Director, Digital Content Strategy & Publishing

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts•Toronto, ON

4d•CA$145,000 - CA$160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Four Seasons is seeking a visionary and commercially minded Director of Digital Content Strategy & Publishing to lead one of the most consequential editorial and digital publishing functions in global luxury hospitality. This is a senior leadership role that sits at the intersection of brand, technology, commerce, and storytelling — responsible for shaping how Four Seasons communicates, merchandises, and converts across every digital channel. The Director will build and own a content organization that operates with the discipline of a world-class media publisher, the commercial instincts of a modern retailer, and the creative authority befitting the Four Seasons brand. Reporting into the Senior Director of Digital Products and Experience within Four Seasons Corporate, this individual will define the editorial philosophy that governs all owned digital content, lead the transformation of our digital merchandising capabilities, and pioneer the operationalization of generative AI to power structured, scalable content across our global portfolio. This is a rare opportunity to leave a genuine mark on how one of the world’s most beloved luxury brands communicates — and converts — in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Requirements

A minimum of 10–12 years of progressive experience in digital content strategy, editorial leadership, or digital publishing roles — with significant experience in luxury, hospitality, travel, retail, or a premium consumer brand environment.
Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Journalism, English, Marketing, Digital Media, Information Science, or a related field required.
Working fluency in SEO, AEO, and GEO — including proven success driving organic visibility and content discoverability for a large brand portfolio across English-language and multilingual markets.
Meaningful hands-on experience with generative AI tools and content workflows — and the judgment to implement them responsibly within a brand environment that demands premium quality.
Strong command of digital merchandising, product content, and information architecture principles — ideally gained in an e-commerce, OTA, luxury retail, or direct-booking digital environment.
Experience with enterprise CMS platforms, content governance, and structured content systems — familiarity with headless CMS architectures and content delivery at scale is strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to translate data, analytics, and audience insights into clear editorial and content investment decisions — experience with tools such as Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or equivalent.
Prior experience managing and briefing large editorial and creative teams — including setting creative briefs, quality standards, and production workflows for long-form, short-form, and social content.
Experience working with — or within — luxury hospitality, travel, or high-touch consumer service environments is a strong advantage.
An exceptional storyteller and communicator — capable of crafting a compelling editorial point of view and articulating it persuasively to senior leadership, cross-functional partners, and external collaborators.
Strategic and systems thinker — able to hold the long view of brand content investment while managing the operational complexity of a global publishing function.
Commercially minded — driven by the connection between content quality, brand perception, and direct revenue performance; equally comfortable in a creative room and a P&L conversation.
Technologically curious — with a genuine interest in and working knowledge of emerging tools, AI platforms, search algorithm developments, and digital publishing technology.
Collaborative and culturally sensitive — able to build trust and alignment with property teams, regional leaders, and global stakeholders across diverse markets and geographies.
Highly organized and process-oriented — capable of introducing structure, clarity, and efficiency into a complex, high-volume content operation.
A natural leader who develops talent, creates clarity, and inspires a team to do their best work.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MBA, MA, or equivalent) in a relevant discipline is an asset.

Responsibilities

Own and champion a clear, data-informed digital editorial strategy that distills guidelines and direction from the Four Seasons Brand team, shaping the Four Seasons brand identity — its values of kindness, genuine care, warmth, and service excellence — into a coherent, compelling content voice that resonates across audience segments and digital channels.
Develop and steward a comprehensive Digital Editorial Strategy that aligns the Four Seasons brand voice and values against deep consumer and guest insights, defining the content pillars and thematic territories that guide investment decisions across owned, earned, and paid digital channels.
Collaborate and work closely with Brand, Marketing and Media to ensure alignment between Digital Editorial against broader global brand direction, guidance and governance.
Serve as a close, ongoing partner to the Guest Insights and Research team — regularly connecting to absorb guest segmentation findings, behavioral data, and preference signals (including those of high-return guests), and translating those insights into concrete editorial strategy, content priorities, and tactical execution across channels.
Define and govern the content pillars — destination storytelling, culinary and wellness experiences, curated journeys, residences, and experiential luxury — that anchor editorial investment and ensure Four Seasons achieves and sustains world-class performance in SEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
Establish and enforce digital editorial standards, style guides, and content governance frameworks that ensure brand consistency, quality, and cultural sensitivity across a global portfolio spanning 47+ countries.
Work closely with the marketing team in driving a forward-looking Editorial Calendar that aligns content programming to commercial priorities — including hotel and resort openings, seasonal campaigns, new program launches (Yachts, Private Jet, Residences), and key demand-generating moments.
Partner closely with regional marketing, property communications, and brand creative teams to source authentic, destination-specific stories that elevate the global Four Seasons narrative.
Translate complex insights about digital consumer behavior, search intent, and content performance into actionable editorial priorities and measurable investment strategies.
Introduce and implement modern retailing principles into Four Seasons’ digital business, transforming how properties, experiences, and offerings are presented, packaged, and sold across digital touchpoints.
Lead the build-out of a Digital Merchandising Practice that applies product merchandising and retailing best practices to how Four Seasons presents its hotels, resorts, residences, and experiential products — driving discoverability, consideration, and direct booking conversion.
Define and implement a structured content and copy framework for property pages, room and suite descriptions, experience offerings, dining narratives, and ancillary services — ensuring that every piece of product content is strategically positioned to support commercial performance.
Develop, implement, and govern content taxonomy, information architecture, and content structure standards that enable hotel content to scale across web, app, email, OTA listings, and AI-driven recommendation surfaces — including large language model (LLM) integrations.
Partner with Revenue Management, e-Commerce, and Digital Product teams to ensure merchandising content actively supports direct channel growth — reducing reliance on OTAs and increasing revenue captured through owned digital platforms.
Introduce and champion content optimization practices — A/B testing, personalization strategies, conversion-oriented copywriting — that continuously improve the performance of digital product content against booking and revenue metrics.
Lead the development of seasonal and campaign-specific merchandising content that supports new property openings, package launches, and revenue-driving initiatives.
Build strong cross-functional relationships with hotel General Managers and property marketing teams to ensure locally-relevant content is captured, structured, and published efficiently at scale.
Monitor and report on merchandising content performance, using data and analytics to inform ongoing optimization and future investment decisions.
Serve as Four Seasons’ internal leader and pioneer in implementing generative AI into content creation, operations, and publishing workflows — driving efficiency, scale, and personalization without compromising the brand’s hallmark quality and craft.
Lead and pilot the implementation and operationalization of generative AI for written content across Four Seasons’ digital content function, establishing responsible and effective workflows for producing atomized, structured content and copy at scale across web, email, social, app, and emerging channels.
Develop the policies, guardrails, brand standards, and human-in-the-loop review processes that govern AI-generated content — ensuring generated output meets the Four Seasons standard of quality, authenticity, and brand voice before publication.
Partner with Technology, CMS/platform, and Digital Product teams to integrate AI content generation capabilities into the publishing infrastructure — enabling efficient production of localized, personalized, and channel-optimized content across a portfolio of 135+ properties.
Build internal capability and literacy around AI tools and workflows, training the content team and cross-functional partners on responsible, effective use of generative AI for content creation and publishing.
Identify and evaluate AI-powered tools and platforms for content generation, content optimization, SEO automation, personalization, and translation — making build vs. buy recommendations with clear ROI frameworks.
Lead structured content initiatives that ensure Four Seasons content is formatted and organized in ways that are readable and retrievable by AI-powered search surfaces, answer engines, and LLM-driven discovery tools — positioning Four Seasons for sustained visibility in an AI-mediated search environment.
Establish KPIs and reporting frameworks for measuring the output quality, efficiency gains, and commercial impact of AI-assisted content operations.
Lead the transformation of Four Seasons’ digital content operating model — assessing the current state of content production, publishing workflows, vendor relationships, and quality standards, and designing a future-state model that is leaner, faster, higher-quality, and more coherent at scale.
Rebuild and rationalize the content vendor and agency ecosystem — consolidating, restructuring, or replacing existing supplier relationships to establish a best-in-class network of creative, production, localization, photography, video, and copy partners that consistently deliver to Four Seasons brand standards.
Define and implement a content supply chain — the end-to-end process by which content is briefed, created, reviewed, approved, localized, structured, published, and performance-measured — with clear roles, turnaround standards, quality gates, and accountability at every stage.
Establish a governance framework rooted in Four Seasons’ brand values — ensuring that every piece of content entering the supply chain, regardless of source (internal teams, vendors, AI-assisted generation, or property contributors), is evaluated against consistent brand, quality, and editorial standards before publication.
Introduce AI and technology enablement as a structural component of the new operating model — identifying where generative AI, workflow automation, translation technology, content management tooling, and digital asset management systems can be deployed to meaningfully reduce production friction, increase throughput, and improve content quality and consistency.
Partner with Technology, Procurement, Finance, and Legal to redesign vendor contracts, SLAs, and operating agreements in ways that reflect the new supply chain model — including outcome-based performance standards and AI-use governance provisions.
Build internal capability and operating discipline within the content organization, establishing clear standards for briefing, production, review, and QA that reduce rework, elevate craft, and create a culture of publishing excellence.
Develop a clear roadmap and change management plan for the operating model transformation — communicating progress, milestones, and ROI to senior leadership, and managing the complexity of transitioning from legacy structures to a modernized content function without disrupting ongoing business needs.
Define and track operational KPIs — including content production velocity, cost-per-asset, time-to-publish, revision rates, vendor quality scores, and brand compliance rates — that demonstrate the tangible business value of the transformed operating model.
Build, lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing Digital Content team — including editors, content strategists, SEO/AEO specialists, copy managers, and content operations professionals — fostering a culture of craft, curiosity, and commercial accountability.
Establish clear roles, workflows, and accountability structures across the content function, introducing efficient editorial production processes that enable the team to operate at the pace and scale demanded by a global luxury portfolio.
Provide global content leadership to Four Seasons properties — defining what content excellence looks like at the property level, establishing clear standards and benchmarks, and creating the guidance materials, playbooks, toolkits, and resources that empower property marketing and communications teams to build and publish their best content within the Four Seasons brand framework.
Act as a trusted advisor and subject-matter authority for property teams worldwide — offering consultation, coaching, and strategic direction that elevates content quality across the global portfolio while respecting the authentic, destination-specific character of each property.
Partner with agency of record teams, freelance contributors, and specialist vendors to supplement internal capacity across creative, production, translation, and specialist disciplines.
Serve as an active and influential member of the Digital and Commercial leadership team, contributing a content-first perspective to broader digital strategy, product roadmap, and brand decisions.
Champion a data-culture within the content organization — ensuring every publishing decision is grounded in audience insight, performance analytics, and commercial intent.