8-15+ years in customer insights or related fields
Proven experience leading guest research programs
Ability to build and maintain journey maps
Experience influencing decisions through insights
Background in cross-functional collaboration
Responsibilities
Develop and execute guest research and insight strategy
Lead qualitative and quantitative research initiatives
Own the guest journey framework and governance model
Conduct experience audits and operational reviews
Generate actionable insights from research and guest feedback
Benefits
Culture of curiosity and learning
Continuous development of guest-centered practices
Cross-functional partnership opportunities
Access to operational and strategic projects
Impactful role shaping guest experiences
Full Job Description
What You'll Do
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 rather than a static deliverable.
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.
Success Looks Like
Guest understanding becomes embedded in strategic and operational decision making.
The guest journey serves as a common framework for prioritization and investment decisions.
Journey ownership and accountability are clearly understood across the organization.
Experience opportunities are identified before they become guest complaints.
Journey maps are actively used to guide improvements and product decisions.
Guest insights directly influence product strategy and experience development.
Friction points and missed opportunities are systematically identified and addressed.
The organization develops a deeper understanding of guest behavior and experience quality.
What We're Looking For
Experience
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.
