Vice President, Operations, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, The Americas

We are worldwide Augmented Hospitality leaders, the best at what we do. Heartists is what we call ourselves, generous, passionate, attentive and free, whether we are welcoming guests, connecting with our peers or serving others.

Our entire Accor estate expands across the world. With over 300,000 experts committed to rejuvenating the hospitality experience we pride ourselves in being the employer of choice, so live limitlessly, come as you are, grow with us, work with purpose and explore the endless opportunities in store.

As Vice President, Operations you will collaborate closely with the Chief Operating Officer, North & Central America, to lead and oversee the operations for Fairmont properties across the region.

The primary objective of this role is to drive performance improvement through a balanced scorecard approached including but not limited to colleague engagement, guest satisfaction, owner relations, brand standards, and ESG/sustainability to achieve greater market share and financial performance across the individual hotels and residences.  

Key Responsibilities:

Operations

• Works collaboratively with the regional Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Functional Leads, and Property Leaders to develop and execute strategy that will drive achievement of region and property-level performance across all key metrics.
• Be actively involved with hotel operations, guiding and coaching hotel leaders throughout the region on a regular basis. 
• Regularly complete reviews of achievement against Fairmont brand standards, expectations, strategic and operating plans, working with properties to execute action plans that address any deficiencies. 
• Works collaboratively with the corporate functional leads of Food & Beverage, Guest Support, Finance, Talent & Culture, Commercial, Design & Technical Services, Procurement, Technology to support the hotels operationally in all respects.
• Works with hotel operating teams and corporate peers to translate strategy into specific operational plans, budgets, and annual performance goals for hotels with agreed success criteria.
• Supports the revisions and refinement of Standards of Service and related policies & procedures impacting property-level operations. 

• Assists in supporting property-level teams to ensure Hotel Management Agreements are adhered to.
• Constantly seeks new opportunities to improve colleague engagement, increase all revenue levels, drive cost efficiencies, optimize income, increase service improvement, and enhance overall competitiveness.
• Builds and nurtures relationships at all levels, influences & facilitates change management and provides direction on areas of opportunity to simplify internal business processes, streamline resources, increase efficiency & fast-track projects.
• Takes a broad view of local, national, and international business, economic and political trends and environmental factors to determine growth areas, opportunities and threats.

Owner Relations, Development and New Openings

• Collaborates with the Chief Operating Officer and other senior brand leaders to maintain high personal involvement and visibility with owners and their designated representatives to develop an open dialogue and accessibility. 
• Represents Accor in owner meetings and correspondence, coordinating with Regional Vice Presidents and General Managers as appropriate.
• Involvement in hotel development and opening & integration process. Includes conducting due diligence and process reviews, as necessary, working closely with Design & Technical Services, Procurement and Hotel Integration Teams to develop project plans and critical paths.
• Supports the Development Team with sales pitches to secure new business by demonstrating Company and Brand’s operating capabilities and ability to achieve owner investment objectives.

Leading and Developing Talent

• Provides inspirational leadership across the region, coaching teams where needed to help them reach their full potential.
• Coordinates with the Chief Operating Office, Vice President Talent & Culture and other functional leads to regularly assess and develop existing talent in the field, with an overarching goal of continuously enhancing the brand’s talent bench strength across the network.
• Actively participates in succession planning of key roles, identifies internal transfers opportunities and promotions

Brand Delivery

• Acts as a role model and a culture carrier within the region and more broadly within Accor, ‘living’ and actively representing the Fairmont brand’s values
• Acts as a key brand stakeholder to uphold and improve and refine the brand strategies and standards with all constituents.

• Previous luxury hotel experience as a General Manager in various key markets within North America
• Experience working in a variety of locations and property types throughout North America: resorts, city-center hotels, remote locations/islands, in operations large and small.
• Well traveled with a deep understanding of and passion for great hotels, great service, and well-run operations.
• Possessing excellent working knowledge of luxury brand standards, LQA, Forbes/AAA rating systems
• Strong executive presence with excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to think strategically, form opinions, and garner support and buy-in from hotel-level leaders and counterparts within the corporate office.
• Highly organized, self-starter and able to work independently whilst managing multiple projects simultaneously 
• Able to perform well under pressure.
• Solid business acumen, excellent judgment and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to find common ground among a group or teams to find improvement or conflict resolution to move forward
• Coaching experience and proven ability to motivate and influence others to accomplish objectives
• Enthusiastic team player, with strong self initiative and ability to work to deadlines
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and internal/external circumstances to achieve the best possible commercial outcome.
• Strong organizational, written and verbal communication and presentation skills
• Clear working knowledge of budget planning and execution.

Other Requirements:

• Travel up to 75% of the time.

Education:

• Post secondary degree in hospitality management with a Masters in Business Administration preferred

Work Location:

This position will be based either in our New York City or Toronto Office.

The salary range for this role in New York is $275-325k USD.

This position will also come with a competitive long term and short term inceitve plan.

Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
We are an inclusive company and our ambition is to attract, recruit and promote diverse talent.

Why work for Accor?

We are far more than a worldwide leader. We welcome you as you are and you can find a job and brand that matches your personality. We support you to grow and learn every day, making sure that work brings purpose to your life, so that during your journey with us, you can continue to explore Accor’s limitless possibilities.

By joining Accor, every chapter of your story is yours to write and together we can imagine tomorrow's hospitality. Discover the life that awaits you at Accor, visit  https://careers.accor.com/

Do what you love, care for the world, dare to challenge the status quo! #BELIMITLESS

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