Sr. Manager, Newbuild Strategy

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:

As a key member of the Newbuild & Innovation team, the Newbuild Strategy Sr. Manager helps shape the long-term direction of RCG’s newbuild portfolio and shipyard partnerships. The role owns competitive, market, and yard intelligence – building the fact base that informs where, with whom, and on what terms RCG builds in the future. This includes tracking competitor and industry activity, developing a structured view of global shipyard capacity, capability, and positioning, benchmarking pricing and commercial models, and translating these insights into actionable recommendations on future portfolio strategy, yard engagement, and the newbuild operating model. The Sr. Manager works cross-functionally across the organization – partnering closely with stakeholders inside and outside Newbuild to anticipate future needs – and externally with shipyards and industry partners to understand where and how RCG should build over the coming decade. This position needs the experience, maturity, and confidence to interface with company executives, external partners, and functional leaders, and the humble, self-aware style required to lead cross-functional teams to consensus around solutions.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Owns competitive intelligence for newbuild – tracking competitor fleet plans, orderbooks, technology moves, and industry trends, and translating them into implications for RCG's strategy.
• Builds and maintains market intelligence across the shipbuilding and cruise industries, monitoring capacity, demand, input costs, and macro factors that shape newbuild decisions.
• Partners with Corporate Strategy to maintain an accurate view of the newbuild market, in support of the wider corporate and Newbuild departmental strategy.
• Develops and maintains yard intelligence – a structured view of the global shipyard landscape, including capacity, capability, technology, financial health, and positioning – to inform where RCG can and should build in the future.
• Develops a strategic point of view on new market opportunities (e.g., Asia, South America) to broaden the yard assessment workstream.
• Shapes future yard engagement strategies and the newbuild operating model, evaluating partnership structures, contracting approaches, and footprint options across yards and regions.
• Drives development of RCG's future newbuild portfolio strategy, working with leadership to assess options, sequencing, and growth opportunities across brands.
• Develops and maintains pricing and commercial model benchmarking, building the analytical basis to understand and challenge cost, price, and value across yards and programs.
• Collaborates cross-functionally with stakeholders inside and outside Newbuild – including Operations, Finance, Brand, and program teams – to anticipate future needs and align strategy with the broader organization.
• Builds and maintains relationships with shipyards and external industry partners to gather intelligence, understand capabilities, and inform decisions on where and how RCG should build in the future.
• Oversees strategic analysis and leads the generation of analytically driven, actionable insights and executive-ready materials to influence decisions across the organization.
• Synthesizes intelligence and analysis into clear recommendations and presents to the Newbuild leadership team and company executives.
• Motivates and engages direct reports, including providing day-to-day direction, mentorship, and coaching.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and external partners to identify opportunities for cost optimization and process improvements. 

• Prepare executive-level summaries, reports, and presentations highlighting cost assumptions, risks, opportunities, and recommendations. 

• Balance multiple projects across various ships, locations, vendors, and timelines while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail. 

• Travel as required to support ship visits, dry docks, vendors, and project execution activities. 

Qualifications & Education:

• Bachelor’s and MBA required; strategy consulting or corporate strategy background a plus.
• 10+ years of experience in strategy consulting, corporate/commercial strategy, or a related analytical field, ideally with exposure to shipbuilding, maritime, or other capital-intensive industries.
• Cruise, travel, maritime, or shipbuilding industry experience a strong plus.
• Strong financial modeling, benchmarking, and business case analysis experience.
• Experience gathering, structuring, and synthesizing competitive, market, and industry intelligence into actionable insight.
• Excellent writing and presentation creation skills.
• Excellent organizational, communication and stakeholder management skills, including experience engaging and presenting to senior executives.
• Familiarity with commercial and contracting terms and partner/supplier negotiations a plus.
• Self-starter with intellectual curiosity, a strong desire to learn, and passion for creating an excellent work product.
• Demonstrated team player with ability to manage and develop analysts.

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 characteristics described here are representative of those employees’ encounters while performing the essential functions of the job. The work environment is inside the office.

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 hope to see you onboard soon!