Director, Strategic Ramp Who are we looking for? Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, has an exciting new opportunity as our Director, Strategic Ramp in the Onboarding and Learning department. The Onboarding and Learning team is the team that helps set up new and existing hotels for success from the start and provides resources and support to achieve strong performance in all areas of hotel operations. As a key member of our Onboarding and Learning team, you will provide strategic hotel ramp leadership for Choice’s growing portfolio of Upscale / Upper Upscale, Upper Midscale / Core, and Extended Stay segments, and collaborate internally and externally to support faster ramp performance for new hotels in the Choice system. Focused on New Construction, Conversion openings, and relicenses, you will oversee all aspects of ramp performance – tracking for both breadth and depth at the segment/brand/project level over time. This role will establish strategy and methods for coordinating and aligning across segment-specific leads, Franchise Performance, and the Centers of Excellence (COEs), including regular reporting that will drive data-based decision-making on the execution of ramp and facilitating ramp interventions. You will lead a ramp coordination team that helps support all opening types, including relicenses and segment-specific ramp leads who cultivate and create exceptional experiences across each Choice brand. This includes ensuring ramp assets are developed, activated, and improved upon, identifying and monitoring leading and lagging performance indicators, and establishing use cases that improve upon delivery of key ramp levers. You will provide thought leadership and advice to Choice’s executive team and franchisees, partner with our in-house construction and COE teams, franchisee property teams, and others to collectively succeed in growing the Choice portfolio in line with Choice’s five-year growth targets across all segments and drive successful property ramp upon onboarding to Choice platforms and our distribution system. Are you performance-driven, a connector of people and processes, data-curious, and entrepreneurial in spirit? We invite you to apply for our Director, Strategic Ramp role today and #MakeItYourChoice. Your Responsibilities + Serve as a leader and face of Choice for franchisees, management companies and teams during the defined ramp processes and phases. Partner with Openings, Segments, and other key stakeholders impacting hotel ramp in coordination for ramp-related pre- and post-opening processes for all New Construction and Conversion projects and for all Relicensing contracts. + Lead ramp coordination team and drive ramp activities and accountability across hotels, segments, and COEs. + Establish ramp performance measures, protocols, and processes and implement tools, dashboards, and executive reporting to ensure transparency around ongoing performance metrics, openings KPIs, and forecasting. + Define key metrics and targets for a successful ramp for all New Construction and Conversion projects by segment and brand. Utilize dashboards and reporting to track success against ramp targets at the property, brand, and segment levels. + Provide strategic and operational visibility with regular segment-based meetings for tracking and driving delivery of ramp and accountability for performance across segments and properties. + Utilize data for predictive analytics, technology implementation, and collaboration for driving performance pre- to post-open. Your Experience, Skills & Competencies + 10+ years total experience, including experience with a major hotel company. + Hotel operations experience and driving tangible performance results + Dynamic and highly thoughtful leader who inspires confidence and credibility throughout the organization + Expertise with analytics/reporting for data-based decision-making; strategic ability to envision and implement performance reporting strategy to align and focus multiple constituents + Multi-faceted experience and industry knowledge in hospitality, operations, and openings + Significant experience in developing perspectives and innovating with a lens for operations and commercial performance within hotel portfolios + Ability to influence without authority and drive cross-functional accountability + Ability to think innovatively and anticipate emerging trends, as well as think strategically and execute tactics while also teaming and communicating effectively within and outside the function + Must be able to model Choice's Values & Performance Principles of collaboration, performance excellence, sense of urgency, openness to new ideas, inclusion & diversity, integrity, customer focus, and respect + Flexibility in creating and making changes or re-directing initiatives to continuously improve strategy and organization, leading change management initiatives, and working in a matrix-based organization + Ability to travel up to 15% of the time Your Team This is a leadership role that will report to the Senior Director, Choice University. You will have a small team of direct reports and collaborate with cross functional departments on a regular basis. Your Work Location As our Director, Strategic Ramp, 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. Salary Range The salary range for this position is $129,000 to $163,000 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). 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. About Choice Hotels Financial Performance Please click here (https://investor.choicehotels.com/overview/default.aspx) to review the highlights of our latest financial results. *** 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.