Development
• Tuition & Professional Certification Reimbursement (US Only)

Specific benefits may vary by location and position. See more details about our benefits here .

What does the Human Resources Team do?

The Human Resources Team at Royal Caribbean Group partners with leaders and employees to build a high-performing, future-ready workforce. The team supports talent strategy, workforce planning, organizational design, employee relations, culture, and change management, enabling strong leadership, scalable people practices, and an inclusive environment that supports business transformation, employee engagement, and long-term organizational success.

How you can make an impact:

• The Director, HR Business Partner is the senior-most people, competence, and culture leader for Newbuild, embedded in the business and a core member of its leadership team. The role reports to AVP, HR Shared Services, with a strong dotted line to the EVP, Maritime and a seat at the EVP’s leadership table. Partnering closely with the EVP, Maritime, the role shapes the people, competence, and culture strategy and converts business priorities into organization design, talent, workforce, competence, and succession plans. It is accountable for the full people agenda for all Newbuild employees globally, including Miami, with a strong on-the-ground presence in Europe (Finland, France, Germany, and Italy), and leads the local HR teams to ensure a consistent, high-quality employee experience across locations.
• Beyond traditional HR, the role builds the people, competence, and culture that define One Newbuilding and advance the future of Newbuild. People, competence, and culture are three equal pillars of the role, and the Head is accountable for putting Designed to Endure into practice: defining the capabilities Newbuild needs for future ships, closing the gaps, keeping knowledge when people move on, and embedding the leadership behaviors that unite Miami, Turku, and Saint-Nazaire in one Newbuilding culture. The Head supports day-to-day leadership alongside Mission Control, site leaders, and functional leaders and maintains strong alignment with Group HR. Success requires a deep understanding of Newbuild’s technical and naval architecture capabilities, shipbuilding partnerships, knowledge continuity, and yard and supplier ecosystem, combined with a unified global perspective and a strong on-the-ground presence in Europe.

What your day-to-day will look like:

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as the principal advisor to the EVP, Maritime and the Newbuild leadership team on organization structure, leadership effectiveness, talent, competence, and culture.
• Set the multi-year people, competence, and culture strategy for Newbuild and contribute to business strategy and operating plans, ensuring people priorities are integrated into planning and decision-making.
• Act as a member of the leadership team, challenging assumptions and providing data-driven insight on people’s risks and opportunities.
• Lead people-related integration of programs and partnerships, ensuring organizational readiness and knowledge continuity as the business scales.

Organization, Workforce, and Succession Planning

• Lead workforce planning aligned to the Newbuild project pipeline, including capacity, critical skills, and project staffing needs across all Newbuild locations.
• Design and evolve the organization structure to support growth, operational excellence, and delivery of complex newbuild programs.
• Own succession planning and talent reviews for Newbuild, building a robust leadership pipeline and development plans for critical roles and high-potential talent.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition and Learning & Development to attract, develop, and retain specialized technical, engineering, and project management talent.

Competence and Knowledge Continuity

• Define the capabilities Newbuild needs for future ships, in line with Designed to Endure, and translate them into a multi-year competence plan by discipline, role, and site.
• Assess current capabilities against that plan and close the gaps through hiring, development, rotation, and partnerships, acting early on fit gaps.
• Own knowledge continuity: build the practices and routines (handovers and overlap, documentation, mentoring, and communities of practice) that keep critical technical, naval architecture, and yard knowledge in Newbuild when people move on.
• Report regularly to the EVP, Maritime on competence coverage, critical-skill risk, and knowledge-continuity risk.

Culture and Employee Engagement

• Own the Newbuild culture agenda: build one Newbuilding culture across Miami, Turku, and Saint-Nazaire, bringing together site, national, and yard differences while respecting local strengths.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, collaboration, and inclusion across a multicultural workforce.
• Lead change management and communication efforts for organizational initiatives and transformations.
• Embed the leadership behaviors from Designed to Endure in how Newbuild leaders hire, develop, assess, promote, and make decisions; hold leaders accountable and measure progress.
• Use people data and analytics to identify trends and drive action plans with leaders.

Functional Leadership and Delivery

• Lead and develop the HR teams in Miami, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy, setting the operating model, priorities, and standards for People & Competence across all sites in alignment with global HR strategy, policies, and processes.
• Lead, support, and develop Juliana [title and scope to be confirmed], who reports to the Head, through regular coaching, clear accountabilities, and development opportunities toward broader responsibility.
• Navigate country-specific labor laws, works councils, and employee representative relationships in partnership with local HR and Legal.
• Apply and adapt Group HR frameworks, policies, and cycles for performance management, compensation, benefits, and rewards to Newbuild’s needs, in partnership with Group HR, ensuring consistency and fairness across sites. Group HR retains ownership of these frameworks and cycles.
• Advise on complex employee relations matters, investigations, and workforce restructuring, managing risk and compliance.
• Build and sustain the HR and talent acquisition capability needed to deliver for the business, including a strong bench within the HR teams themselves.
• Report regularly to the EVP, Maritime and senior stakeholders on workforce, competence, knowledge continuity, culture, engagement, and people risk.
• Travel regularly to Newbuild locations to build relationships with leaders and employees and maintain a visible on-site presence.

How to achieve success:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, human resources, business, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience, including senior people-leadership roles with end-to-end accountability for the people agenda of a business unit, region, or function in a global, matrixed, multi-site organization. Career HR is not required; strong people leaders from engineering-intensive industrial businesses are encouraged to apply.
• Demonstrated expertise in succession planning, workforce planning, organization design, and leadership development, and experience defining future capability needs, closing competence gaps, and securing knowledge continuity.
• Experience leading or influencing HR teams across multiple countries, preferably in Europe, with working knowledge of European employment law and works council environments.
• Industrial background required, in an engineering-intensive, multi-site business such as maritime, shipbuilding, manufacturing, or other project-based industries.
• Understanding of Finnish and French yard culture is a real plus.
• Strong appreciation of technical and naval architecture capability, knowledge continuity, and the yard and supplier ecosystem behind complex newbuild projects.
• Proven ability to influence, advise, and challenge executive leaders with credibility and sound judgment.
• Demonstrated ability to build culture and embed leadership behaviors across sites and nationalities.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort using people data to inform decisions.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and cross-cultural collaboration skills; fluency in English required, and proficiency in Finnish, French, German, or Italian is an asset.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to sites in Finland, France, Germany, and Italy, and to Miami.

We know there's a lot to consider. As you go through the application process, our recruiters will be glad to provide guidance, and more relevant details to answer any additional questions. Thank you again for your interest in Royal Caribbean Group. We hope to see you onboard soon!

It is the policy of the Company to ensure equal employment and promotion opportunity to qualified candidates without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and related medical conditions), age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, citizenship or immigration status, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Royal Caribbean Group and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodation to support candidates with disabilities during our hiring process. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at hraccess@rcc l.com . This email is for disability-related accommodation requests only.