Sr. Manager, Program Management

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 & benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.

Position Summary:

We share a passion for creative thinking, disciplined execution, and operational excellence that drive continuous improvement across our global fleet. The Senior Manager, Program Management supporting Program Performance plays a critical role in enabling this ambition by managing the programs and projects that raise Newbuild Solutions' capability for the corporation, and by ensuring those programs deliver against their commitments for speed, quality, cost, and risk.

The Senior Manager proactively strategizes, plans, manages, and drives a portfolio of high-profile, multi-departmental initiatives that improve how Newbuild Solutions develops and delivers on the portfolio. The role is accountable for managing all aspects of program planning, tracking, and status reporting, and for translating data into insight, insight into action, and action into sustained performance improvement. The Senior Manager is expected to use the company's approved AI tools as a routine part of this work — to analyze program data, model scenarios, surface risks earlier, and shorten the cycle from raw status input to executive-ready insight — while retaining full ownership of the accuracy and judgment behind every recommendation.

Managing a small team of program, performance, and process improvement professionals, this role partners closely with Program and Project Managers, Technical, Supply Chain, Finance, Design, Mission Control, Transformation Office, IT, Product Development and Operations (both shoreside and shipboard), and independently maintains relationships with key stakeholders at the Director, Vice President, and Company Officer level. Functioning as an in-house process driver and coach to matrixed operating department representatives, the Senior Manager must be able to work within an existing structured process framework while bringing the skills to innovate, challenge ways of working, strengthen execution discipline, and embed a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Leads, mentors, and provides overall direction to a small team (Associate up to Manager level) responsible for the day-to-day execution, analysis, and reporting of assigned programs and projects.
• Manages the full lifecycle of assigned capability programs ensuring completion within the prescribed time frame and budget.
• Utilizes project management tools and industrial engineering techniques to develop and maintain program scope, schedules, milestones, deliverables, and overall project focus, while managing customer and executive expectations.
• Leads, coaches, and advises project teams on the recommended course of action in outlining goals, objectives, milestones, responsibilities, scope, risks, and tracking routines.
• Defines and implements performance management frameworks aligned to program objectives, focusing on schedule acceleration, quality improvement, and cost control, balanced with risk mitigation.
• Establishes and maintains integrated performance dashboards, KPIs, and leading indicators across speed, quality, cost, and risk dimensions, and reports on progress to senior leadership; uses AI tools to test and refine indicator definitions, identify correlations between measures, and reduce the manual effort required to keep reporting current.
• Drives cadence-based performance and program reviews, ensuring timely identification of variances, root causes, and corrective actions; reviews status reports prepared by project personnel and modifies schedules or plans as required. Applies AI tools to consolidate status inputs from multiple workstreams, systems, and reporting formats into a single coherent view ahead of each review, validating the output against source data before it is used.
• Manages and participates in the study of operational needs and current operational performance to determine optimal working procedures and systems, applying methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, or Agile to map workflows, remove bottlenecks, and improve efficiency.
• Partners with Program and Project Management to challenge baseline assumptions and recommend data-driven improvement actions that reduce time out of service and project delivery cost.
• Builds forecasts and scenario models that inform program decisions on schedule, cost, and resourcing, using AI tools to accelerate scenario construction and sensitivity testing; documents the assumptions behind each model so results can be challenged and reproduced.
• Organizes the communication of program plan status on a regular basis to stakeholders, global partners, and the core team; continues to re-establish goals and adjust work processes based on shifting priorities and new information.
• Leads cross-functional improvement workshops, training sessions, and working sessions to resolve execution issues, improve delivery reliability, and promote a culture of continuous improvement.
• Embeds risk-based thinking and quality management into planning and execution, implementing controls and ensuring early identification and mitigation of delivery, quality, and cost risks; uses AI tools to scan schedules, change logs, meeting notes, and issue registers for emerging patterns and early-warning signals that warrant escalation, and applies professional judgment to confirm which signals are real.
• Leads change management initiatives to ensure successful adoption of new processes, tools, and technologies across the organization.
• Supports standardization of program and performance management processes, tools, and reporting across the portfolio, and develops best practices drawing on internal benchmarks and external industry insights; identifies recurring analysis and reporting tasks that can be automated with AI or workflow tools and redirects the time saved toward analysis and problem solving.
• Helps the broader program and project community adopt AI tools in day-to-day performance practices by demonstrating practical use cases, sharing prompts and working methods that have proven effective, and coaching team members on where these tools add value and where they do not.
• Establishes working standards for responsible AI use within the team, including which tools and data sources are approved, how output is verified before it reaches a stakeholder, and how sensitive program, commercial, and vendor information is handled.
• Leads and organizes the team in the development of monthly presentations and project reports for senior executives, management, and other stakeholders, using AI tools to draft, structure, and refine narratives so that the finished product is concise, decision-focused, and supported by verified data.
• Drives a strong feedback and learning culture, ensuring lessons learned are captured, institutionalized, and applied to future programs.
• Participates in succession planning, training, evaluation, and development for program and project team personnel.
• Stays current on industry trends, emerging technologies, and advances in AI and analytics tooling that can enhance fleet capability, operational excellence, and delivery performance, and assesses where they can be practically applied within the portfolio.

Performs other duties as required.  This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position.  Employees will be required to perform any other job-related duties assigned by their supervisor or management. 

Qualifications & Education:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree with a concentration in Business Management, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, Engineering, Project Management, Operations Management, Construction Management, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in program/project management, performance management, operational excellence, project controls, or continuous improvement, with 4–5 years leading a team.
• Demonstrated experience improving delivery speed, quality, cost, and risk outcomes in complex, matrixed environments.
• Experience working within program and project management organizations is strongly preferred; marine, newbuild, drydock, shipyard, or heavy capital project experience is a plus.
• Proven leadership experience managing, mentoring, and developing small teams of professionals such as program managers, analysts, or process engineers.
• Proven experience with risk and quality management practices and methodologies.
• Working proficiency with enterprise AI tools (such as Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and AI capabilities embedded in reporting and project management platforms) as a business user, with practical experience applying them to analysis, reporting, and written communication. Must be able to evaluate output critically, recognize when it is incomplete or incorrect, and understand data quality, confidentiality, and responsible-use considerations. Programming, model development, and machine learning engineering are not required.
• Certification in Lean Six Sigma, PMP, or another recognized project management or process improvement methodology is a plus.
• Preferred: experience introducing AI tools into a reporting, analytics, or program management environment — for example, building reusable prompts or templates, automating a recurring report, or training colleagues on effective use.
• Able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily with little to no guidance.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Strong track record of driving measurable performance improvements through structured analysis and execution discipline.
• Strong knowledge of process improvement methodologies and tools (Lean, Six Sigma, Agile) and of project management frameworks.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills, including data analysis, decomposition, and root cause identification; able to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions, whether working from source data directly or from AI-assisted analysis.
• Sound judgment in applying AI tools to program work: frames a question well, checks results against source data, recognizes plausible-sounding but incorrect output, and knows which decisions require direct human analysis rather than an assisted answer.
• Understanding of data quality, data privacy, and responsible-use considerations, including appropriate handling of confidential program, commercial, and vendor information in company-approved tools.
• Solid understanding of project controls, risk management, quality management, and performance KPI frameworks.
• Detail oriented with excellent financial and spreadsheet modeling skills and a solid understanding of accounting rules for expense and capital activities.
• Ability to interpret a variety of technical instructions, specifications, and drawings, including deck plans, elevations, sections, and details, and to work with several abstract and concrete variables.
• Proven workshop facilitation and stakeholder alignment capabilities.
• Strong change management skills with the ability to influence without authority.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with strength in communicating in a multicultural environment at all levels of the organization; able to clearly and effectively present information to top management and executive forums.
• Excellent organizational, presentation, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Software: proficiency in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Project required, along with working use of Microsoft Copilot, Claude or comparable enterprise AI assistants; experience with performance dashboarding and analytics tools (e.g., Power BI) and their embedded AI features preferred.
• Internal candidates: knowledge of the CAR process (budget, approval, reconciliation, and reporting), AMOS, Clarity, JDE, and Essbase.
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced environments with multiple priorities and senior stakeholders.

Financial Responsibilities

• Accountable for supporting delivery of program cost objectives which may include measurable reduction of project delivery costs (PDC) and time out of service across the assigned portfolio.
• Works with the Finance team to create, track, and manage program performance initiative budgets and forecasts.
• Partners with financial analysts on economic feasibility and business case analysis for program performance initiatives.
• Supports achievement of program cost objectives through improved forecasting accuracy, cost transparency, and proactive risk mitigation.

Contributes to cost avoidance and productivity gains through execution efficiency and waste reduction. Executes optimization opportunities as directed by department executives.

Physical Demands 

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to walk, sit, reach with hands and arms, talk, and hear.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment

• The work environment is primarily office-based at the Port of Miami and includes collaboration with global teams across multiple time zones.
• Approximately 30% annual travel to shipyards, drydocks, site offices, shipboard locations and potentially location for suppliers.
• A high noise level is possible in these environments; personal protective equipment will be required when needed.

 We know its 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.