Lead, Experience Development

Journey with us!Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our incredible team of employees at  Royal Caribbean Group . We are proud to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.

We are proud to be the vacation-industry leader with global brands — including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises — the most innovative fleet and private destinations, and the best people. Together, we are dedicated to turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations for our guests.

Royal Caribbean Group’s Product Development Team has an exciting career opportunity for a full time Lead, Experience Development (Product Owner) reporting to the Manager, Product Development.

This position will be working onsite from Miami.

Position Summary : 

The Lead, Experience Development serves as the Product Owner for guest experiences, shaping the future of Celebrity Cruises by transforming product vision into high-quality, guest-centric journeys. The Lead partners with cross-functional teams to define, prioritize, and deliver innovative concepts across ships and/or destinations — ensuring every sensory touchpoint is seamless, intuitive, and aligned with the brand’s promise.

Based in Miami, FL, reporting to the Manager or Senior Manager of Experience Development, the Lead will oversee the day-to-day development, execution, and delivery of new concepts, experiences, activities, programs, and excursions for Celebrity Cruises. They are responsible for translating the product vision into a seamless, thoughtful, and intuitive guest journey, while driving cross-functional workstreams to execute every sensory touchpoint flawlessly — considering everything a guest needs, sees, tastes, hears, smells, and touches.

The Lead must champion the guest experience in all they do, ensuring that products are operationally,

Technically, and financially feasible. They will lead effective workshops, craft detailed presentations, and develop compelling cases to influence critical decisions, align stakeholders, and foster collaboration with partners.

The ideal candidate combines creative thinking with critical analysis and problem-solving skills,

Demonstrating strong leadership and relationship management abilities. They are comfortable navigating complex topics, even those in which they may have limited prior experience and thrive in an iterative environment where flexibility and resilience are essential to success.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities :

Core Responsibility

• Take approved concept strategies and business cases and own them through launch — breaking them into detailed, actionable plans and driving cross-functional execution to achieve the north star vision as fully as possible.

Product Definition

• Lead all aspects from experience ideation, development, documentation, and execution with cross-functional partners including Design, Operations, F&B, Entertainment, Onboard Revenue, Revenue Management, Marketing, Finance, Procurement, Legal, etc.
• Create guest experience briefs and playbooks (detailed presentations) outlining the end-to-end guest journey and direction for each component required to bring the vision to life, applying creative thinking, strong storytelling, attention to detail, and a data-driven approach.
• Serve as the primary source of product vision and requirements for leadership, partners, and stakeholders, ensuring a clear understanding of the intended guest experience.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to define requirements needed to deliver the vision and ensure all experience support needs are considered throughout development and execution.
• Assess operational, technical, and financial feasibility; identify solutions to challenges; and drive alignment through forums and materials, balancing experience, operations, and business needs.
• Identify opportunities throughout the development process to further enhance product offerings.
• Lead documentation, review, and approval of briefs and supporting materials throughout development.

Product Delivery

• Deliver within the project management framework, communicating changes, updates, or priority shifts to cross-functional teams and providing regular proactive progress updates to management.
• Work closely with operations and design teams on run-of-show events to showcase programming and ensure delivery aligns with product vision.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Public Relations, and Revenue Management to ensure accurate and up-to-date representation of the product in brand communications and systems.
• Establish and track startup plans, training materials, SOPs, and playbooks to ensure flawless execution of each concept and experience onboard ships.

Product Standards

• Ensure onboard and onshore product delivery aligns with the vision and approved playbooks.
• Own and manage product and experience audits and post-delivery success monitoring for new products and experiences.
• Ensure consistency of product standards, practices, and experience design guidelines across the brand.
• Define success criteria and coordinate post-delivery audits using metrics and KPIs; willingness to travel up to 20% of the time onboard ships or to shipyards.

Operational Excellence

• Support processes and governance for guest-facing product changes in alignment with Operational Excellence standards assigned to Product Development.

Personnel Management

• Manage hiring, training, and development of direct reports, if applicable.
• Coach and develop direct reports to build the skills, roles, and capabilities required to concept and execute brand experiences.

Qualifications, Knowledge and Skills :

• Minimum 2 to 3 years in a product, design or other similar role developing physical products or customer experiences required

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree a plus

• Experience working with Architects/Designers/Creative & Innovation Consultants a plus

• Experience in the travel industry a plus

• Proven track record of success in fast-paced environment with demanding timelines

• Experience developing products grounded in strategies driven by consumer insights

• Ability to effectively communicate across a large ecosystem of partners and builders, that spans product definition, design and construction

• Exceptional verbal and written communication and project/program leadership skills, including the ability to communicate effectively to the executive levels of the company

• Ability to assemble, lead and influence cross-functional teams to execute against a vision

• Ability to craft and tell a compelling and influential story for partners and collaborators

• Ability to document and package detailed operational requirements and experiences

• Obsessive attention to detail and follow-through – every detail matters

• Ability to find answers and propose initiative and solutions on your own – a self-starter Proven ability to collaborate with and achieve actionable results through others, plus the ability to build

strong and sustainable relationships.

• Ability to creative problem solve and drive ideas into action, with a positive outlook and willingness to take personal initiative

• Obsessive attention to detail and follow-through

• Methodical in research, order, prioritization, and implementation

• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time

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.

No immigration sponsorship offered.

Agency and Third-Party Submissions: Please note this is a direct search by the Company, and applications through agencies and other third parties will not be accepted, nor will fees be paid for unsolicited resumes. Any unsolicited resumes will be considered the Company's property.