Senior Manager, Deployment and Itinerary Planning

Journey with us! Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our incredible team of employees at Royal Caribbean Group. We are proud 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.

Royal Caribbean Group’s Silversea Cruises has an exciting career opportunity for a full time Senior Manager, Deployment and Itinerary Planning on the Destination Development Team reporting to the Senior Director, Deployment.

This position will work onsite in Miami, Florida

Position Summary:

The Senior Manager of Deployment and Itinerary Planning has tremendous impact on the financial performance of the brand through the development of our strategic ship deployment while enhancing and optimizing the detailed all itineraries. This is done in close collaboration with a very wide range of external and internal partners and stakeholders. 

The position will impact almost every department and area of the company.  The role will make strategic recommendations on new deployment that maximizes potential while ensuring compliance with increasingly restrictive environmental regulations.

The Senior Manager will also lead our contingency planning for itineraries including close-in changes driven by weather and other items and further out changes driven by geo-political events and or new regulations.  A skilled and responsive leader is required to react in real time while also being one-step ahead of the competition to ensure that we have the best options.

The Senior Manager position is a critical position which requires considerable expertise and knowledge of our deployment and that of the industry and competitive environment.  Combined with detailed global port knowledge and understanding of each ship’s key operating particulars is key to ensuring that our macro and detailed itineraries are operationally viable and optimized for current and long-term planning. 

The Senior Manager will partner with the corporate deployment team on several projects including competitive analysis, process improvements, decarbonization of the fleet and other deployment tools.

Deployment and itinerary planning is like a 3-dimensional puzzle; many factors must be considered to ensure that each individual itinerary is as appealing, profitable and viable as possible while simultaneously enhancing the strategic positioning entire fleet for each brand and across the company. A successful candidate must be dynamic with a well-rounded analytical background, strong insights, direct deployment experience while also being a strong leader and manager.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Silversea-branded role focusing on developing and implementing long-term and short-term cruise itineraries that align with the company's business objectives and guest preferences.

• Hire, develop, manage, and lead small team with a wide range of backgrounds.

• Analyze itinerary performance metrics, revenue data, and market trends to identify opportunities for revenue growth and cost savings.

• Create new business processes and roadmaps needed to achieve deployment & itinerary planning goals and increase efficiency.

• Continuously evaluate and optimize itineraries based on market trends, guest feedback, and operational considerations.

• Research new destinations and itinerary options which support our brand specific strategic plans and utilize market research and guest feedback to maximize both market value and guest experience.

• Support deployment related aspects of Collaboration calls and Sit-reps to for close-in itinerary changes for weather, strikes, etc. to ensure best overall solution is executed.

• Pro-actively drive and enhance contingency planning for geo-political events impacting both open deployment and new deployment.  Responsiveness and creative solutions are instrumental to ensure that we are ahead of the competition and ready to implement changes when desired by each brand.  Recent examples include contingency planning for Russia and Israel.

• Liaise across most areas of the company including Corporate Deployment, Port Operations, Guest Port Services, Destination Development, Shore Excursion, Hotel/Nautical Operations, GMO, Government Relations, Revenue Management, Revenue Planning, OBR, Sales, MKT, International, New Build, Ship Executive Committees, Charter Sales, ESG, Supply Chain, Global Security, Finance, and other teams on the strategic development and execution of each brand deployment.

• Partner with Corporate Deployment PMO team to give insight in the user interface, design, and functionality of new tools and specifically a new itinerary planning tool.

• Provide regular competitive update on industry deployment including strategic implications.

• Oversee quoting of custom charter itineraries which are required by Charter Sales teams to secure full ship charters.

• Ensure all itineraries comply with regional and global CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator) decarb and other environmental regulations. Create new itineraries which maximizes appeal and profitability while reducing costs including biofuel and carbon taxes.  This is imperative for extending the useful life and right to operate of our older hardware despite escalating and nebulous regulatory environment.

• Manage itinerary changes required to solve berthing and other conflicts. Investigate solutions and collaborate directly with impacted ports and internal teams to analyze and implement optimal alternatives with least guest and cost impact which is still compliant with decarb goals.

• Schedule and lead operations and itinerary change meeting with key operations areas and guest communications to give visibility and solicit feedback for open items of any issues impacting deployment.

• Represent Deployment at various internal sales and other leadership conferences shore-side and shipboard.

• Directly impacts all revenue streams (net ticket, taxes, onboard, and other) based on the deployment decisions made.

• Impacts overall shipboard operations expenses as itineraries drive a significant piece of onboard expense.

• Deployment decisions based upon the business, environmental and operational analysis and developed will impact bottom line, organizational profitability by tens of millions of dollars.

• Lead a team of 3 to 5 direct reports

Qualifications, Knowledge and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree (B.S.) or (BBA.) from a four-year college or university is required. MBA or equivalent desired.

• Minimum of 5 years professional experience.

• 3+ years itinerary planning experience required.

• Cruise industry knowledge and experience required.

• Port & Destination knowledge required.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to prepare and present to internal and external audiences.

• Critical thinker with strong decision making/analytical skills, judgment and aptitude for problem solving and able to multi-task.

• Ability to lead and motivate a team of professional staff.

• Strong interpersonal skills with proven ability to collaborate and lead cross functional teams.

• Expertise with deployment and itinerary tools including Odysseus, PRIME, Brenock IMS, ISAAC and NIY calculations.

• Strong skills in Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Smartsheets.

• Familiarity with Deployment, Revenue and Energy MGT dashboards and Hyperion reporting.

• Knowledge of the impact of our itineraries upon each area and be knowledgeable of issues such as:
  • Market Demand and Sourcing Expectations
  • Immigration, Customs and Other Governmental Regulations
  • Port Constraints, Commitments, Incentives and Long-term Relationships
  • Hotel, Marine and Supply Chain Logistics
  • Fuel supply & itinerary consumption.
  • Global safety & security.
  • Familiarization with global IMO and regional environmental regulations including CII, EEXI and NOx Tier levels.

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'll 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, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Royal Caribbean Group and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

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