Sr. Dir, Talent Strategy & Operations

The Sr. Director, Shoreside Talent Development & Management is responsible for setting the strategic direction, operating model, governance, and enterprise execution approach for shoreside talent development, talent lifecycle programs, leadership development, career growth, performance enablement, succession planning, and related employee development initiatives across Royal Caribbean Group.

This role leads the design and delivery of an integrated shoreside talent ecosystem that connects enterprise talent priorities with business needs, employee experience, leadership capability, organizational effectiveness, and measurable outcomes. The position ensures that talent programs are strategically aligned, operationally disciplined, scalable, data-informed, and executed with consistency across brands, functions, geographies, and stakeholder groups.

Working closely with HR leadership, HR Business Partners, business leaders, Learning & Development, HR Technology, Corporate Communications, Talent team members, and cross-functional partners, this role provides strategic oversight, prioritization, executive visibility, and people leadership across the shoreside talent development and management portfolio.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Talent Strategy, Portfolio Leadership & Enterprise Alignment

• Define and lead the shoreside talent development and management strategy, ensuring programs, processes, tools, and experiences are aligned to enterprise priorities, HR strategy, workforce needs, and business outcomes.

• Establish an integrated portfolio view across talent lifecycle, employee development, leadership development, performance, succession, career development, mentoring, onboarding, and related talent initiatives.
• Translate enterprise talent priorities into clear strategic roadmaps, annual plans, quarterly priorities, governance routines, and measurable outcomes.
• Partner with HR and business leaders to identify critical talent needs, capability gaps, succession risks, leadership development priorities, and employee growth opportunities.

• Ensure talent initiatives are sequenced, resourced, prioritized, and governed effectively to reduce duplication, manage capacity, and focus resources on the highest-value work.

Talent Lifecycle, Performance & Succession Management

• Provide strategic oversight for core talent management processes, including talent review, succession planning, performance management, calibration, career development, mentoring, onboarding, and first-year experience initiatives.

• Ensure talent processes are practical, scalable, user-centered, and consistently executed across business areas and stakeholder groups.

• Partner with HRBPs and business leaders to strengthen readiness for talent discussions, improve calibration quality, increase follow-through on outcomes, and support stronger leadership accountability.
• Guide the development of tools, templates, communications, leader resources, and process guidance that enable effective talent conversations and consistent execution.
• Use talent data, feedback, participation trends, completion insights, and business input to identify opportunities to improve talent processes and employee development outcomes.

Shoreside Learning, Development & Leadership Capability

• Lead the strategy and governance for shoreside talent development programs, including leadership development, career-stage experiences, mentoring, cohort-based development, digital learning journeys, and enterprise learning initiatives.

• Ensure learning and development solutions are aligned to business needs, learner expectations, leadership capability priorities, and employee growth pathways.
• Partner with the facilitation team to plan, coordinate, and execute leadership and shoreside development programs, ensuring clear schedules, materials, participant communications, facilitator readiness, and seamless delivery logistics.

• Ensure program delivery is consistent, engaging, and aligned to intended outcomes by gathering feedback, monitoring participant experience, addressing delivery risks, and partnering with facilitators to continuously improve future sessions.

• Partner with learning, content development, technology, vendor, and business stakeholders to ensure development experiences are well-designed, operationally viable, scalable, and measurable.
• Oversee the integration of digital learning, RCGU learning journeys, online content, blended learning experiences, and programme communications into a coherent development ecosystem.

• Promote development approaches that are engaging, accessible, inclusive, and practical for a complex, matrixed, and operationally demanding organization.

Governance, Intake, Prioritization & Operating Rhythm

• Establish and maintain the operating model for shoreside talent development and management, including intake practices, decision forums, prioritization criteria, planning cycles, governance routines, and escalation pathways.

• Ensure new work is evaluated against strategic value, capacity, urgency, business impact, readiness, stakeholder demand, and alignment to enterprise talent priorities.
• Create clear decision rights, roles, routines, templates, and ways of working that improve consistency, accountability, and transparency across the Talent portfolio.

• Sponsor portfolio reviews, leadership updates, prioritization forums, planning sessions, and decision-making cadences that support disciplined execution and informed trade-offs.

• Ensure risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, unresolved decisions, and delivery barriers are surfaced early and escalated with clear context, options, and recommendations.

Executive Reporting, Insights & Business Impact

• Define success measures, adoption indicators, participation metrics, effectiveness measures, and business impact indicators across the shoreside Talent portfolio.
• Provide executive-ready updates, dashboards, briefing materials, strategic narratives, and recommendations for HR leadership, Talent leadership, and business stakeholders.
• Partner closely with Talent Strategy & Communications, Portfolio Management, Infrastructure, Systems, and other Talent team members to ensure priorities, messaging, processes, timelines, and reporting are aligned across the broader Talent portfolio.
• Drive consistency across Talent deliverables by connecting related workstreams, identifying dependencies, reducing duplication, and supporting shared standards for governance, stakeholder updates, executive materials, and implementation practices.
• Use data, stakeholder feedback, employee insights, and program outcomes to evaluate progress, identify improvement opportunities, and support evidence-based decision-making.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, concise, actionable, and tailored appropriately for executive, HR, business, and implementation audiences.
• Translate complex talent activity into clear insights that show progress, risks, decisions required, business implications, and opportunities for improved impact.

Stakeholder Partnership, Change & Adoption

• Build trusted relationships with HR leaders, HRBPs, business executives, Talent team members, HR Technology, Corporate Communications, vendors, and cross-functional partners.
• Serve as a strategic advisor and connector across stakeholder groups by clarifying priorities, resolving ambiguity, aligning expectations, and ensuring talent solutions reflect both enterprise objectives and business realities.

• Lead change and adoption strategies that increase awareness, understanding, readiness, engagement, and sustained use of Talent programs and processes.

• Guide the development of stakeholder engagement plans, communications, launch materials, leader toolkits, talking points, FAQs, and implementation guidance.

• Represent Talent priorities with professionalism, credibility, discretion, and strong organizational judgment in senior-level discussions.

Team Leadership, Capability Building & Delivery Excellence

• Lead, coach, and develop direct reports, setting clear expectations, priorities, standards, and accountabilities for high-quality strategy, portfolio management, program execution, reporting, and stakeholder support.
• Build capability across the team in program management, portfolio discipline, stakeholder engagement, data-informed decision-making, executive communication, change management, and continuous improvement.

• Ensure team members are effectively deployed against priority work, with clear ownership, manageable workload, appropriate support, and alignment to strategic outcomes.
• Foster a team culture of collaboration, accountability, inclusion, customer focus, continuous learning, operational discipline, and practical problem solving.

• Model strong leadership behaviors, sound judgment, confidentiality, resilience, and a balanced approach to strategic thinking and hands-on execution.

Continuous Improvement, Technology & Innovation

• Drive continuous improvement across shoreside Talent programs by simplifying processes, improving governance, strengthening user experience, increasing scalability, and reducing unnecessary complexity.

• Identify opportunities to leverage technology, automation, AI-enabled tools, dashboards, learning platforms, talent systems, and digital workflows to improve visibility, decision-making, efficiency, and employee experience.

• Incorporate lessons learned, external practices, stakeholder feedback, employee insights, and program data to evolve talent strategy, program design, operating routines, and measurement practices.
• Ensure Talent tools, templates, data, resources, communications, and processes remain current, practical, accessible, and aligned with evolving organizational needs.

Performs other duties as required. This job description does not state or imply that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position. Employees may be required to perform other job-related duties as assigned by their supervisor or management.

Qualifications, Education & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree required in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Education, Leadership Development, Program Management, or a related field; graduate degree preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in Talent Management, Learning & Development, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Leadership Development, Program Management, Change Management, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-scale talent, learning, leadership development, performance, succession, career development, or employee experience portfolios in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Proven ability to translate enterprise strategy and business priorities into integrated talent strategies, operating models, roadmaps, governance routines, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong understanding of talent lifecycle practices, leadership development, employee development, performance management, succession planning, career growth, mentoring, onboarding, and adult learning principles.
• Experience leading teams, developing talent, setting standards, managing workload, coaching performance, and building capability across direct reports and project teams.
• Strong portfolio and program management discipline, including use of roadmaps, governance forums, prioritization frameworks, RAID logs, dashboards, decision logs, status reporting, and stakeholder management routines.
• Excellent executive communication, storytelling, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex talent priorities into clear, concise, actionable recommendations.
• Strong analytical, diagnostic, and business judgment skills, with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, assess risks, frame options, and make practical recommendations.
• Proven ability to build credibility and trusted relationships with senior leaders, HR partners, business stakeholders, vendors, and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to influence across a matrixed organization without direct authority, manage ambiguity, navigate competing priorities, and maintain delivery discipline in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience with talent platforms, learning management systems, HR systems, survey tools, reporting dashboards, collaboration platforms, and digital learning technologies preferred.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, especially PowerPoint and Excel; experience with dashboards, portfolio reporting, SharePoint, Teams, and project management tools preferred.
• Certification or practical experience in coaching, change management, leadership development, facilitation, talent assessment, program/project management, or organizational development preferred.
• Demonstrates high integrity, discretion, sound judgment, professionalism, and confidentiality when handling sensitive talent, employee, and organizational information.