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 Manager, New Opening 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 Toronto and will include ~30% travel to properties during the pre-opening phase to support the property operations team.
WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING:
Project Kickoff
Develop and issue directional and detailed budgets for Four Seasons technologies.
Develop and present Four Seasons orientations to newly 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 and systems champions 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.
Assist property teams to provide feedback on financials for stub year, first year and ongoing AMC inclusive of resource requirements.
Assist the project in identifying and onboarding a systems integrator for each assigned project by working closely with the Area Directors of Hotel Technologies.
Assist operations teams: marketing, HSS, IT / Security, Finance, WRO, F&B, P&C, Rooms, and engineering to plan the configurations of systems based on operational needs.
Establish and maintain regional vendor relations for all hotel technology systems.
Travel to pre-opening site during the handover phases of the property and participate in site-reviews and opening readiness.
Maintain and promote Four Seasons core technology standards as outlined in the Four Seasons IT Governance portal.
Act as a brand ambassador to represent technologies to external stakeholders.
Tools used: IT Pre-Opening Playbook, Budget Templates, New Openings Services flow, SI Dashboard, SI Reports, Handover templates and checklists.
Delivery
Oversee end-to-end procurement and delivery of various technologies including project close-out and reconciliation.
Review and assess Server/PC hardware specifications based on current requirements and availability.
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.
Review, assess and approve all vendor contracts before signing.
Create and maintain IT Budget for CAPEX, AMC, and Pre-opening operations budget.
Create a resource plan and organize IT candidates to execute the plan including systems integration.
Manage vendor timelines and availability for deployment and training.
Publish regular updates on the general status of technology for all assigned projects.
Create “best practices” documentation to explain the need for technologies.
Onboarding newly appointed General Managers, planning committees, and department heads on the technologies based on the Four Seasons IT Pre-Opening Playbook.
Ensure by working with corporate and regional security & infrastructure teams that project is compliant from security perspective and onboarded in PCI program.
Contribute towards Four Seasons – lessons learned activities and track trends
Ensure quality of handover is based on Four Seasons standards and all documentation and training is completed before go-live.
WHO YOU ARE:
Planning and Organizing
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.
Adjusts work schedules to accommodate new or changing requirements within established deadlines.
Distinguishes the important from the urgent to meet objectives.
Makes a realistic assessment of what can be achieved on a day-to-day basis and works with the project leads to determine priorities. Escalates when necessary.
Delivering Results
Takes necessary action to ensure successful delivery of results.
Overcomes obstacles without “ruffling feathers” and doesn’t give up easily even in the face of tough challenges.
Considers the project’s priorities and accommodates out of sequence requests from project leads.
Participating in problem-solving with the project leads with energy and persistence.
Actively seeks knowledge and skills to improve performance and continuously reviews efficient methods to deliver tasks.
Communication
Modifies communication style and approach to meet the needs of individual project leads and other stakeholders.
Delivers messages clearly and with sensitivity to other's needs, cultures, backgrounds and knowledge.
Creates clear and concise written information using appropriate content, format and structure.
Planning and Delivery
Foreshadow between expected opening date and installation progress. Escalate quality issues which compromise opening date.
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.
Partner with the Project Lead as an additional point of contact to the project team on any RFIs or configuration planning or programming.
WHAT YOU BRING:
Minimum of five (5) years' experience in luxury hospitality brand as a Director of IT or higher with competencies in project management and delivery lead.
Knowledge of specific hospitality industry applications and interfaces such as PMS, POS, Financial systems, digital solutions, servers, cloud solutions, virtualization is required.
Bachelor's degree in technology
PMP / CSM or equivalent experience
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.
Strong time management and prioritization skills; proven ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
Ability to work under pressure and meet various deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Flexible and dependable.
Pleasant and professional demeanour.
Experience and knowledge of:
A working technical knowledge of hotel systems and operations.
Technical knowledge of IT hardware specifications
Advanced knowledge of agile project management
Four Seasons IT Core standards and key internal controls.
Good knowledge of the Four Seasons policies and procedures.
Intermediate knowledge of financial principles including budgeting, forecasting, reporting and closeout.
Desired knowledge of:
Facilities technologies such as network, Wi-Fi, communications, AV, and security.
Pre-opening experience in a Taskforce or Systems Integrator capacity at a recent Four Seasons opening.
This role will be a Hybrid working model, which will require 3 days per week at our temporary 20 York Mills Road, Toronto, Ontario location with travel, as needed, to our the Four Seasons Corporate Office located at 1165 Leslie Street, Toronto, Ontario #LI-Hybrid
Four Seasons is committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If contacted for an employment opportunity, please advise Human Resources if you require accommodation.