IT Director - Infrastructure & Operations

Where passion meets opportunity

Discover your journey into the extraordinary.

Your Purpose

Explora Journeys is a vibrant, cosmopolitan, European luxury brand, imagined in the heart of Swiss hospitality in Geneva. Leveraging our parent company MSC Group’s hundreds of years of maritime expertise, our fleet of six luxury ships (four currently in the pipeline) are being built and designed in a totally different and unique way that will transform and redefine the cruise experience, creating a category of its own, appealing to the next generation of luxury travellers.

The IT Senior Director – Infrastructure & Operations will be responsible for leading the global IT infrastructure and operations landscape, ensuring stability, scalability, security and high availability of all core IT services. This role will define and execute the infrastructure & operations strategy, oversee day-to-day operational excellence, and drive continuous improvement and innovation, in line with the company’s digital and business objectives. This role is to be based in our headquarters in Geneva.

Your Impact

Strategy & Governance

• Defines and executes the enterprise strategy for IT Infrastructure & Operations across corporate offices, data centres, and cloud environments.

• Ensures alignment of infrastructure and operations initiatives with business priorities, digital roadmap and overall IT strategy.

• Establishes and maintains governance based on ITIL, COBIT and industry best practices for stability, compliance and operational excellence.

• Develops multi-year roadmaps for modernization, cloud adoption, monitoring, automation and lifecycle management of IT assets.

Infrastructure & Operations Management

• Oversees global IT operations, guaranteeing availability, performance and resilience of core platforms (network, servers, storage, databases, hybrid cloud, collaboration tools).

• Ensures consistent and standardized IT operations, including support models, procedures and incident handling.

• Owns and evolves the monitoring and observability ecosystem, including the adoption and use of AI/ML-based monitoring and automation tools.

• Oversees AOM (Application Operations Management) and Asset Management processes, ensuring proper lifecycle control, configuration and documentation.

• Ensures effective change, incident, problem and service management processes.

Team & Vendor Leadership

• Leads, mentors and develops a multi-disciplinary IT Infrastructure & Operations team, fostering a high-performance and service-oriented culture.

• Manages third-party vendors and service providers, service design, SLA definition and performance monitoring.

• Builds strong relationships with shipyards, technology partners and managed service providers, ensuring alignment with strategic and operational goals.

Project & Transformation Delivery

• Sponsors and drives major infrastructure and operations programs (e.g, data centre and cloud transformation, network upgrades, monitoring platforms, etc.).

• Ensures that infrastructure and operations requirements are properly embedded in cross-functional projects and digital initiatives.

• Validates architecture and technical designs to ensure they meet operational, security and compliance standards.

• Promotes automation, standardization and simplification to increase efficiency and reduce operational risk.

Risk, Security & Compliance

• Works closely with Cyber Security and Compliance teams to ensure the protection of IT assets and data, and adherence to regulatory and internal policies.

• Oversees disaster recovery, business continuity and resilience planning for critical IT services across shore and shipboard environments.

• Identifies and manages operational risks, implementing mitigation plans and continuous improvement actions.

Your Journey so far

• Significant experience (10+ years) in IT, including several years in senior leadership roles within Infrastructure & Operations.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the cruise, maritime, hospitality or similar 24/7 mission-critical operational environment is a strong advantage.
• Proven track record managing large-scale IT infrastructures (on-premises and cloud), networks, data centres and global IT operations.
• Strong experience with ITIL processes, COBIT or equivalent IT governance frameworks.

Your Essentials

• Strong experience with ITIL processes, COBIT or equivalent IT governance frameworks.
• Hands-on familiarity with advanced monitoring and observability platforms, including AI/ML-based monitoring and automation tools.
• Experience with AOM, Asset Management and structured SLA/OLA management.
• Demonstrated success in leading and developing teams, including remote and geographically distributed teams.
• Solid experience in vendor and contract management: RFPs, negotiations, SLA design, performance reviews.
• Strong understanding of shipboard or remote operations is a plus (connectivity constraints, safety, regulatory requirements, operational continuity).
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, able to interact effectively with executive management and non-technical stakeholders.
• Fluent in English, both spoken and written; additional languages are an advantage.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field; advanced certifications in ITIL, COBIT, cloud, or project/program management are a plus.

At Explora Journeys, we are redefining luxury ocean travel — where discovery, well-being, and a deep respect for the seas come together in harmony. 
We seek passionate professionals who share our vision of a more immersive, transformative way to discover the world’s most inspiring destinations by sea.
Are you ready to turn your passion into something extraordinary? Join us at Explora Journeys, where an ocean of opportunities awaits. Your journey to the Ocean State of Mind starts here.