Senior Director, Upscale Brands

Who are we looking for?

Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity as our Senior Director, Upscale Brands. The Senior Director, Upscale Brands, a key leader within the Upscale Brand Segment, will play a crucial role in driving brand preference, performance, and growth within the Upscale portfolio. The Senior Director, Upscale Brands leads the planning and execution of the short- and long-term strategic brand plans and leads the end-to-end brand management lifecycle, in alignment with the Upscale portfolio strategy and corporate business objectives. This leader will drive preference, performance, and growth of the upscale brands through:

• Developing the long-term vision and strategy for Choice’s Upscale select and full service brands, which includes Cambria, Radisson, Radisson Blu, and Radisson RED;

• Serving as a strategic brand champion to both internal partners and external owners, property management companies, and developers

• Partnering with Commercial & COE leaders (e.g., Operations, Sales, Loyalty, Marketing, Revenue Management) to generate performance-boosting strategies, programs and processes

• Leading planning and execution of the strategic brand priorities within the Upscale segment, ensuring strong cross-functional alignment and engagement and identifying new opportunities for innovation

• Inspiring and developing a team of Brand leaders while driving a strong culture of collaboration, performance, and excellence

This leader represents their assigned brands internally and externally, leading owner- and GM-facing initiatives to ensure strong adoption and implementation across the portfolio. Other key areas of responsibility include directing the monitoring and analyses of brand performance and the competitive landscape.

Your Responsibilities

Brand Strategy & Execution

• Leads long-term strategic planning and annual brand planning for the Upscale select and full service brands, ensuring alignment to corporate objectives and five-year growth targets.

• Develops winning strategies to drive brand differentiation and brand performance within the upscale and upper-upscale chain scale segments

• Leverages knowledge of commercial COEs (revenue management, channel and distribution strategy, marketing, loyalty and more) to collaborate with COE leaders to create segment-specific, performance-driving strategies.

• Partners with Analytics and Finance teams to quantify success of programs and strategies, proactively recommending opportunities for optimization.

• Drives the execution of multi-year comprehensive strategic brand plans and initiatives and collaborates cross-functionally to ensure buy-in and delivery across the organization, including with Franchise Development, Marketing and Distribution, Loyalty, Technology, Brand Compliance, Operations, and Legal.

• Drives increased share through creation of relevant, differentiated brand positioning, hallmarks, amenities, design and experiences across brands.

• Develops and effectively communicate business cases for key brand initiatives and gains internal and external support for implementation.

Strategic Brand Champion

• Represents Choice and the Upscale brands at a variety of industry events and media outlets to raise the brands’ visibility.

• Acts as the strategic “Brand Champion” to our owners, property management companies, and developers including during Convention, Choice Onboard, franchise development discussions, and other events.

• Leads the brands’ relationship with owners councils including in-person and conference call meetings, partnering with colleagues within the segment and COEs.

• Oversees a regular cadence of GM and Director of Sales (DOS) calls to drive engagement and on-property activation of key brand priorities.

• Ensures organizational awareness of brand priorities and annual plans.

• Prepares and delivers professional and effective communications to convey brand strategy, brand initiatives, and brand performance to a variety of audiences, utilizing a variety of tools and methods (e.g. presentations, spreadsheets, videos).

Brand Performance Management

• Monitors and tracks performance of Upscale brands and competitors on an ongoing basis and communicates findings to the appropriate audiences.

• Directs preparation of analyses to assess current problems to solve, measure performance of brand initiatives and identify opportunities to achieve brand goals.

• Continuously monitors direction and growth of the business with respect to the competitive landscape and market trends, and makes adjustments to win.

• Ensures franchisee, consumer, and developer value propositions are competitive, with the goal of strengthening RevPAR performance, guest satisfaction, unit growth, proprietary channel contribution, loyalty contribution, and gross operating margins.

• Collaborates with Advanced Analytics team, Commercial team, and Centers of Excellence partners to understand existing data and performance trends and identify additional research needs that will help the brand assess opportunities and build plans to achieve goals.

Leadership & Coaching

• Hires, retains and continually develops high caliber talent who are able to contribute positively to the organization.

• Mentors, coaches, and develops direct reports, driving strong culture of collaboration, performance and excellence.

• Develops a pipeline of talent for all key positions to meet current and future needs.

• Leads the team to achieve or exceed department goals, modeling exceptional business acumen, organizational savvy, and collaboration.

• Leads and effectively communicates strategic change initiatives and organizational impacts.

Your Experience, Skills & Competencies

• MBA, or equivalent combination of Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, or related field, and relevant work experience.

• Minimum of 10 years’ progressive experience in brand management, strategy, or management consulting (or combination). Prior experience in hospitality or the travel industry is preferred.

• Minimum of 5 years’ leadership experience, including setting strategic direction and managing direct reports at management/professional levels.

• Strong track record of success in driving execution and delivering business results. Highly results-oriented and a motivated self-starter.

• Excellent leadership skills; proven ability to develop relationships with associates at all levels and to drive results in a team-oriented environment.

• Excellent business-savvy with a consultative approach and holistic business view; ability to influence and collaborate with leaders across organizational lines.

• High tolerance for ambiguity combined with ability to leverage data and create a foundation of data-supported decision making. Excellent analytical and forecasting skills; previous experience with successful budget management.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate across all stakeholder groups including small and large group settings, both internal and external. Can be trusted to build rapport with franchisees and stay “on message” with media.

• Proficient in the use of MS Office applications, such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

• Based out of Choice Hotels’ corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD.

• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time.

Your Work Location

As our Senior Director, Upscale Brands you will be based in our beautiful, state-of-the-art worldwide corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD. Less than 15 miles from Washington, DC, we’re located one block away from the North Bethesda Metro station, with service on the Red Line and the MARC Brunswick line, easy access to I-270, and plenty of free parking provided by Choice Hotels.

Your Team

This is a leadership role that will report to the VP, Upscale Brands & Chief Sustainability Officer . You will have 3 direct reports and collaborate with cross-functional departments on a regular basis.

Your Salary

The salary range for this position is $184,629-$216,939 annually. In addition to the annual salary, this role is eligible for an annual bonus based on the terms of Choice's Management Incentive Plan (MIP), as well as annual awards of Choice Hotels International common stock through Choice’s Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTI Plan).

The pay range listed is for this position and is what Choice Hotels reasonably expects to pay. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee’s pay position within the pay range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, and business or organizational needs.

Choice prioritizes our associate wellbeing by offering a comprehensive benefits program that is both competitive and flexible to help you achieve your wellbeing goals - here are just a few:

• Competitive compensation and benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Leave and paid time-off for holidays, vacation, personal, family, volunteer, sick, jury duty, bereavement, military, and religious observance

• Financial benefits for retirement and health savings

• Employee recognition programs

• Discounts at Choice hotels worldwide

About Choice

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the largest lodging franchisors in the world. With nearly 7,500 hotels, representing nearly 630,000 rooms, in 46 countries and territories, with a range of high-quality lodging options from limited service to full-service hotels in the upper upscale, upper mid-scale, midscale, extended-stay, and economy segments. We’re the hotel company for those who choose to bet on themselves – the underdog, the dreamer, the entrepreneur – because that’s who we are, too.

At Choice, we are united by the simple belief that tomorrow will be even better than today – for associates, our company, and our franchisees. At our worldwide corporate headquarters in North Bethesda, MD and St. Louis Park, MN as well as our technology center in Scottsdale, AZ, and through our associates around the globe, every voice is heard, and every idea is listened to, no matter what area of the company they come from. We are united in supporting the entrepreneurial dreams of our more than 18,000 franchise owners, which propels us forward – giving our work at Choice a purpose larger than our business.

* PLEASE NOTE: This role is not eligible for sponsorship *

Ability to model Choice’s Cultural Values: Welcome and Respect Everyone, Be Bold, Be Quick, Listen, Be Curious and Show Integrity.