Senior Manager, Journey & Insights

About the Role

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is 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 deliver the impeccable "Gold Standards" that define the Ritz-Carlton experience globally.

The Gold Standards are the bedrock of our service, embodying values and culture that set us apart. Our Ladies & Gentlemen are our most important resource, empowered through trust, honesty, respect, integrity, and commitment to enhance quality of life, fulfill individual aspirations, and strengthen The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.

Responsibilities

• 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.
  • 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.

Requirements

• 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 considers all applicants based on merit, competence, and qualifications.