The Director, IT Services & Delivery, reporting to VP, IT Services & Delivery, is responsible for the support of operational technology systems at our hotels. We are seeking 2 dynamic leaders that can work with disparate internal and external teams to enable an environment of continued success with both our Full Service and Select Service portfolios. The ideal candidates will be focused on driving results and meeting key performance goals.

• • Project Management - Highgate is an organization focused on growth. The director is required to have project management skills and organization to handle many short-term and long-term projects. Including but not limited to:
  • Hotel Brand Compliance including PIP
  • Renovation
  • New Construction
  • Infrastructure Deployment
  • Systems Upgrade\Updates\Replacement
  • Industry\Highgate IT SOP Compliance
  • Hardware Refresh
  • Payment Systems Migration
  • PBX Replacement\Migration
  • The ideal candidate will be able to utilize project management tools such as Smartsheet or Planner to set thresholds and milestones, to allocate resources, to manage change orders and to communicate progress to stakeholders.
  • Vendor and Partner Management - The Director, IT Services & Delivery establishes, builds, and strengthens relationships with external hotel technology solution providers.
  • Reviews Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
  • Reviews contracts
  • Manages outsourced projects
  • Reviews Security Alerts and reporting.
  • Established cadence to meet with partners to review KPIs and plan future projects and budgets.
  • Runs proposal process to evaluate potential technology solutions. Negotiated pricing and services.
  • Participate in Vendor\Product Advisory meetings and boards.
  • This leader will also be tasked with managing 3rd party IT Managed Service Provider’s(MSP) to create a consistent support service level throughout the portfolio. These duties/responsibilities will include but not be limited to:
  • Creation and maintenance of Highgate Property IT MSP standards of procedure.
  • Weekly management communications with MSP
  • Property escalation point for service level issues with MSP
  • Privacy Compliance - This leader will be familiar with privacy and security compliance, including PCI and PII (i.e. CCPA, GDPR, NY S.H.E.I.L.D.) and stay up-to-date on emerging security regulations and contractual obligations. They will work to identify and reduce scope and risk exposure for Highgate Corporate and hotel teams. Working to manage remediation between Highgate’s managed security provider and our managed service providers.
  • Brand Compliance - The Director, IT Services & Delivery will be familiar with Technology Compliance Standards for large brands (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Choice, Radisson, Wyndham, etc..) and assist branded properties with maintaining compliance.

• Three or more years in hospitality-centric technology leadership, project management or asset management role.
• Bachelor’s Degree in business, hospitality or technology related discipline or equivalent experience required.
• Hospitality Management Company or Hotel Franchise Management experience is a plus.
• Management of a third party IT Managed Service Provider or an internal helpdesk is preferred.
• Extensive IT support oversight of 3rd party managed service providers and/or IT support staff is preferred.
• Interpersonal Communication - Must possess strong verbal and written communication skills in many different formats including email, SMS, chat\messaging, voice\video conferencing and in-person meetings. This candidate will be able to communicate complex technology solutions to non-technical leadership in hotel operations, sales, conference, and executive positions. The ability to navigate frustrating situations involving multiple parties while maintaining discipline is key, when things go wrong, this leader needs to be the stability required to resolve. Including status updates, transparency up and down the team, and expectations.
• Hospitality System Proficiency - The Director, IT Services & Delivery needs to understand the uniqueness of hotel systems and infrastructure. How disparate systems share information, and how those systems connect, and how they fail. Knowledge of common hotel systems including PMS, POS, CRS, PBX, Wi-Fi, etc. is a essential to his/her success. A comprehensive understanding of typical hotel networking and integration setups is also required. This leader will work with brands and independent property owners to make sure that deployed technologies meet technical, design, performance, brand and company specifications.
• Troubleshooting - The discovery of the cause of a problem is a key tenant to this position, to be able to accurately identify a problem to reduce downtime or other impact is key.
• Teamwork - This role will work with many teams, this leader must be able to build and grow professional relationships with teammates at the brand level, hotel, regional and corporate levels and with technical and non-technical partners. Collaborate with teams in Accounting, Treasury, Sales, Operations, Finance, Asset Management, Revenue Management, and others. They will work with the Highgate IT team to deploy new solutions. The Director, IT Services & Delivery will assure that hotels are prepared for new brand standards as launched. Ensure proper training, feedback, and follow up are completed at appropriate milestones. Listen to team’s post-deployment to find areas of improvement, and lessons learned.
• The Director, IT Services & Delivery will seek opportunities to expand their skills and understanding of Hospitality Information Systems; to grow personally and professionally.
• The Director will be expected to travel 15% up to 20% over the year, as needed, but in accordance with national and local health and safety regulations.