Director, Standalone Residences

Director, Standalone Residences page is loaded Director, Standalone Residences Apply locations Four Seasons Corporate Office Toronto time type Full time posted on Posted 8 Days Ago job requisition id P20247009

About Four Seasons:

Four Seasons is powered by our people. We are a collective of individuals who crave to become better, to push ourselves to new heights and to treat each other as we wish to be treated in return. Our team members around the world create amazing experiences for our guests, residents, and partners through a commitment to luxury with genuine heart. We know that the best way to enable our people to deliver these exceptional guest experiences is through a world-class employee experience and company culture.

At Four Seasons, we believe in recognizing a familiar face, welcoming a new one and treating everyone we meet the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Whether you work with us, stay with us, live with us or discover with us, we believe our purpose is to create impressions that will stay with you for a lifetime. It comes from our belief that life is richer when we truly connect to the people and the world around us.

About the location:

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is a global, luxury hotel management company. We manage over 120 hotels and resorts and 50 private residences in 47 countries around the world and growing. Central to Four Seasons employee experience and social impact programming is the company’s commitment to supporting cancer research, and the advancement of diversity, inclusion, equality and belonging at Four Seasons corporate offices and properties worldwide. At Four Seasons, we are powered by people and our culture enables everything we do.

Director, Standalone Residences

We have an exciting Director, Standalone Residences opportunity based at the Four Seasons Corporate Head Office. This role is responsible for establishing the operating model for each standalone private residences to ensure the optimum model is applied and set up for each project. Ensures standalone operational and property management requirements are clearly reflected in the areas of technology, product, amenity program, operations, property management, F&B, Resident, and employee journey. They will also lead the advancement and implementation of new standalone initiatives working very closely with all corporate functions and regional leads, and also advance the standalone service offering especially in markets where hotel may not exist.

What You’ll Be Doing:

Standalone Residential Standards and corporate Initiative (40%)

• Develop materials and support documents to educate all stakeholders (developer, corporate teams, property teams, etc.) on the various standalone product types.
• Lead the advancement corporate standalone initiatives around operating model (including Residential hub), shared services, residential experience, food and beverage etc.
• Support the efforts to enhance integration with Standalone with broader functional oversight (security, hotel ops, engineering, etc.)
• Review current operating guidelines to ensure standalone residences nuances are captured based on product type and local law/local customs.
• Develop tools that are required for advancing and supporting regional teams executing on Standalone projects in the areas of property management and operational.
• Develop centralized residential knowledge bank.
• Obtain all current labour models to determine ideal operating model by standalone product type
• Provide clear roles and responsibilities for Residential Hub job functions and develop supporting material for internal and external communication purposes for local FS team, FS corporate teams, Developer, various consultants etc.
• Harvest and analyze standalone resident data to better understand the buyer profile that can be leveraged for future sales opportunities.
• Develop and execute against strategic initiatives focused on advancing and elevating the standalone resident experience with Four Seasons.
• Organize and prepare on-boarding material for Directors of Residences and other leadership roles for regional execution to for handover of property knowledge/information focusing in the area of project structure, governing documents, mixed use considerations, management agreements, operating model assumptions, initial labor plan etc. that are relevant to each project.
• Review current pre-opening tools to develop and/or adjust to reflect standalone nuances to better manage and guide the pre-opening teams during their opening activities. 
• Review and refine current pre-opening project plan to ensure standalone nuances are captured for all standalone product types

Pre-Opening Phase of Property Opening (30%)

• Monitor all status of each operational work streams (both corporate and local) to assess any risk factors of opening the Residential projects on time. Ensure theses risk are being escalated through the right channel with the right people.
• Develop a clear road map/visibility of Residential Operational requirements that may extend to post opening. Ensure the local team is aware and understands the timeline and action required to meet these requirements.
• Provide hands on guidance to the local team as required during pre-opening to assist with the set up the operations in the following areas: service (basic and a la carte), house rules, homeowner communication, HOA management, homeowner recognition, safety and emergency plans, maintenance programs for common areas, residential systems set up, etc.
• Develop ideal training plan for each standalone residences operating model that includes leadership, service, products, systems, etc.
• Liaise with on-site team on a regular basis collecting details on status updates and pending issues to help ensure minimal to no delays in opening timeline.
• Preform pre-readiness assessment to determine and document any outstanding matters requiring attention prior to opening.
• Document and utilize best practices from prior opening to improve efficiency and reduce potential challenges.
• Ensure opening plan is in place and is managed accordingly.
• Support local team operations with developers through the design and build phase of projects.

Open & Operating Phase (Opening Transition 24 months post initial closing - Developer Managed) - 20%.

• Support local team and Residential Hub to conduct Initial Board Meeting, initial Board transition to Homeowner and initial Annual General Meeting
• Work with local team and Residential Hub, providing support to resolve any remaining post-opening issues.
• Support Regional team with post-open assessment to ensure daily operations are stable and identify any key areas requiring further attention.
• Assist with any issues while developing solutions to post-open matters regarding products, service, quality, etc.
• Liaise with on-site team on a regular basis collecting details on status updates and pending issues to help ensure minimal impacts to operations and the resident experience creating seamless alignment.

Other (10%)

• Assist the VP Residential Operations with ad hoc projects as necessary. 

Business Travel

• 15-20%

What You Bring:

• University degree – major in business / real estate / property management preferred. MBA or Post Graduate Degree in Business beneficial.
• 10-15 years of experience in Operations role in Residential and/or Hotel
• 5+ years’ experience working with residential projects is required.
• Standalone residences experience is great to have.
• Intermediate/advance level of understanding of Residential Operations and Property Management
• Good understanding of business/financial management
• Intermediate /advance level of understanding of Hotel Operations 
• Solid understanding of property management systems such as OPERA, Building link, Chat platforms, Concierge systems etc.
• Advance user of Excel, Word, PPT, Visio etc.

Key Skills:

• Ability to adapt and work effectively in a variety of situations.
• Is able to work effectively in rapidly changing or ambiguous situations in which there are no policies procedures or guidelines.
• Is open minded and receptive to new and different ways of doing things and provides valuable input to change efforts.
• Be able to manage self with minimal supervision.
• Good understanding of Legal Agreements/Legal documents and capture the main points of each document that are relevant and has implications for operations.
• Translate complex and difficult information into communication that are easy to understand.
• Advance level of management skills for full execution/implementation
• Summarize, analyze, and organize various information to provide meaningful insights.
• Effectively problem solve by understanding and fixing the root cause. 
• Communicate clearly, comfortably, and confidently to all levels of stakeholders.
• Good understanding of the opening process for hotels and residentials properties.

This role will be a Hybrid working model, which will require 3 days per week in the Four Seasons Corporate Office located at 1165 Leslie Street, Toronto, Ontario #LI-Hybrid

Four Seasons is committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If contacted for an employment opportunity, please advise Human Resources if you require accommodation. #J-18808-Ljbffr

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