Newbuild Program Excellence Director

Your Purpose

MSC Cruise Management is seeking an accomplished and strategic Director, Newbuild Program Excellence to lead its Project Management Office within the New Building department. This executive-level role is pivotal to enhancing the governance, operational effectiveness, and delivery excellence of MSC CM's global New Building portfolio.

The ideal candidate will build and scale a high-impact PMO function that promotes end-to-end program governance, continuous improvement, and effective cross-functional collaboration. You will bring strong experience in complex project environments such as cruise shipbuilding, maritime, or infrastructure, combined with expertise in project methodologies, transformation, and digital enablement.

This role also serves as Head of Business Improvement Initiatives within New Building Projects, with overall responsibility for enhancing the quality of services delivered by the New Building division and ensuring timely, on-budget delivery of vessels aligned with Ship Building Contracts (SBC). The Director may also deputise for the Vice President of New Building as needed and lead strategic planning, business case development, and enterprise-wide continuous improvement initiatives.

Your Impact

• Lead the identification and execution of business improvement activities within New Building Projects, with a focus on quality enhancement, cost efficiencies, and operational best practices.
• Prepare and submit business cases and project execution plans that align with MSC's schedule, quality, budget, and risk expectations.
• Standardize and implement project management processes across all Newbuild programs while actively contributing to enterprise-wide transformation efforts when authorized.
• Provide strategic oversight across the full lifecycle of newbuild programs, ensuring optimal team composition, resource alignment, milestone definition, and delivery performance through structured project management methodologies
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team including PMO professionals, automation process engineers, document controllers and project coordinators, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and growth.
• Drive schedule adherence, milestone tracking, and change control processes with all Project stakeholders, including Product and Technical teams, shipyards and external partners to ensure timely and quality delivery of vessel programs.
• Implement project governance standards across all newbuild programs, ensuring consistency is maintained at each stage of vessel development.
• Facilitate executive alignment by preparing and leading Program alignment across MSC CM. Create strategic briefings and decision support materials to senior leadership.
• Drive and oversee the integration and coordination of BIM workflows across all stakeholders in the newbuild process, ensuring model compliance with standards and facilitating cross-functional collaboration to enhance design accuracy, efficiency, and project delivery success through advanced 3D and VR technologies.
• Oversee optimization and performance of adopted project management tools and digital systems, ensuring teams are trained and proficient in their use.
• Drive risk management, lessons learned processes and continuous improvement feedback loops from past projects to enhance the delivery outcomes and future builds cost efficiency and quality risks.
• Develop a robust Newbuild Quality Management System (QMS) aligned with ISO 9001 standards, ensuring regulatory compliance and operational consistency across the NB department.
• Champion continuous process improvement and Newbuild Program Excellence by applying PMI frameworks and leading performance optimization initiatives.
• Conduct root-cause analyses of bottlenecks, deploy scalable solutions, and track success through data, KPIs, and benchmarking.
• Promote innovation, agility, and continuous learning by encouraging experimentation and adaptable workflows.
• Lead program governance forums, health assessments, and structured escalation processes to maintain visibility and control across complex, high-value projects.
• Ensure strong stakeholder engagement across all levels, building trusted relationships and facilitating alignment across global teams.
• Balance strategic thinking and tactical execution, making sound decisions that weigh cost, value, and long-term impact.
• Represent MSC CM Newbuild's culture of excellence through strong communication, multicultural sensitivity, and results-driven leadership.

Your Journey so far

• Minimum 15 years of progressive experience in project/program management or PMO leadership within the cruise, maritime, shipbuilding, engineering, or complex capital project industries.
• Demonstrated success in leading large-scale transformation programs and portfolios with quantifiable and sustained outcomes.
• Deep expertise in project lifecycle management, process improvement methodologies, quality systems, and risk frameworks.
• Strong command of project management platforms and tools; ability to oversee their implementation and effective usage across teams.
• Experience navigating multicultural, matrixed environments and building strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Fluency in English is required; proficiency in Italian and/or French and/or Finnish is considered a strong asset.
• Master and/or bachelor's degree in Process Engineering, Business, or Project Management.
• MBA and professional certifications (e.g., PMP, Prince2, Six Sigma Black Belt) highly desirable.

Your Essentials

• Minimum 15 years of progressive experience in project/program management or PMO leadership within the cruise, maritime, shipbuilding, engineering, or complex capital project industries.
• Cruise New Build experience.

Our commitment

We are committed to building a future that values diverse perspectives, embraces the world beyond borders, and fosters an inclusive environment where every individual feels valued, respected and empowered to be their authentic selves. Our commitment extends to taking meaningful, measurable actions that have a long-term positive impact on our guests, our employees and our planet.

Ready to turn your passion into something extraordinary? Join us at MSC Cruises, where new opportunities await. Apply today to be part of a global team that is pushing boundaries and achieving something remarkable. Your journey starts here