Principal, Intake & Integration

Cruise Yacht OpCo Ltd (Miami Branch); Fort Lauderdale (FL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, based in Fort Lauderdale, invites an experienced leader to shape innovation and portfolio strategy across guest experience.

You will lead cross-functional initiatives, facilitate executive discussions, and translate complex insights into strategic initiatives with measurable outcomes.

Join a culture of exceptional service where collaboration, discipline, and design thinking drive transformative experiences for guests.

Qualifications

• 8-15+ years in innovation, portfolio management, strategic planning, product development, transformation, or related disciplines.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives in complex organizations.
• Experience facilitating workshops, planning sessions, and executive discussions.
• Experience shaping ideas into actionable initiatives and business recommendations.
• Experience working in highly collaborative and matrixed environments.

Responsibilities

• Create and manage mechanisms that encourage ideas and opportunities to surface from across the organization.
• Facilitate brainstorming sessions, innovation workshops, and cross-functional ideation forums.
• Help teams identify problems, frame opportunities, and shape concepts.
• Evaluate opportunities in partnership with stakeholders across the business and refine concepts into defined initiatives.
• Coordinate readiness reviews, integration activities, and milestone planning for launches.

Skills

Facilitation

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder mgmt

Systems thinking

Leadership

Ambiguity tolerance

Cross-functional collaboration

Influence without authority

Job description

The Essence of Excellence: The Gold Standards

The Gold Standards are the bedrock of the Ritz-Carlton experience, setting us apart in the industry and establishing a legacy of unparalleled service. These standards embody the values and culture that define our brand, and serve as the compass guiding our every endeavour.

The Employee Promise

At The Ritz-Carlton, our Ladies & Gentlemen are the most important resource in our service commitment to each other and our guests. By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity, and commitment, we empower and nurture talent to the benefit of each individual and the company. The Ritz-Carlton fosters a culture where all are valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and The Ritz-Carlton Mystique is strengthened. Join us on a journey where every day is a testament to the highest standard of luxury and service.

What You'll Do

Cultivate Ideas & Opportunities

Create and manage mechanisms that encourage ideas and opportunities to surface from across the organization. Facilitate brainstorming sessions, innovation workshops, and cross-functional ideation forums. Help teams identify problems, frame opportunities, and shape concepts.

Maintain a pipeline of guest experience improvement and innovation opportunities.

Encourage broad organizational participation while maintaining strategic focus.

Shape & Prioritize Opportunities

Evaluate opportunities in partnership with stakeholders across the business. Facilitate prioritization discussions and investment decisions.

Refine concepts into clearly defined initiatives with measurable outcomes. Support development of business cases and opportunity assessments. Ensure resources remain focused on the highest-impact opportunities.

Drive Cross-Functional Alignment

Facilitate collaboration across Customer Experience, Operations, Commercial, Marketing, Finance, Marriott, and Executive Leadership. Coordinate stakeholder engagement and decision-making forums. Identify dependencies, risks, and alignment opportunities. Ensure initiatives remain connected to broader business priorities and experience goals. Serve as the connective tissue between functions involved in experience development.

Support Roadmap Development & Portfolio Visibility

Maintain visibility into initiatives, priorities, and portfolio health. Support development of experience roadmaps and prioritization recommendations. Track progress and key milestones across major initiatives. Ensure leaders have visibility into opportunities, tradeoffs, and resource implications. Help connect individual initiatives into a coherent portfolio strategy.

Lead Readiness & Integration Activities

Facilitate readiness reviews and implementation planning activities. Coordinate milestone checkpoints and seasonal planning sessions. Support launch preparation and organizational readiness efforts. Ensure experience intent remains connected through implementation. Help teams navigate obstacles that may impact successful delivery.

Success Looks Like

Valuable ideas consistently surface from across the organization. Teams have clarity around priorities and decision-making. Resources are focused on the highest-impact opportunities. Initiatives progress efficiently from concept through implementation. Cross-functional alignment improves and organisational duplication decreases. New experiences launch with greater readiness, consistency, and impact. The organisation becomes more disciplined without becoming more bureaucratic. Stakeholders view Customer Experience as a catalyst rather than a gatekeeper.

What We're Looking For

Experience

• 8-15+ years of experience in innovation, portfolio management, strategic planning, product development, transformation, consulting, customer experience, or related disciplines.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives in complex organizations.
• Experience facilitating workshops, planning sessions, and executive discussions.
• Experience shaping ideas into actionable initiatives and business recommendations.
• Experience working in highly collaborative and matrixed environments.

Skills & Capabilities

• Exceptional facilitation capability.
• Strong strategic thinking and prioritization skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Systems-thinking mindset.
• Strong organizational leadership capability.
• Ability to balance creativity with discipline.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity.
• Strong influence skills without formal authority.

Ideal Backgrounds

• Innovation and transformation teams
• Product strategy and portfolio management
• Customer experience strategy
• Hospitality or travel product development
• Service design and innovation organisations
• Management consulting
• Strategic planning functions
• Experience-focused transformation programs

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is an Equal opportunity, inclusive employer and will consider all applicants for employment with the Company on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.

About Us

Working from our offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Valletta, Malta, our shoreside team includes a wide variety of positions to support The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in delivering excellence. These roles include guest-facing Yacht Vacation Consultants, cruise hotel operations professionals, IT support, accounting and finance, sales and marketing professionals and more.