Senior Manager, Journey & Insights

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

Job summary

Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in Fort Lauderdale, FL invites a senior Guest Insights leader to shape the guest understanding strategy across the voyage lifecycle. You will lead qualitative and quantitative research, build journey maps, and translate insights into strategic actions.

Collaborating with Operations, Experience Design and Executive Leadership, you will embed guest understanding into decisions, identify opportunities, and elevate service quality in ultra-luxury hospitality at sea.

Qualifications

• 8–15+ years of experience in customer insights, customer experience, journey management, service design research, behavioral research, hospitality research, or related disciplines.
• Proven experience leading guest or customer research programs.
• Experience building and maintaining journey maps as operational or strategic management tools.
• Experience influencing business decisions through insight generation and opportunity identification.
• Experience working across highly collaborative and matrixed organizations.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the organization's guest research and insight strategy.
• Establish deep understanding of guest behaviors, motivations, expectations, and decision-making across the voyage lifecycle.
• Lead qualitative and quantitative research efforts including interviews, observational research, guest immersions, surveys, focus groups, and behavioral studies.
• Identify emerging trends, unmet needs, and experience opportunities.
• Ensure guest understanding informs strategic, operational, and product decisions across the organization.
• Synthesize research, guest feedback, operational observations, and performance data into actionable insights.
• Translate findings into opportunities that inform Voyage Experience, Experience Design, Operations, and Executive Leadership.
• Develop guest personas, behavioral frameworks, journey insights, and opportunity assessments.
• Ensure insights drive prioritization and decision making.
• Serve as a trusted voice of the guest across the organization.

Skills

Guest insights

Qualitative research

Quantitative research

Journey mapping

Stakeholder mgmt

Storytelling

Systems thinking

Hospitality research

Job description

Join the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection: Where Every Voyage is a Symphony of Luxury Embark on an extraordinary journey with the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, an exquisite extension of the renowned Ritz-Carlton brand, dedicated to redefining ultra-luxury hospitality at sea. As a "Lady or Gentleman" of our esteemed team, you'll be entrusted with the art of delivering the impeccable "Gold Standards" that have made the Ritz-Carlton an epitome of excellence across the globe. 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 endeavor. 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

Lead Guest Understanding & Experience Intelligence

• Develop and execute the organization\'s guest research and insight strategy.
• Establish a deep understanding of guest behaviors, motivations, expectations, and decision-making across the voyage lifecycle.
• Lead qualitative and quantitative research efforts including interviews, observational research, guest immersions, surveys, focus groups, and behavioral studies.
• Identify emerging trends, unmet needs, and experience opportunities.
• Ensure guest understanding informs strategic, operational, and product decisions across the organization.

Lead Journey Governance

• Own the end-to-end guest journey framework and governance model.
• Maintain and evolve the guest journey map as a living management tool rather than a static deliverable.
• Establish ownership, accountability, and operating rhythms around key stages of the journey.
• Ensure initiatives, investments, and improvement efforts are evaluated through the lens of the guest journey.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment around journey priorities and opportunities.
• Identify disconnects, overlaps, and gaps across the guest experience ecosystem.

Evaluate Designed vs. Delivered Experiences

• Assess how experiences are actually being delivered versus how they were intended to function.
• Conduct experience audits, observations, voyage immersions, and operational reviews.
• Identify service gaps, friction points, breakdowns, and missed opportunities.
• Surface opportunities for experience improvement, optimization, and innovation.
• Provide objective assessments of experience quality and consistency.

Generate Actionable Insights

• Synthesize research, guest feedback, operational observations, and performance data into actionable insights.
• Translate findings into opportunities that inform Voyage Experience, Experience Design, Operations, and Executive Leadership.
• Develop guest personas, behavioral frameworks, journey insights, and opportunity assessments.
• Ensure insights drive prioritization and decision making.
• Serve as a trusted voice of the guest across the organization.

Build Organizational Capability

• Establish best practices for guest research, journey management, and insight generation.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, learning, and guest-centered thinking.
• Educate stakeholders on guest behavior, journey dynamics, and experience quality.
• Partner with leaders across the organization to embed guest understanding into everyday decision making.
• Help create a continuous learning culture across Customer Experience and Operations.

Success Looks Like Guest understanding becomes embedded in strategic and operational decision making. The guest journey serves as a common framework for prioritization and investment decisions. Journey ownership and accountability are clearly understood across the organization. Experience opportunities are identified before they become guest complaints. Journey maps are actively used to guide improvements and product decisions. Guest insights directly influence product strategy and experience development. Friction points and missed opportunities are systematically identified and addressed. The organization develops a deeper understanding of guest behavior and experience quality.

What We\'re Looking For

Experience

• 8–15+ years of experience in customer insights, customer experience, journey management, service design research, behavioral research, hospitality research, or related disciplines.
• Proven experience leading guest or customer research programs.
• Experience building and maintaining journey maps as operational or strategic management tools.
• Experience influencing business decisions through insight generation and opportunity identification.
• Experience working across highly collaborative and matrixed organizations.

Skills & Capabilities

• Exceptional curiosity and guest empathy.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research capability.
• Deep journey mapping and journey governance expertise.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations.
• Strong storytelling and communication skills.
• Systems-thinking mindset.
• Ability to identify patterns, opportunities, and root causes.
• Strong stakeholder management and facilitation capability.
• Ability to connect guest understanding to strategic action.

Ideal Backgrounds

• Customer insights leadership
• Service design research
• Experience strategy
• Luxury hospitality guest insights
• Consumer behavior research
• Human-centered design research
• Customer experience consulting
• Travel and hospitality experience research

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.