Lead, Marine Recruiter

Position Summary:

The Lead Marine Industry Recruiter (Lead Recruiter) plays a pivotal role in driving strategic recruitment initiatives, ensuring a continuous pipeline of top-tier talent for shipboard Marine operations. This leadership role is responsible for overseeing daily recruitment activities, mentoring recruiters, and providing strategic insights to optimize hiring effectiveness. The Lead Recruiter collaborates with key stakeholders, analyzes workforce demands, and ensures recruitment processes align with global maritime standards and company objectives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Talent Acquisition Leadership:

• Analyze recruitment forecasts and operational workforce plans to manage recruiter capacity, hiring velocity, and resource allocation.
• Oversee and drive the daily sourcing and recruitment efforts, ensuring a strong pipeline of qualified candidates for shipboard positions across multiple business units.
• Partner closely with HR Operations, HRBPs, and operational leadership to ensure alignment between recruitment strategies and workforce needs.
• Proactively identify external talent market trends and adjust sourcing strategies to meet evolving business demands.
• Develop and implement recruitment strategies for hard-to-fill and critical leadership roles, ensuring operational continuity.

Talent Sourcing & Identification:

• Lead proactive sourcing initiatives for management and executive shipboard roles, including passive candidate strategies, Boolean searches, professional networking, referrals, and cold calling.
• Manage and maintain gap talent pools for specialized marine roles, continuously monitoring external factors affecting candidate supply.
• Directly source, screen, and interview high-impact candidates for leadership and technical roles.
• Ensure the continuous development of talent pipelines to meet both short-term and long-term hiring goals.

Candidate Assessment & Selection:

• Conduct in-depth, competency-based interviews to assess candidate suitability for shipboard environments and leadership readiness.
• Oversee the standardization and continuous improvement of candidate assessment tools and interview frameworks.
• Review and approve final candidate shortlists, ensuring alignment with hiring goals, operational needs, and company standards.
• Provide hiring recommendations and collaborate with leadership on final candidate selection for key positions.

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration:

• Act as a trusted advisor to hiring leaders, providing recruitment data insights and market intelligence to support informed decision-making.
• Lead regular collaboration meetings with department heads to review hiring progress, pipeline health, and talent acquisition strategies.
• Develop and deliver presentations on recruitment effectiveness, process improvements, and hiring trends to executive stakeholders.
• Facilitate ongoing partnerships between the recruitment team and operational leadership to ensure talent strategies align with business objectives.

Operational Excellence & Compliance:

• Ensure all recruitment activities comply with international maritime labor standards (MLC) and company-specific policies (SQM).
• Continuously review and refine recruitment standard operating procedures (SOPs) for process efficiency and compliance.
• Monitor and maintain detailed recruitment records, ensuring adherence to global labor regulations and data protection policies.
• Mitigate legal risks by staying informed of regional employment laws and providing ongoing training to the recruitment team.

Data-Driven Recruitment Management:

• Utilize recruitment data, dashboards, and productivity reports to monitor individual and team performance against hiring targets.
• Leverage data insights to optimize sourcing strategies, streamline hiring workflows, and ensure resource efficiency.
• Prepare comprehensive reports, including hiring forecasts, talent gap analyses, and operational efficiency metrics for leadership review.

Team Leadership, Mentorship & Training:

• Provide ongoing mentorship and professional development to recruitment team members, fostering continuous learning and performance improvement.
• Lead recruiter training sessions, including new recruiter onboarding, competency-based interviewing techniques, and refresher workshops.
• Offer guidance to resolve recruitment challenges, providing escalation support and process improvements when needed.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, and excellence within the recruitment team.

Employer Branding & Candidate Experience:

• Champion a positive candidate experience by ensuring timely feedback, transparency, and professionalism throughout the recruitment process.
• Represent the company at global recruitment events, hiring fairs, and industry conferences to strengthen employer brand visibility.
• Communicate the company’s value proposition effectively, emphasizing career growth, shipboard culture, and global opportunities.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field preferred. Equivalent global experience will be considered.
• Recruitment Expertise: Minimum 5 years of experience in recruitment within the marine or cruise industries, with global talent acquisition exposure.
• Leadership Experience: Proven experience mentoring and leading recruitment teams with expanding responsibilities for performance oversight.
• Industry Knowledge: Familiarity with shipboard operations, including maritime labor regulations (MLC), SQM policies, and vessel staffing structures.
• Sourcing Mastery: Expertise in passive sourcing strategies, including Boolean searches, direct outreach, and professional networking for leadership roles.
• Candidate Assessment: Demonstrated experience in competency-based interviewing and candidate evaluation for both technical and leadership roles.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Ability to influence and collaborate with operational leaders, HRBPs, and senior management across multiple regions.
• Data-Driven Approach: Proficient in using recruitment metrics, talent analytics, and dashboards to drive process improvements and hiring decisions.
• Technology Proficiency: Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel (pivot tables, data visualization, and reporting tools). Experience with ATS platforms and virtual recruitment technologies required.
• Project Management: Strong organizational and time management skills, capable of managing multiple projects and requisitions simultaneously.
• Global Mindset: Knowledge of global labor markets, international recruitment practices, and regional employment regulations.
• Communication Excellence: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.

Key Competencies:

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to align recruitment strategies with long-term business goals.
• Collaboration: Effective in building relationships across diverse teams and geographies.
• Mentorship: Skilled in coaching and developing recruitment teams.
• Adaptability: Capable of adjusting strategies based on evolving market conditions.
• Accountability: Committed to delivering results while maintaining quality and compliance standards.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in human resources and/ or business administration from an accredited college or university or the international equivalent preferred.
• Minimum 8-10 years relevant recruitment experience, within the marine or cruise industries preferred.
• Experience in high volume, management and Officer level roles.
• Knowledge of Marine positions, career progression, the training certifications and licenses required for each level and per position preferred.
• Knowledge of SQM policy and MLC legislation highly recommended.
• Knowledge of general cruise ship operations preferred.
• Demonstrated capability to recruit positions in various levels of the organization (entry to management level) required.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to solve complex problems with a variety of variables. Ability to analyze large datasets and report relevant finding. 
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; experience and ability to discuss with and influence leadership teams, as well as to collaborate with and influence various clients, stakeholders and related teams
• Ability to handle multiple projects and requisitions simultaneously.
• Strong project management and time management skills required.
• Ability to productively work under tight time constraints with competing priorities and potentially stressful situations.
• Ability to deal appropriately with confidential information.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to communicate tactfully, verbally and in writing, to gather and relay information in a multinational environment consisting of department heads, managers, and coworkers.
• Ability to productively work under tight time constraints with competing priorities and potentially stressful situations.
• Working knowledge of accepted human resources recruitment practices; ability to acquire knowledge of recruitment processes in various countries.
• Exceptional attention to detail required.
• Knowledge of world geography, time differences and demographic.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office (i.e., Excel, Word, and PowerPoint). 
• Must have intermediate Excel skills to include building basic formulas and knowledge of functions with the ability to analyze datasets and report relevant findings and present data.
• Proficiency with ATS, CRMs preferred and Smartsheets a plus.
• Fluency to read, write and speak in English in order to understand and interpret written procedures. This includes the ability to give and receive instructions in written and verbal forms and to effectively present information and respond to questions from management, co-workers, and shipboard employees.

Join Our Global Talent Team!

If you’re a dynamic, results-driven talent acquisition professional passionate about the marine industry, we invite you to apply and be part of a global team committed to operational excellence at sea!

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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