Senior Manager, Maritime Safety Investigations

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Maritime Safety Investigations is responsible for the development, leadership, and oversight of all Maritime Safety Investigators.

The role will develop an enterprise-wide strategy for both investigative resource optimization and procedures as well as collection analysis and recommendations regarding major maritime accidents and near misses such as fires, collisions, groundings, and technical issues.

The Manager will play a key role in establishing a proactive, consultative, and business aligned culture and approach to Royal Caribbean Group global safety.

This position ensures the safety of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. guests, employees, contractors, visitors, ships, capital equipment, real property, and reputation via shipboard safety incident response and oversight.

This position is also responsible to be up to date on the latest investigative processes and innovative tools. The investigative team produces lessons learned, safety bulletins and full investigative reports in line with the ISM Code and continuous improvement of maritime safety operations.

The team also liaises with external authorities on investigations that warrant outside involvement and represents the company in legal matters and regulatory compliance.

As the Sr Manager of maritime safety investigations, this role will also be responsible for providing analytical support and assisting in keeping the vessels under our purview apprised of key maritime safety information.

The position will lead the team in reviewing statistics to measure effectiveness of shipboard accident reporting information, audits, Port State Control, Flag bulletins / reports, Passenger Ship Safety Certificate inspections, etc.

to provide meaningful insight with the ultimate intention of supporting evidence-based decisions and greater measurement of action.

This will all be achieved by working collaboratively across internal and external partners to ensure information and data does not remain in isolation.

The Senior Manager is also expected to conduct maritime investigations and participate in quality assurance reviews of investigation reports produced by direct reports.

This role will also actively participate and contribute in regulatory affairs activities as directed. This includes traveling and participating as an RCG and cruise industry representative in International Maritime Organization meetings in London annually and being an active member and contributor in Subcommittee workgroups and delegation matters.

This position also requires active participation in CLIA matters, including, but not limited to, providing quarterly lessons learned presentations before the CLIA Safety Committee.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES :

Collaborate with global and Company stakeholders to implement a strategy and roadmap for conducting and managing safety investigations in a manner which promotes effectiveness, standardization and optimizes enterprise-wise spend.

Develop and maintain an enterprise-wide investigations program including policy, working group protocols, and operational controls required by a global organization.

Work independently in planning and conducting corporate and shipboard investigations identifying clear root and contributory causes as required.

Respond to incidents and investigations, occasionally outside of normal business hours, on holidays and weekends when required.

Proactively suggest ways to improve operational safety and efficiency.

Provide mentorship and guidance, collaborate with internal safety partners on strategies for executing goals, measuring progress, and sharing results.

Deploy and travel for incident response on short notice (US and International)

Facilitate successful shipboard incident response through sound decision making, effective communication and strong leadership.

Employ appropriate interview techniques to gather evidence at all levels of shipboard employees.

Ensure the timely documentation and regulatory reporting of shipboard maritime accidents in support of company policy and the IMO, Flag and Class accident reporting requirements.

Assist the vessel in documenting incidents and accidents.

Work closely with local, state, federal and international organizations on matters relating to maritime accidents.

Give testimony and act as expert witness before courts and administrative hearings on investigative results when needed.

Act as internal expert on accidents and present facts to upper management.

Actively develop procedures, handbooks, training manuals and related material covering a variety of investigative techniques and programs.

Assist direct reports in triaging and prioritizing investigative activities.

Design, develop and present training to groups of employees (shoreside and shipboard) in a public speaking forum.

Meet with external authorities to discuss circumstances and facts surrounding investigations.

Identify potential risk through incident response oversight and guide shipboard safety personnel in the development of prevention strategies.

Help develop statistics and strategies based on trends identified from past investigative efforts.

Participate as directed on focus and work groups and support agenda items by providing historical insight from past investigations.

Creating professional presentations to support the area owners in conveying information both internally and externally. This includes the ability to take complex subjects and present them in a concise and illustrative manner.

The position will ensure key aspects of the maritime safety incident Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other data metrics are correlated, properly measured, and are presented in a professional format.

Assist in tracking the progress of closing corrective actions and Global Preventative Actions, ensuring visibility across the organization.

This position will have a working knowledge of the shipboard incident reporting system, specifically the extraction and visualization of data.

A similar requirement is in place for any data source which is identified as valuable to the maritime safety organization.

Taking this data and working with area owners to analyze and create reports / presentations to convey the insight garnered.

Support area owners in the analysis of data sources and support the maritime safety incident KPI process. Identify leading indicators based on analysis from varying data sources and develop presentations for leadership as it relates to maritime safety risks.

Researching and proposing new technology for more efficient and effective management of the maritime safety program.

Continually innovate on established process when there is an identified need.

Collaborates with the internal and external partners to provide structured reports and graphed data to the different brands as it relates to the maritime safety portfolio of projects or areas of focus.

Represent RCG and cruise industry as part of the CLIA delegation to IMO committee and subcommittee meetings.

Participate and contribute on IMO workgroups in regulatory development projects impacting RCG.

Represent RCG in regulatory affairs activities including CLIA safety committee meetings and USCG regulatory development projects.

Performs other duties as required. This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position.

Employees will be required to perform any other job-related duties assigned by their supervisor or management.

In addition to the normal work schedule, the position will require 24 hour on call duty as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS :

Bachelor's degree in a maritime related degree program.

At least 7 years of maritime operational or investigative experience; seagoing experience as deck or engine officer, in the cruise industry, preferred.

2 years of management experience preferred.

Proven interview skills required.

Strong understanding of international cruise ship regulatory requirements (SOLAS, MARPOL, Flag and Port State etc).

Experience in development and implementation of safety prevention programs.

Proven track record of effectively conducting complex investigations with the ability to professionally communicate the findings orally and in writing.

Willing to work office hours, 5 days a week with potential for flexible time based on 24 hour on call requirement.

Ability to prioritize multiple tasks and responsibilities in a fast-paced environment, while maintaining positive customer / client relations

Strong writing and organizational skills required.

Knowledge of Tableau Power BI or other business intelligence software preferred.

Subject matter expertise in aggregation and analysis from various data sources, using mathematical approaches (percentages, index creation, etc) to normalize and more clearly project information.

Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.

Self-starter with confidence to interact professionally at all levels of shipboard and shoreside employees during investigation.

Ability to effectively and diplomatically communicate decisions and guidance.

Will exhibit mature, responsible decision-making, problem solving and proven judgment skills.

High level of tact, diplomacy, and independent judgment on actions of a highly confidential and sensitive nature and a detailed understanding of policies and procedures.

Excellent interpersonal skills to communicate in a multicultural environment with all levels of employees and management.

Self-driven to continually improve and actively works to bridge gaps in their knowledge in order to add more value to a particular project or setting.

Innovative and process driven individual who thrives on continual improvement.

Capable of working independently and within a team, regardless of setting.

Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple projects and priorities.

Ability to write reports, business correspondence and procedures manual with the appropriate attention to details.

Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers and the general public.

Working knowledge of MS Office applications and shipboard systems such as VDR, CCTV, ECDIS and machinery automation systems.