Senior Director, IT Application Development- Loyalty Platforms

Marriott Hotels Resorts•Bethesda, MD

About The Position

JOB SUMMARY: The Senior Director, IT Application Development is a hands-on technical leader responsible for turning strategy into scalable, high-quality software products. This role blends deep engineering acumen with a product and commercial mindset - owning outcomes, customer value, and operational excellence. You will lead and scale multi-disciplinary, global teams (internal, vendor, and matrixed) to deliver platforms and applications that power critical business capabilities and exceptional customer experiences. You’ll set the technical direction, shape product roadmaps with stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement in quality, reliability, speed, and cost.

Requirements

10+ years of application development leadership experience and the various approaches to the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) (e.g. Agile and Waterfall)
Five years recent experience as a primary point of application accountability for an enterprise, globally-distributed applications
Demonstrated expertise of industry application platforms, trends and best practices
Direct management of complex budgets in excess of $10M+ annual direct and indirect costs
Direct management of cross functional, sourced, or matrixed teams
Experience with and knowledge of IT outsourcing activities in a managed services environment
Demonstrated experience leading transformations (e.g., cloud migration, platform modernization, agile/DevOps adoption).
Exceptional communication and storytelling skills—can explain complex technology in clear business terms to executives and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Loyalty programs (Marriott Rewards/SPG)
Demonstrated success leading medium- to large-scale initiatives/transformations
Proven management experience in strategic planning and budgeting within one or more business groups
Good process management, negotiating, influencing and problem resolution skills
Proven ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
Experience in business systems and process planning
Knowledge of business environment, service requirements and hospitality culture
Demonstrated ability to assess customer/client needs, creatively approach solutions, decide and influence appropriate courses of action
Ability to understand and communicate the lifecycle of technologies and applications and to translate into business strategies for the client organizations.
Undergraduate/graduate degree in computer science or related discipline
Solid understanding of IT financial structures and ability to manage to corporate financial processes and standards - including drivers of process costs
Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas in easy to understand business terms
Ability to accomplish results through others, particularly by establishing relationships, effective controls and leading in a managed service Environment

Responsibilities

Works with direct reports to facilitate consistency of service delivery across client groups
Facilitates compliance with the standard set of application development tools and processes that will drive consistency and predictability throughout the SDLC for all client groups including:
SDLC standard tools and processes for both waterfall and agile development
Estimating standard tools and processes, incorporating flexibility for small and large projects
Deployment standard tools and processes
Monitors projects for adherence to defined application development processes
Communicates to Application Development leaders opportunities to create broader IT related and corporate standards and policies where necessary
Communicates important application development policy changes that affect service provider and/or Marriott operations
Manages application development projects in partnership with IT teams, business partners and providers
Provides project management of business projects
Oversees effective reporting within application development team
Leads project reviews with team on application development projects
Manages day-to day relationships with all IT teams to promote the delivery of services that meet or exceed the client expectations
Monitors projects for alignment with defined business case process
Drives timely resolution of escalated service delivery problems and minimizes the impact of any client service delivery issues
Manages, and improves service level reporting for application development
Provides early warning to the appropriate Business Partnership & Planning leaders and team regarding degraded or missed service levels
Assists with application, development and maintenance of service provider project management standards and tools
Participates in client portfolio and demand management processes, and engages service providers to ensure client satisfaction
Validates the service provider(s) performs the services agreed to by the master services agreement in a manner that is consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the agreement
Works with team to progress the service providers services to match client needs
Facilitates team and service provider compliance with the agreement
Validates service levels meet business needs
Facilitates the definition and enforcement of good service provider contracts
Provides input to IT’s business strategy and planning as needed
Supports and follows defined IT Governance decision rights, standards and practices
Emphasizes accuracy and effectiveness of estimating and planning management with team
Provides input to business/discipline and continent IT budgets