Destination-focused river, ocean, and expedition cruise operator
Viking operates a global small-ship cruise business spanning river, ocean, and expedition voyages across all seven continents. The company runs a large operations-first organization (143 ops headcount) managing seasonal ship openings, F&B logistics, and onboard services, while adopting enterprise tools like Dynamics 365, Power BI, and ChatGPT to address recurring pain points around cost control, inventory management, and food wastage. Hiring velocity is decelerating despite 208 open roles, suggesting a mature staffing cycle aligned with seasonal capacity planning.
Notable leadership hires: Head Waiter, Outbound Director
Viking was founded in 1997 and has grown to operate a fleet of small ships offering destination-focused voyages marketed toward experienced travelers interested in science, history, culture, and cuisine. The company operates across river, ocean, and expedition segments, with seasonal operations requiring coordinated opening and closing of ships and management of onboard F&B services. The workforce spans 5,001–10,000 employees, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with hiring distributed across 16 countries including Austria, Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, the United States, France, Kenya, Australia, and others. Operations dominates the organizational structure, reflecting the labor-intensive nature of ship management and guest services.
Microsoft 365 suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Dynamics 365 for enterprise resource planning, Power BI for analytics, AWS and Azure for cloud infrastructure, SAP for business operations, DocuSign for document workflows, and emerging adoption of ChatGPT for process automation.
Viking employs 5,001–10,000 people across its global operations, with approximately 143 in operations roles, 11 in HR, and distributed teams across 16 countries including Switzerland, the United States, Austria, Indonesia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
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