Director, Youth, Sports & Family Experience

The Director, Youth, Sports and Family Experience develops and executes multigenerational entertainment, Sports, Attractions and supervised youth programs across the US and Australia fleet of 29 ships carrying over 1 million youth annually leading 4 managers, 2 shoreside, 10 Fleet Supervisors and 925+ shipboard team members. This role oversees key areas such as Youth Programming, Attractions, Operations, Compliance, Partnerships, Revenue, and New Builds & Refurbishments and manages financial plans in excess of $20M+ operating and capital expenses.

This role is responsible for the strategic vision and development of Carnival's onboard Youth Programs: Turtles, Camp Ocean, Circle “C”, & Club O2 and the Sports and Attractions programs. While working closely with the Director, Entertainment Experience to provide family focused experiences.

Key responsibilities include programming, partnerships, operations, compliance, product development, interior design, revenue, brand management, and marketing. This position provides leadership and development for both shoreside and shipboard teams, including, Youth Program Directors, Teen Leaders, Camp Counselors, Animators, Sports Managers, Sports Staff and Fleet Supervisors.

Essential Functions:

• Strategic Development: Youth and Family Experience: Develop and implement comprehensive strategies to enhance the Youth and Family experience, ensuring consistency across the fleet. Build strategy to effectively and safely operate four unique onboard youth programs, sports programming and attractions. Uphold the brand promise through strategic leadership and innovation. Develop strategy for future youth and family marketable programs and partnerships to reinforce Carnival as a family brand.
• Partnerships: Lead strategic partnership plan to provide all age groups and families unique and exciting onboard experiences, factoring in competitive landscape, licensing fees, capital investments, revenue opportunities, and consumer perception.
• Venue Design: Lead product development for new youth and family onboard venues. Build multi-year strategy for hardware maintenance, including Youth Programs facilities and attractions, by minimizing investment costs and maximizing returns through a detailed understanding of optimal areas of opportunity, hardware lifecycle, and industry recommendations.
• Program, Operations & Innovation: Onboard Activations: Innovate and elevate programs for all ages through strategic external partnerships and onboard activations, including collaborations with renowned brands such as Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Build-A-Bear and Sky Zone. Stay updated on industry trends to refresh or retire activations as needed.
• Supervised Programs: Design and deliver safe and compelling experiences for kids and teens in dedicated youth areas, sports areas and across the ship, considering engagement for children with disabilities and neurodivergent youth. Oversee all policies, procedures and standards for Youth Programs, including necessary staff training. Maintain competitive awareness.
• New Builds and Dry Dock: Lead and oversee product development for refits and new builds, including vision setting, executive approvals, financial planning, negotiations, operation integration, and strategic rollout.
• Fee-based Experiences: Build and enhance revenue streams. Increase current revenue and minimize costs to deliver greater profitability year over year for the department, including offerings such as BOLT, EDGE, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Night Owls babysitting, paid crafting, and specialty entertainment to provide paid entertainment opportunities. Drive growth and performance through effective leadership, resource allocation, and revenue management.
• Branding: Conceptualize and build branding for partnership activations and new youth and family experiences. Ensure brand guardrails tied to onboard youth programs are maintained and evolve. Develop operational procedures and standards for programs that support Carnival's family focus and other operational procedures impacting the broader shipboard operation.
• Marketing: Propose and review marketing efforts around partnerships and youth programs, onboard and consumer-facing, to reinforce Carnival's commitment to families. Build strategy for related areas of HubApp.
• Quality Assurance: Oversee the development and implementation of quality assurance strategies, ensuring all experiences exceed guest expectations. Direct teams on resolving and addressing guest issues that escalate beyond shipboard leadership and require additional support.
• Goal Setting: Establish clear, measurable goals and objectives for operations. Align these goals with broader business strategies and ensure effective resource allocation to support shipboard teams and overall programming needs.
• Team Leadership and Development: Shoreside Leadership: Set strategic priorities, provide exceptional leadership, fostering engaged individuals and building strong, inclusive teams. Lead by example, ensuring clear communication, accountability, and a shared commitment to operational excellence.
• Fleet Leadership: Develop and oversee Fleet Supervisors to elevate our connections to the ship, apply consistency across the fleet, provide development opportunities for the shipboard team and elevate our program.
• Shipboard Leadership: Set priorities for the team to ensure alignment with onboard team members.
• Team Development: Lead the development of shoreside teams through growth opportunities, project assignment and future focused development. Foster a culture of teamwork that supports our goals and growth. Development of teams through succession planning, communication, training, feedback, performance evaluations, and career paths. paths.
• Talent Recruitment: Collaborate with Casting & Booking to ensure the recruitment and scheduling of diverse, talented individuals who elevate the program. Provide Casting & Booking team with tools to guide selection process around key topics like child safety.
• Training: Develop comprehensive training plans for Youth Staff Academy, Youth Director & Sports Manager trainings to ensure teams are prepared to execute exceptional entertainment. Partner with Talent Development to enhance training programs, update training documents and share best practices.
• Cultural Essentials: Promote Carnival’s expected behaviors, such as speaking up, respecting and protecting, improving, communicating, listening and learning, and empowering. Encourage team members to share their insights, challenges, and suggestions to enhance collaboration and operational success, while proactively resolving conflicts.
• Collaborate: Cross-Functional: Work with other Entertainment departments to support the alignment and consistency of shipboard entertainment across the fleet. Drive communication and collaboration between shoreside and shipboard teams to ensure operational success.
• Senior Leadership: Collaborate closely with Senior Leadership to implement strategic business plans that enhance NPS, drive revenue, maintain Carnival's family position, and support overall hotel operations.
• Inter Company: Foster cross-functional collaboration with internal and external stakeholders including F&B, Housekeeping, Communications, HR, Marketing, Public Relations, Revenue Partners, Marine, Compliance, and New Builds & Refurbishment teams to ensure that entertainment initiatives support and align with Carnival’s objectives.
• Safety & Compliance: Safety Practices: Review and refine safety practices, create and enforce training programs, ensuring the highest level of guest and crew safety while maintaining operational integrity. Ensure teams are prepared to fulfill onboard safety-related duties.
• Compliance Adherence: Ensure full compliance with company policies and procedures, emphasizing safety protocols and operational standards as outlined by Global HESS (Health, Environment, Safety, and Security) and ADA guidelines. Maintain accurate training and risk assessment materials and documentation.
• Industry Guidelines: Continue to monitor and evaluate youth safety practices and policies among the infant, toddler, elementary, middle school, and high school age groups. Stay abreast of guidelines to support children with disabilities and neurodivergent youth.
• Program Evaluation: Data-Driven Decision Making: Leverage data and analytics to inform decisions and refine programs based on performance insights. KPI, Track trends, guest surveys, guest feedback, and operational metrics to enhance service delivery and guest satisfaction. Modify operations to optimize guest satisfaction and operational efficiency.
• Performance Monitoring: Conduct ship visits and maintain open communication with shipboard teams, offering guidance on maintaining alignment with company objectives and evolving entertainment standards. Report on results and action plans regularly.
• Sentiment Analysis: Conduct regular sentiment analysis to uncover patterns and trends, highlighting specific areas of the customer experience that need enhancement. Strategically address and prioritize recurring negative sentiments to drive impactful improvements.
• Financial Accountability: Financial Plan: Develop and oversee financial plans for $20M+ operating plan and capital investments. Continuously monitor and adjust plans based on guest behavior, sourcing, and operational dynamics.
• Capital Planning: Strategically plan and manage capital investments to support long-term growth and sustainability. Evaluate potential projects, prioritize based on return on investment, and ensure alignment with overall business objectives. Monitor capital expenditures and adjust plans as necessary to optimize financial performance.
• Revenue: Establish clear sales targets. Align these with financial plan and ensure effective resource allocation to support shipboard teams and overall programming needs. Oversee and inspire the team to achieve revenue targets and ensure team is trained.
• Vendor Management: Partner with Sourcing, Procurement, Purchasing, Legal, and Compliance teams to develop strategies, negotiate contracts, and manage vendor relationships. Optimize cost savings, ensure high-quality service, and identify and mitigate supply chain risks.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Entertainment, Recreation, Tourism, Hospitality, Education or Business
• Master’s Degree a Plus
• Proficient in Microsoft Office 365 applications, with advanced skills in Excel, Word Power Point, and online databases is a plus.
• 10+ Proven expertise in one or more areas such as cruise ships, family, youth, recreation.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Manage Shipboard personnel & activities/processes
• Manage Shipboard activity and/or process only
• Collaborate with both Shoreside and Shipboard
• Support Destinations activities and Programming
• CCL only
• Financial Acumen: Understanding financial statements, budgeting, and financial planning to ensure the organization's financial health.
• Analytical Skills: The ability to analyze data and trends to make strategic decisions and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Risk Management: Identifying potential risks and developing strategies to mitigate them, ensuring the organization's stability and compliance.
• Change Management: Leading and managing organizational change effectively to adapt to evolving market conditions and internal dynamics.
• Project Management: Expertise in leading multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Leadership Excellence: Inspiring and guiding teams to achieve their best performance and fostering a positive organizational culture.
• Effective Communication: Proficient in conveying complex ideas clearly and persuasively to various stakeholders, including board members, employees, and external partners.
• Decision-Making: Making informed, timely decisions that consider both short-term and long-term impacts on the organization.
• Ethical Judgment: Upholding high ethical standards and ensuring the organization operates with integrity and transparency.
• Industry Experience: Proven expertise in one or more areas such as cruise ships, family, youth, recreation.

Physical Demands: Must be able to remain in a stationary position at a desk and/or computer for extended periods of time.

Travel: None or very little travel likely

Work Conditions: Work beyond normal business hours or on weekends may be required occasionally to support business needs, projects, or operations.

This position is classified as “in-office.” As an in-office role, it requires employees to work from a designated Carnival office in South Florida Tuesday through Thursday each week. Employees may work from their homes on Mondays and Fridays. Candidates must be located in (or willing to relocate to) the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.

Offers to selected candidates will be made on a fair and equitable basis, taking into account specific job-related skills and experience.  

At Carnival, your total rewards package is much more than your base salary. All non-sales roles participate in an annual cash bonus program, while sales roles have an incentive plan. Director and above roles may also be eligible to participate in Carnival’s discretionary equity incentive plan. Plus, Carnival provides comprehensive and innovative benefits to meet your needs, including:

• Health Benefits:
• Cost-effective medical, dental and vision plans
• Employee Assistance Program and other mental health resources
• Additional programs include company paid term life insurance and disability coverage 
• Financial Benefits:
• 401(k) plan that includes a company match
• Employee Stock Purchase plan
• Paid Time Off
• Holidays – All full-time and part-time with benefits employees receive days off for 8 company-wide holidays, plus 2 additional floating holidays to be taken at the employee’s discretion. 
• Vacation Time – All full-time employees at the manager and below level start with 14 days/year; director and above level start with 19 days/year.  Part-time with benefits employees receive time off based on the number of hours they work, with a minimum of 84 hours/year.  All employees gain additional vacation time with further tenure.
• Sick Time – All full-time employees receive 80 hours of sick time each year.  Part-time with benefits employees receive time off based on the number of hours they work, with a minimum of 60 hours each year.  
• Other Benefits
• Complementary stand-by cruises, employee discounts on confirmed cruises, plus special rates for family and friends
• Personal and professional learning and development resources including tuition reimbursement 
• On-site Fitness center at our Miami campus
  

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About Us

At Carnival Cruise Line, our mission is to consistently deliver safe, fun, and memorable vacations at a great value. As the world’s most popular cruise line, we offer a variety of unique experiences across our fleet, ensuring that every voyage is filled with excitement and discovery. From world-class entertainment and dining to exploring stunning destinations, we create lasting memories for our guests while maintaining a dedication to the places we visit and the lives we touch.

Join us and embark on a career that offers not only the chance to grow professionally but also the opportunity to be part of a global community that makes a difference.

In addition to other duties/functions, this position requires full commitment and support for promoting ethical and compliant culture. More specifically, this position requires integrity, honesty, and respectful treatment of others, as well as a willingness to speak up when they see misconduct or have concerns.

Carnival Corporation & plc and Carnival Cruise Line is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer. In this regard, it does not discriminate against any qualified individual on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, mental, physical or sensory disability, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, federal, and/or international law.