Senior Manager, Business Operations

Holland America Line has been exploring the world since 1873. Our ships offer innovative features and enriching experiences focused on destination exploration and personalized travel, inviting guests to savor the journey. 

The Sr. Manager, Business Operations is accountable for leading the business product strategy, roadmap, governance, and operational execution model for POLAR and AI Innovation, while also leading the PMO and business operations capabilities required to deliver Commercial Product Strategy & Operations priorities. POLAR is the multi-brand booking engine responsible for $9B annual revenue.  This role owns the multi-year POLAR roadmap and strategy, translates business priorities into product capabilities and delivery plans, and establishes the operating mechanisms that ensure work is prioritized, funded, implemented, adopted, measured, and sustained across brands and functions. The Sr. Manager is the direct liaison between the commercial leaders and technical leaders representing POLAR commercial strategy.  This person leads direct reports and cross-functional teams across product management, program/project management, business readiness, change management, and operational implementation for both Polar and AI Innovation. The role partners closely with IT, PMO, Revenue Management, Marketing, Sales, Contact Center, Shipboard, Finance, and executive stakeholders to connect product strategy to business outcomes, resolve complex and ambiguous problems, mature ways of working, and ensure POLAR investments deliver measurable commercial and operational value over the medium to long term.

Here’s a summary of what Holland America Line is looking for.  Is this you? 

Responsibilities:

Product Management

• Serve as the primary business-side product manager for POLAR, representing commercial users, brand stakeholders, and business priorities in product conversations.

• Build deep understanding of POLAR use cases across booking inventory, pricing, promotions, payments, servicing, user workflows, reporting, and related commercial processes.

• Engage regularly with business users and brand representatives to capture pain points, desired capabilities, operational constraints, and future-state needs.

• Translate business strategies, user needs, and process challenges into clear problem statements, product opportunities, business requirements, acceptance criteria, and success measures.

• Develop and maintain business context, use cases, and feature narratives that help IT and delivery teams understand the commercial value behind roadmap items.

Project Management & PMO

• Lead complex, cross-functional programs and initiatives that require coordination across business teams, IT, vendors, PMO, operations, finance, and brand stakeholders.

• Define project objectives, scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, decision points, resource needs, and success measures for POLAR and related Commercial Product Strategy & Operations work.

• Manage the translation of roadmap priorities into executable delivery plans, ensuring requirements, testing, communications, business readiness, launch planning, and operational handoffs are integrated into the overall plan.

• Provide senior-level program oversight, removing barriers, resolving escalations, and ensuring teams are aligned on priorities, timelines, tradeoffs, and accountabilities.

• Build and mature PMO tools, templates, standards, reporting, portfolio dashboards, and delivery disciplines that enable more consistent execution across the function and across subordinate managers and professionals.

Governance & Portfolio Management

• Establish, own, and continuously improve governance for POLAR, AI Innovation, and Commercial Product Strategy & Operations portfolio planning, intake, prioritization, decision-making, and value realization.

• Partner with the PMO to evaluate, sequence, and prioritize work based on business value, strategic alignment, dependencies, capacity, risk, funding, and operational readiness.

• Lead portfolio forums, operating rhythms, executive readouts, and cross-functional decision processes that provide transparency to tradeoffs, risks, milestones, and outcomes.