Manager, New Opening Technology Delivery- EMEA

About Four Seasons:

Four Seasons is powered by our people. We are a collective of individuals who crave to become better, to push ourselves to new heights and to treat each other as we wish to be treated in return. Our team members around the world create amazing experiences for our guests, residents, and partners through a commitment to luxury with genuine heart. We know that the best way to enable our people to deliver these exceptional guest experiences is through a world-class employee experience and company culture.
At Four Seasons, we believe in recognizing a familiar face, welcoming a new one and treating everyone we meet the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Whether you work with us, stay with us, live with us or discover with us, we believe our purpose is to create impressions that will stay with you for a lifetime. It comes from our belief that life is richer when we truly connect to the people and the world around us.

About the location:

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is a global, luxury hotel management company. We manage over 120 hotels and resorts and 50 private residences in 47 countries around the world and growing. Central to Four Seasons employee experience and social impact programming is the company’s commitment to supporting cancer research, and the advancement of diversity, inclusion, equality and belonging at Four Seasons corporate offices and properties worldwide. At Four Seasons, we are powered by people and our culture enables everything we do.

The Role of Manager, New Opening Technology Delivery - EMEA:

We currently have a fantastic opportunity for a Manager, New Opening Technology Delivery - EMEA region, that reports to the Director, IT New Openings - EMEA. The Manager, New Openings Technology Delivery has extensive knowledge and experience in hotel systems and integrations working as a part of the dynamic team at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The primary responsibility of the role is to deliver comprehensive services to the regional New Openings and Property Operations team members, focusing on the delivery of Four Seasons required software and services such as: Hotel Systems and integrations for all hotel and residential new opening and renovations projects.

The Manager actively engages in the pre-opening phase, typically 12-14 months before go-live to ensure all Four Seasons required software and services are installed and commissioned as per standards. The candidate has technical expertise and practical experience in participating in new openings to support vendors, consultants, operations teams, and corporate business owners. The Manager will effectively manage the life cycle of creating budgets, requesting for contracts, executing purchase orders, participating and leading kickoff calls between vendors an operations team, create schedules for installations / training, coordinate with internal and external stakeholders to align sequencing and prioritization of systems and manage the overall handover documentation.

The Manager is also responsible for ensuring timely updates to the Four Seasons SOP with a focus on regional technology to reflect the solutions, market inventory, pilot programs and price benchmarks. The Manager partners with field operations teams through several ad-hoc project-specific systems for pilot programs, security audits, and approving new local vendors when necessary.

The Manager works closely with the internal and external stakeholders and establishes a strong relationship with them by adhering to the company’s culture and values. The role shall also take on special projects for the department when required from time to time.

This role is based in Dubai and will include travel to properties during the pre-opening phase to support the property operations team.

As Manager, New Opening Technology Delivery – EMEA, your primary responsibilities will be as follows:

Project Kickoff

• Develop and issue directional and details budgets for Four Seasons technologies.
• Develop and present Four Seasons orientations to new appointed hotel operations teams.
• Develop and maintain a critical path and dependencies of technology deployment leading up to the opening in coordination with planning and integration teams.

Planning

• Manages pre-opening hotel team through all technology phases, roles and responsibilities during pre-opening.
• Identify conflicts with implementing standards in specific projects and request clarification or recommendations for alternative solutions. Escalate non-compliance as required.
• Work with the project team to implement changes in the project to allow for changing technology or guest requirements.
• Understand and explain all cost components of IT (Operating and Capital) during the pre-opening and post opening phase.
• Knowledge of specific hospitality industry applications and interfaces such as PMS, POS, Financial systems, digital solutions, servers, cloud solutions, virtualization is required.

Delivery

• Oversee end-to-end procurement and delivery of various technologies including project close-out and reconciliation.
• Create and maintain a critical path for all technology systems, take inputs from Hotel hiring schedules, vendor activities and resource availability, site readiness, and operational readiness.
• Request for contracts based on Four Seasons modules and approved pricing.
• Review, assess and approve all vendor contracts before signing.
• Create and maintain IT Budget for CAPEX, AMC, and Pre-opening operations budget.

Our Ideal Manager, New Opening Technology Delivery - EMEA will have:

• 5 years’ experience in luxury hospitality brand as a Director of IT or higher with competencies in project management and delivery lead.
• PMP / CSM or equivalent experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Technology
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; must be able to write clearly and effectively
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to collaborate and work as part of a team.
• Strong analytical, organizational, planning and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrates flexibility and adaptability based on project variables and priorities.
• Prioritizes tasks to be achieved and determines necessary resources to achieve short term activities for self and others.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts can offer what many hospitality professionals dream of; the opportunity to build a life-long career with global potential and a real sense of pride in work well done.  We look for talent who share the Golden Rule – people who, by nature, believe in treating others as we would have them treat us.  As Four Seasons works towards phenomenal growth in the next decade, our most valuable partners continue to be our talent, with whom we have a strong relationship based on the Golden Rule. This relationship is made tangible by the awards received year after year by Four Seasons on a corporate level, as well as by our hotels, resorts and residences around the world, making us an undisputed “employer of choice.”