Senior Director, Marketing, The Ritz-Carlton & Ritz-Carlton Reserve

Marriott • Bethesda, MD

5h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director, Marketing is a key leader within the Global Brand Team for The Ritz-Carlton & Ritz-Carlton Reserve. This role is responsible for shaping and executing innovative marketing strategies that elevate brand positioning, drive global awareness, and create meaningful connections with luxury travelers worldwide. The Senior Director, will ensure all marketing initiatives embody the brand’s values and deliver a cohesive, aspirational narrative across channels. As the steward of brand culture, this leader ensures every initiative reflects the essence of our brands—delivering distinctive experiences and storytelling that resonate with discerning audiences. This role leads the development and execution of the Global Marketing strategy, partnering closely with Continent teams to ensure initiatives align with overarching global objectives while being tailored to regional nuances to drive impactful results. Acting as a brand ambassador, the Senior Director aligns marketing efforts with the overarching vision and business objectives, ensuring consistency and excellence across all touchpoints.To support these efforts, the Senior Director, Luxury Brand Marketing will focus on these priorities 1) support the strategic direction and execution of the brand marking strategy and multi-year planning efforts 2) direct the execution of the brand marekging priorities by cross-functional resources, and 3) drive brand performance.

Requirements

• 15+ years’ experience in the hospitality industry, demonstrating progressive career growth and a pattern of exceptional performance AND
• 4-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Hospitality Management, or related major
• OR
• 20+ years of relevant professional experience in related function, demonstrating progressive career growth and pattern of exceptional performance.
• Relevant marketing and brand experience.

Nice To Haves

• 10+ years of experience in the luxury category, preferred.

Responsibilities

• Brand Marketing Strategy & Multi-Year Planning
• Takes a leadership role in the development of a compelling and differentiated brand and marketing strategy, leveraging the brands’ consumer, competitive, and other stakeholder profiles and needs. Oversees pulldown of global strategy through continent lens.
• Owns the Brand Positioning, develops and manages the Brand’s Visual Identity, develops communication tools and templates to ensure consistent execution by broader organization and hotels.
• Leads the marketing team to drive the Global Brand Marketing and Messaging Strategy with a top funnel focus and owned channel focus. Supports global campaign efforts.
• Works with Director of Parnerships to create strategy for partnerships and development of all partners for the brand.
• Encourage property pull-through of brand marketing initiatives with the development of Activation Toolkits (PR, Social, Experiential, Digital, etc.)
• Establish relationships with key property leaders (Owners, General Managers, Directors of Sales and Marketing, etc.)
• Deeply understands the target audience and its nuances as relates to opportunities for brand marketing and programming. Conducts a regular pulse-check on the consumer and uses insights to inform presentation materials and go-to-market strategies.
• Oversees the creation of strategic brand business plan, inclusive of a viable economic strategy, product and service model, brand positioning, value proposition definition, competitive strategies (for product, service, talent & culture, growth, demand generation)
• Supports Ritz-Carlton Reserve growth through development of on-strategy materials for development, continent teams, and other partners. Assumes a leadership role to ensure the success of new openings and support through brand marketing.
• Develops, socializes, and executes a marketing framework to create awareness of Ritz-Carlton Reserve and its collection of hotels.
• Creates project plans, guides, and engages respective project teams throughout the project from kick off to implementation.
• Informs business strategies, plans and initiatives with relevant luxury, industry, and market data.
• Actively participates in the development of a compelling and differentiated brand and marketing strategy, leveraging the brands’ consumer, competitive, and other stakeholder profiles and needs.
• Supports the creation of strategic brand business plans for the brands, inclusive of a viable economic strategy, product and service model, brand positioning, value proposition definition, competitive strategies (for product, service, talent & culture, marketing, growth, demand generation, partnerships).
• Identifies and executes new initiatives, marketing strategies, partnerships, and projects for the brand.
• Strategy Execution
• Acts as an ambassador representing the brands in a variety of forums with internal and external stakeholders including brand immersion, owner meetings, development meetings, new hotel openings, General Manager webinars and conferences, continent team meetings and other internal settings.
• Partners with internal insights team to spot trends, innovative ideas, and practices relevant for the brand sharing key findings with brand and extended teams.
• Sets direction for initiatives that improve brand performance and oversee brand standards review and approval process. Partners with larger brand and continent luxury teams, as appropriate, on those initiatives.
• Serves as brand advocate by helping resources and extended teams understand the brand direction.
• Shares the brand vision for marketing and collaborates with VP of Luxury Marketing and content marketing teams.
• Has an eye for aesthetic ensuring a luxury lens on all presentations, marketing materials and toolkits working with team to ensure a keen understanding of band direction.
• Identifies pilot hotels and partners to test and learn on key brand marketing and programming initiatives.
• Develops materials to support guest programming and collaborates on ways to drive press for those initiatives.
• Collaborates with the brand and MILUX partnerships to identify opportunities and potential partners to enliven the guest experience and marketing strategy.
• Acts as a liaison and resource for the global design team to execute specific, differentiated brand design foundations and supporting design standards and guidelines.
• Drives new GM onboarding, as appropriate, and plans and executes new GM immersion meetings in partnership with broader brand and continent teams.
• Leads brand experience projects to drive brand differentiation and preference. Directs the development of brand proof points and related resources in partnership with the global operations team.
• Leads team meetings and ensures delegation and ownership of assignments amongst the team.
• Collaborates with development and global design to ensure on-strategy growth and renovations for the brand.
• Provides guidance to opening teams to ensure branded critical path document for openings and conversions are developed and maintained.
• Business Model & Brand Performance
• Acts as brand champion to stakeholders – owners, consumers, guests, executives and employees within HQ and market
• Builds strong relationships with continent teams and hotels to ensure the brand culture comes to life on property, driving pull-through of the brand promise.
• Educates and communicates on brand strategy, framework, positioning, voice and strategic pillars, brand standards and competitive environment,
• Helps develop and drive execution of communication strategies associated with launching tactics/deliverables in support of the brand strategies and stated performance goals.
• Defines brand performance metrics and recommend performance targets

Benefits

• All positions offer a 401(k) plan, stock purchase plan, discounts at Marriott properties, commuter benefits, employee assistance plan, and childcare discounts.
• Full-time positions also offer coverage for medical, dental, vision, health care flexible spending account, dependent care flexible spending account, life insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, adoption expense reimbursements, paid parental leave and educational assistance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees