Corporate Senior Director of Catering and Conference Services

HEI Hotels & Resorts•Fairfield, CT

11d•$160,000 - $165,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Corporate Senior Director of Catering & Conference Services provides strategic leadership and oversight for banquet operations, catering, conference services, and commercial event merchandising across the HEI portfolio. This role drives revenue growth, customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and compliance with company standards. In partnership with hotel, regional, and corporate leadership, as well as ownership groups, the Senior Director develops and executes portfolio-wide strategies and commercial initiatives focused on banquets, catering, convention services, digital presentation, and the customer experience to maximize performance. The role is responsible for ensuring the consistent execution of catering best practices, menu and brand standards, sales processes, customer engagement initiatives, and strategic account development. This position also serves as a key corporate liaison for catering and convention services performance, owner relations, and portfolio-wide initiatives. Regular travel to hotels across the portfolio is required and is expected to average approximately 50%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, business administration, or related field preferred.
Minimum of 7 years of progressive catering, convention services and hotel sales leadership experience.
Multi-property catering and convention service leadership experience strongly preferred.
Previous experience with major hotel brands preferred.
Demonstrated success leading high-performing catering, convention services and sales teams.
Extensive knowledge of hotel catering and convention service operations, banquet sales, event planning, food and beverage revenue management, commercial strategy, digital merchandising and customer relationship and acquisition management.
Strong understanding of catering sales and convention service processes, contract negotiations, and event execution.
Working knowledge of hotel websites, digital merchandising, sales platforms, and online customer experience.
Experience managing commercial content, sales collateral, and portfolio-wide initiatives.
Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple cross-functional initiatives.
Strong financial acumen and analytical skills.
Excellent presentation, communication, and executive relationship management skills.
Strong leadership, coaching, and talent development skills.
High level of professionalism, integrity, and accountability.
Effective verbal and written communication skills. Ability to adapt communication style to suit different audiences, such as effectively communicating with supervisors, coworkers, public etc.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership and oversight of the banquet, catering, and convention services functions across the hotel portfolio.
Develop and execute portfolio-wide strategies that maximize banquet and catering revenue, profitability, market share, and customer satisfaction.
Partner with Regional Vice Presidents, Enterprise Sales Leaders, General Managers, Directors of Sales & Marketing, Directors of Catering and property leadership to improve commercial performance and achieve revenue goals.
Lead, coach, and mentor Directors of Catering, Catering Sales Managers, Convention Services leaders, and property sales teams to drive accountability, performance, and talent development.
Conduct regular business reviews to evaluate production, booking pace, conversion, profitability, forecasting, and future business opportunities while identifying portfolio-wide best practices.
Ensure compliance with company standards, brand requirements, menu guidelines, banquet service expectations, and event execution processes that support operational excellence and profitability.
Serve as the corporate liaison with ownership groups by participating in owner meetings, business reviews, and presentations while communicating performance, market trends, opportunities, and strategic initiatives.
Monitor industry trends, customer buying behaviors, competitive positioning, banquet pricing, and emerging best practices to recommend strategies that strengthen portfolio performance.
Identify, develop, and support strategic banquet and catering opportunities, including large group events, conventions, association business, enterprise accounts, and other revenue-generating initiatives.
Collaborate with Sales, Revenue Management, Marketing, Culinary, Operations, and Brand partners to optimize group and catering revenue, customer experience, and commercial performance.
Lead portfolio-wide commercial merchandising initiatives, including website audits, digital content management, meeting space presentation, photography, floor plans, virtual tours, and online visibility to ensure hotels are accurately represented across all customer-facing platforms.
Develop and maintain portfolio standards for sales resources, proposal templates, event collateral, digital assets, and customer-facing materials while supporting demand generation, sales enablement, and commercial initiatives that improve lead conversion and selling effectiveness.
Evaluate commercial technology platforms, digital channels, and customer acquisition opportunities, recommending enhancements that improve operational efficiency, customer engagement, exposure, and revenue generation.
Support annual budgeting, forecasting, business planning, talent development, hotel openings, transitions, acquisitions, and other corporate commercial initiatives.