Position Title:                        Director, Customer Technology Solutions

Reports To:                            VP, Global Applications and Transformation

Level:                                      Director

Location:                                Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong Office

Areas Covered:                      Global

About the organisation: Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

Mandarin Oriental is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world’s most luxurious hotels, resorts and residences. Renowned for creating outstanding properties, each destination reflects the Group’s dual Asian heritage, local culture and unique design. Driven by a passion for the exceptional, every day, everywhere, the Group’s mission is to craft time enriching experiences that transform the ordinary to the exceptional and guests to fans through its legendary service. The Group now operates 41 hotels, 12 residences and 26 exclusive homes in 26 countries and territories with many more projects under development. Mandarin Oriental continues to drive its reputation as an innovative leader in luxury hospitality, delivering sustainable growth over the long term. The Group is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group.

Scope of Position

The Director, Customer Technology Solutions will oversee the full technical management and lifecycle of key business applications that support the customer experience. This role will focus on ensuring the seamless deployment, integration, enhancement, and optimization of these systems, while also managing vendor relationships across MO’s global operations. Acting as a key liaison, the director will collaborate closely with vendors and business stakeholders to ensure application functionality aligns with business objectives and delivers maximum value.

Duties and Supporting Responsibilities

• Support VP Global Applications to drive an enhanced applications capability at MO, including development of detailed operating model, training documentation and setting up communities of practice
• Strategic Application Lifecycle Management:
  • Collaborate with Business Solutions Team to oversee the full technical lifecycle of assigned applications
  • Investigate and define technical requirements, including interfaces and integrations, ensuring alignment with business needs.
  • Work closely with Solution Architects to ensure most effective and efficient design and integration for new systems with legacy data structures and facilitate smooth technical transitions
  • Lead technical transition plans for upgrading or replacing legacy customer focused applications, ensuring smooth migrations.
• Vendor Management and Collaboration:
  • Define best practice approach to vendor management, including standard contractual terms, and upskill broader MO community
  • Assess viability of vendor solutions and conduct negotiations
  • Lead negotiations with vendors, securing favorable agreements and gaining business owner approval for the commercial aspects.
  • Manage application vendor relationships, ensuring adherence to SLAs, project milestones, and business requirements
  • Work collaboratively with vendors to prioritize and deliver on project milestones and requirements (e.g., integration and configuration development, delivery of enhancements, migrations)
• Application Deployment and Optimization:
  • Oversee and facilitate application planning, design, and pilots, ensuring thorough testing and validation and then manage the technical component of rollouts across designated properties
  • Monitor technical KPIs and ensure SLAs are consistently met, proactively addressing any performance issues
  • Manage vendor to facilitate successful implementation
• Issue Resolution and Communication:
  • Lead issue troubleshooting efforts, working collaboratively with vendors and Business Solutions team to resolve technical and functional issues
  • Communicate project progress, technical updates, and issue resolutions effectively to Business Solutions Analysts (BSAs) and other stakeholders
  • Collaborate with vendors and Business Solutions to plan, test, and deploy integrations and interfaces required among various applications for programs such as GXP and integrations with EDP, etc
• Application Standards and Compliance:
  • Define, document, and enforce standards for technical configurations, ensuring alignment across global properties
  • Collaborate with the UAT Lab support team to define and test vendor solutions
  • Support application standards definition and enforcement for hotel openings
  • Proactively seek opportunities to improve, enhance and / or consolidate applications landscape in MO, in conjunction with business and hotels
  • Responsible for updating application documentation, including the Group’s PS&Gs (Product Standards and Guidelines)

Experience and Competencies

• 7+ years of experience in managing enterprise-level application lifecycle, with technical hospitality experience, preferably in luxury
• Deep understanding of and hands on experience leading transformative projects involving customer focused systems and data management including: CRM, Customer Data Platform, Loyalty, Marketing Automation, Customer Experience Management, Voice of the Customer, etc.
• Proven ability to work with non-technical business colleagues to translate customer and commercial strategy and business requirements into application enhancement roadmap through to delivery
• Strong stakeholder management across global geographies working closely with technical and business teams
• Strong background in investigating and defining technical requirements, particularly related to interfaces and integrations
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, including planning, execution, and monitoring
• Experience with various application platforms and technologies
• Significant experience in managing vendor relationships, negotiating contracts, and ensuring SLAs are met
• Strong understanding of application architecture, integration technologies, and data management principles
• Ability to lead issue troubleshooting efforts and work collaboratively with technical and functional teams
• Experience in evaluating and selecting vendor solutions during procurement processes
• Strong project management skills
• Strong interpersonal skills to develop and manage relationships with broad range of stakeholders, incl. both external (vendors) and internal (colleagues)
• Strong technical troubleshooting skills to diagnose, solution, and execute against problems occurring in and between application integrations
• Able to prioritize solutions and fixes for technical problems and communicate them to both vendor counterparts and business stakeholders
• Self-starter, organised and goal-orientated
• Excellent written and communication skills