Senior Manager, Experience Design

The Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection

$110K — $130K *
Hospitality & Recreation
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8-12 years of experience in experience design, service design, or related fields.
  • Proven success in creating consumer-facing experiences and hospitality products.
  • Expertise in concept development from strategy to implementation.
  • Ability to influence stakeholders and manage multidisciplinary teams.
  • Experience in managing complex projects without direct authority.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with Voyage Experience teams to turn vision and strategy into guest experiences.
  • Define guest interactions at key moments during their journey.
  • Create intuitive and differentiated experiences that meet guest outcomes.
  • Ensure cohesive integration of individual experiences across the voyage.
  • Develop guest experience concepts and service models.
  • Create and refine signature moments to enhance product offerings.
  • Analyze and improve guest engagement through experience architecture.

Benefits

  • Opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation in design.
  • Collaboration with Journey & Insights teams for trend analysis.
  • Dynamic work environment that fosters creativity and varied projects.
  • Influence over product design and customer engagement strategies.
  • Working within a cohesive team focused on meaningful guest interactions.
Full Job Description

What You'll Do

Translate Product Vision into Experiences

  • Partner with Voyage Experience teams to transform voyage vision, experience intent, and product strategy into tangible guest experiences.
  • Define how guests should experience key moments across the journey.
  • Create experiences that are intuitive, differentiated, and aligned to desired guest outcomes.
  • Ensure individual experiences work together as part of a cohesive voyage.

Lead Experience Design & Concept Development

  • Develop guest experience concepts.
  • Create service models, interaction frameworks, experience requirements, and engagement strategies.
  • Design signature moments and differentiated experiences that strengthen the overall product.
  • Lead concept refinement, prototyping, and pilot development efforts.

Build Experience Architecture

  • Develop guest experience flows.
  • Identify opportunities to improve engagement and reduce friction.
  • Define how experiences connect across touchpoints and moments.
  • Establish experience frameworks and standards that support consistency and quality.

Influence Physical Product Development

  • Partner with newbuild on physical design initiatives.
  • Evaluate how physical environments influence guest behavior, engagement, and experience quality.
  • Identify opportunities where venue design, guest flow, activation opportunities, and environmental design can strengthen experience outcomes.
  • Ensure physical spaces, programming, and service models function as a cohesive experience ecosystem.

Drive Innovation & Continuous Improvement

  • Collaborate with Journey & Insights teams to identify opportunity areas.
  • Translate guest needs and behavioral insights into experience solutions.
  • Support pilot programs and concept testing initiatives.
  • Monitor emerging hospitality, travel, entertainment, and lifestyle trends to identify future opportunities.

Success Looks Like

  • Product vision is consistently translated into meaningful guest experiences.
  • Experiences feel intentionally designed rather than operationally assembled.
  • Service models, programming, and physical environments work together seamlessly.
  • New concepts strengthen differentiation and guest engagement.
  • Friction points are systematically identified and addressed.
  • Experience standards create consistency while preserving creativity and innovation.
  • Physical design decisions increasingly support intended guest behaviors and outcomes.

What We're Looking For

Experience

  • 8 612+ years of experience in experience design, service design, hospitality innovation, product development, customer experience, experience strategy, or related disciplines.
  • Proven success designing consumer-facing experiences, services, or hospitality products.
  • Experience developing concepts from strategy through implementation.
  • Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders.
  • Experience influencing complex projects without direct authority.

Skills & Capabilities

  • Exceptional experience design and service design capability.
  • Strong concept development and innovation skills.
  • Ability to translate strategy and insight into tangible guest experiences.
  • Strong systems-thinking mindset.
  • Deep understanding of how service, programming, and physical environments influence guest behavior.
  • Experience collaborating with architects, interior designers, or product development teams.
  • Strong facilitation, storytelling, and communication skills.
  • Ability to balance creativity with operational practicality.

Ideal Backgrounds

  • Service design and experience design consultancies
  • Luxury hospitality brands
  • Theme parks and immersive entertainment organizations
  • Travel and leisure experience development
  • Lifestyle and membership brands
  • Product innovation teams
  • Customer experience strategy organizations
  • Experiential retail and destination development organizations

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