Global Director of Wellbeing

Job Title

Global Director Wellbeing

Location

Dubai (Corporate) and the Maldives — with regular presence across Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani and Soneva Secret

Reports To

Chief Operating Officer, in close partnership with the Chief Commercial Officer

Functional Oversight

Resort Wellness Leaders, Spa Managers, Wellbeing Programming Teams, Visiting Practitioners, Experts-in-Residence and Soneva Soul Specialists across the portfolio

Travel

Frequent — estimated 40–50% of time, covering regular rotation across the three Maldives resorts plus international travel for partnerships and the annual Soneva Soul Festival

The Global Director of Wellbeing is responsible for developing, building, leading and commercialising Soneva’s wellbeing business across the portfolio.

Working in close partnership with the Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, this role will help shape the overall wellbeing strategy and translate it into a distinctive, commercially successful and operationally deliverable proposition across Soneva.

This is not a traditional spa leadership role. It is a portfolio wide mandate to bring together wellbeing, movement, fitness, spa, nutrition, sleep, recovery, mental wellbeing, nature, family experiences, in villa delivery, education, programming, partnerships and post stay engagement into one coherent wellbeing business.

The role will work across Operations, Sales, Marketing, Food and Beverage and Resort Leadership to ensure that wellbeing is embedded throughout the guest journey and not confined to a spa, treatment menu or physical facility.

The Global Director will be responsible for turning the agreed strategy into:

• clear resort propositions
• an executable operating model
• compelling programming
• commercial plans and targets
• organisational capability
• Through leadership eg Wellbeing Festival
• partnerships and practitioner networks
• standards and performance measures
• a scalable platform for future growth

The role is both strategic and operational. It requires someone who can contribute to strategy at senior leadership level, convert that strategy into practical execution, lead cross functional teams and deliver measurable commercial and guest outcomes.

The successful candidate must be capable of transforming the current business, not simply inheriting and operating an established spa or wellness platform.

The role will be expected to:

• Co-develop the portfolio wellbeing strategy with the CCO and COO
• Translate the agreed strategy into differentiated propositions for Soneva Fushi, Soneva Jani and Soneva Secret
• Build the commercial model, including revenue, margin, participation, utilisation and repeat engagement targets
• Define the programming architecture across studios, villas, outdoor spaces, dining, movement, sleep, recovery, family and nature
• Work with Resort Leadership to ensure the proposition is operationally viable and consistently delivered
• Establish the required operating structure, roles, capability and standards
• Support resort leaders in recruiting, developing and managing the right wellbeing talent
• Lead the development of partnerships, practitioners, products and relevant external expertise
• Work with Commercial and Marketing to position, package and sell the proposition
• Integrate wellbeing into pre arrival planning, the guest stays and post stay engagement
• Ensure physical assets, including Wellness Studios, are activated through high quality programming
• Develop the performance and measurement framework
• Identify capital, technology and resource requirements
• Drive implementation, resolve cross functional barriers and hold the overall plan together

What We're Looking For

1. Minimum 10 years' senior leadership experience in luxury wellness, hospitality or healthspan-focused businesses, including multi-site operations.
2. Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (wellness, health sciences, business or hospitality); master's degree or specialist wellness/health qualification preferred.
3. Fluent English, written and spoken; additional languages an advantage given the international guest and practitioner base.
4. Strong commercial and financial acumen, with a demonstrated track record of revenue growth.
5. Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams effectively across multiple disciplines and cultures.
6. Experience with globally recognised luxury hospitality or wellness brands.
7. Background in behavioural science, coaching, nutrition or movement-related disciplines.