Director, Deployment Operation & Command Center (Contractor)

Run of Show Leadership

• Lead the development, maintenance, and execution of deployment Run of Show plans across assigned waves.

• Coordinate cutover activities across hotels, business workstreams, technology teams, support functions, continent teams, and vendors.

• Maintain an integrated view of milestones, dependencies, decision points, risks, and critical-path activities.

• Drive real-time execution during deployment events and ensure teams understand required actions, timing, ownership, and escalation paths.

Command Center Operations

• Lead the command center operating cadence during deployment waves, including readiness reviews, operational calls, issue reviews, shift handovers, and executive updates.

• Monitor deployment progress and provide clear visibility into wave health, hotel status, risks, blockers, and unresolved issues.

• Coordinate across global, continent, market, and hotel-level teams to maintain consistent execution and communication.

• Support 24/7 operational coverage during deployment windows, including clear shift structures, handoffs, and escalation responsibilities.

Cutover Governance

• Monitor execution against approved Run of Show timelines, entry criteria, exit criteria, and readiness

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• Identify execution risks early and activate the appropriate decision-making and escalation pathways.

• Coordinate go-live readiness assessments and support informed cutover decisions.

• Ensure deployment decisions, outcomes, exceptions, and lessons learned are documented and communicated.

Deployment Support Leadership

• Lead support planning and execution for assigned deployment waves, from pre-deployment readiness through stabilization.

• Ensure support models, staffing, tools, procedures, knowledge content, communication channels, and escalation paths are ready before go-live.

• Coordinate business, technology, service desk, vendor, and continent support teams to provide an integrated support experience for hotels.

• Confirm clear ownership and handoffs between deployment support and steady-state support organizations.

Issue Management & Resolution

• Oversee the intake, triage, prioritization, assignment, escalation, and resolution of deployment-related incidents, defects, and operational issues.

• Drive timely escalation of high-impact issues and coordinate cross-functional response teams to minimize hotel disruption.

• Maintain visibility into issue status, aging, business impact, dependencies, workarounds, and resolution plans.

• Analyze issue patterns and recurring themes to inform corrective action and future-wave improvements.

Post-Go-Live Stabilization

• Lead stabilization activities following go-live and monitor hotel adoption, support demand, unresolved issues, and operational performance.

• Establish clear stabilization exit criteria and track progress toward transition to business-as-usual support.

• Coordinate resolution of outstanding issues and confirm that residual risks have documented owners and action plans.

• Report stabilization health, support effectiveness, and transition readiness to deployment leadership and stakeholders.

Stakeholder & Executive Communication

• Serve as a primary operational communication lead during cutover and stabilization periods.

• Provide timely, concise, and audience-appropriate updates to command center leadership, continent teams, hotel stakeholders, and executives.

• Prepare deployment health summaries, risk and issue reports, decision materials, and executive briefings.

• Maintain transparency on readiness, execution status, support performance, and required leadership actions.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead post-wave retrospectives and translate lessons learned into practical improvements for subsequent waves.

• Enhance deployment playbooks, Run of Show templates, support models, command center procedures, and escalation protocols.

• Partner with stakeholders to improve execution agility, hotel experience, operational visibility, and issue-resolution effectiveness.

• Promote consistent standards, disciplined execution, and a continuous-improvement mindset across deployment teams.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop Deployment Support and Run of Show team members.

• Establish clear roles, accountability, performance expectations, and execution standards.

• Foster collaboration across deployment, hotel operations, technology, business, vendor, and support teams.

• Support resource planning, hiring, onboarding, training, scheduling, and readiness of deployment personnel.

• Build a high-performance culture centered on customer experience, operational excellence, accountability, and successful deployment outcomes.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• Eight or more years of relevant experience in technology deployment, program management, command center operations, IT operations, hospitality systems, or large-scale transformation.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex deployments, cutovers, go-live events, or high-pressure operational command centers.

• Experience leading cross-functional teams and coordinating stakeholders in a complex, matrixed environment.

• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, dependencies, risks, and escalations under demanding timelines.

• Strong facilitation, executive communication, problem-solving, and decision-support capabilities.

Preferred Experience

• Hospitality industry experience and knowledge of hotel operations.

• Experience supporting large-scale property management, reservations, loyalty, finance, commercial, or enterprise technology deployments.

• Experience with deployment support, incident management, service management, stabilization, and operational handover.

• Familiarity with Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, Power BI, Jira, Smartsheet, Monday.com, or comparable deployment tracking and reporting tools.

Core Competencies

• Deployment orchestration and cutover management

• Command center leadership and operational governance

• Incident, risk, dependency, and escalation management

• Executive communication and stakeholder engagement

• Cross-functional leadership and influence

• Planning, prioritization, and disciplined execution

• Adaptability and sound judgment under pressure

• Customer focus and continuous improvement