Director, Food and Beverage Operations and Experiences
Carnival · Fort Lauderdale
One of the best-known names in cruising, Princess is the world’s leading international premium cruise line and tour company, carrying millions of guests each year to hundreds of destinations around the globe. We give our guests the Medallion Class experience others simply can’t. The Love Boat promises something for everyone.
The Director, Food & Beverage Operations and Experiences is responsible for translating enterprise food and beverage strategy into fleet-wide operating standards, commercial initiatives, guest experiences, and measurable execution across shoreside and shipboard operations. The role provides end-to-end governance for assigned F&B programs, including operations, revenue growth, financial performance, product innovation, public health and compliance, technology-enabled transformation, talent capability, and newbuild and dry dock deployment. Working closely with Hotel Operations, Culinary, Beverage, Specialty Dining, Finance, Commercial, Marketing, Revenue Management, Supply Chain, Technical, IT/Digital, Public Health, HR, Scheduling, Newbuild, and Dry Dock teams, the Director sets priorities, allocates resources within delegated authority, resolves complex cross-functional issues, and delivers executive-ready recommendations and outcomes
Here’s a summary of what Princess is looking for in a Director, Food & Beverage Operations and Experiences. Is this you?
Responsibilities:
Fleet F&B strategy, operations, standards, and governance: Translate enterprise strategy into fleet-wide standards and operating plans across food, beverage, specialty dining, restaurant operations, stewarding, and service delivery. Own the integrated operating cadence, performance reviews, corrective actions, and consistent execution across ships while allowing appropriate itinerary, market, and ship-class adaptation.
Commercial, financial, and portfolio performance: Own strategies and business cases that increase pre-cruise and onboard F&B revenue, yield, participation, and profitability. Direct annual planning, forecasts, operating expense and capital priorities, benefits tracking, resource trade-offs, and cost productivity actions in partnership with Finance, Commercial, Marketing, and Revenue Management.
Guest experience, product innovation, and enterprise deployment: Set the portfolio roadmap for differentiated dining, beverage, and premium experiences. Sponsor concept development, technology-enabled process change, newbuilds, dry docks, refurbishments, and fleet-wide rollouts, including readiness, training, supply chain, communications, stabilization, and post-implementation review.
Public health, safety, compliance, and risk leadership: Establish governance that embeds food safety, sanitation, responsible alcohol service, audit readiness, and applicable public health requirements into operating standards. Direct cross-functional risk assessment, corrective-action closure, escalation, and sustainable control improvements.
Organization, talent, and executive leadership: Lead and develop shoreside and shipboard F&B leadership capability through organization design input, succession planning, talent calibration, coaching, and performance routines. Act as a senior integrator for the F&B agenda, represent the Vice President in designated forums, and drive decisions, accountabilities, milestones, and escalations across a global stakeholder network.
Knowledge & Skills:
Scope: Global, fleet-wide accountability for assigned food and beverage programs spanning shoreside and shipboard operations, commercial performance, guest experience, compliance, technology, talent, and deployment. The role sets functional standards and governance, influences multiple senior cross-functional leaders, and operates with delegated authority across a broad, complex portfolio.
Problem solving: Leads resolution of ambiguous, enterprise-scale issues requiring integration of guest, operational, financial, brand, people, safety, compliance, and technology considerations. Anticipates systemic risks, evaluates options and trade-offs, develops business cases, and establishes corrective actions that can be sustained across diverse ships, itineraries, and markets.
Impact: Directly influences fleet F&B revenue, profitability, guest satisfaction, operating standards, compliance, capital deployment, and organizational capability. Recommendations and decisions affect broad business outcomes, establish multi-year priorities, and shape the development and deployment of differentiated global F&B experiences.
Leadership: Provides senior leadership to direct reports and a wider matrix of shoreside functional leaders and shipboard F&B teams. Sets priorities, clarifies decision rights, allocates resources within approved authority, coaches’ leaders, builds succession capability, and represents F&B in executive and enterprise forums.
Knowledge: Comprehensive knowledge of high-volume food and beverage operations, culinary, restaurant and beverage service, specialty dining, stewarding, revenue generation, cost control, public health, responsible alcohol service, quality systems, and global hospitality operations. Understanding of workplace policies and procedures and familiarity with team collaboration tools and techniques.
Skills: Enterprise strategy execution, commercial and financial acumen, portfolio governance, executive communication, stakeholder influence, talent leadership, change management, business-case development, data interpretation, and technology sponsorship. Strong time management and organizational skills.
Abilities: Ability to set direction through ambiguity, make sound decisions with material business implications, influence globally distributed teams, balance short- and long-term priorities, maintain reliable and consistent attendance, meet deadlines, collaborate effectively, and demonstrate professionalism in all interactions and tasks.
Essential/Minimum Qualifications:
Essential experience required:
Extensive progressive leadership experience in complex, high-volume food and beverage operations within cruise, hospitality, resort, hotel, or multi-unit environments. Demonstrated experience setting enterprise or fleet-wide standards and strategy; leading senior operational teams and leaders; owning significant operating and capital planning; delivering revenue growth and cost productivity; governing public health and compliance; and leading complex cross-functional transformation, technology, newbuild, dry dock, refurbishment, or large-scale deployment programs. Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and globally distributed teams. Cruise and international operating experience preferred.
Travel: 25-50% with shipboard travel likely
Work Conditions: Work beyond normal business hours or on weekends may be required occasionally to support business needs, projects, or operations.
Physical Demands: Requires regular movement throughout company facilities; shipboard reviews require stairs and extended standing or walking.
** This position is classified as “in-office.” As an in-office role, it requires employees to work from a designated Princess office Monday through Thursday each week. Employees may work from their homes on Fridays.
Princess provides comprehensive and innovative benefits to meet your needs, including:
What You Can Expect
- Cruise and Travel Privileges for You and Your Family
- Health Benefits
- 401(k)
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Training & Professional Development
- Tuition & Professional Certification Reimbursement
- Rewards & Incentives
Our Culture… Stronger Together
Our highest responsibility and top priority is compliance, environmental protection and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, the people in the communities we touch and serve, and our shipboard and shoreside employees. Please visit our site to learn more about our Culture Essentials, Corporate Vision Statement and our Core Values at: princess.com/en-us/company-information
Princess is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Princess will provide reasonable accommodation with the application process, upon your request, as required to comply with applicable laws. If you have a disability and require assistance in this application process, please contact careers@carnival.com.
#PCL
#LI-Hybrid
#LI-TM1