Director Development Central

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is now seeking a Director Development Central & Eastern Europe to join our team in Warsaw, Poland.

Job Summary

The position is responsible for the development of all Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (WHR) brands for Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

Working closely with the Head of Development Central Europe, the role will include all aspects of development including client acquisition; sourcing and screening of potential projects; analysing projects' potential in conjunction with the Feasibility team; preparing contracts and obtaining internal deal approval. The incumbent will be responsible for surfacing potential opportunities for growth by adding new properties to our portfolio. These may be new builds, conversions or rebrands, mainly under franchised agreements.

The role will also be required to seek out and build productive relationships with new and existing owners, franchisees, consultants, developers and investors in order to grow the portfolio across their region.

This position will also have frequent contact with the Development/ Franchise Sales colleagues as well as the Legal, Contracts Administration, Central Operations, New Hotel Openings (NHOP), Architecture, Design & Construction (AD&C), Feasibility, Finance and Commercial teams.

Responsibilities

• Identify and evaluate business growth opportunities for our hotel and resort brands in managed and/ or franchising opportunities for WHR. This will include extensive collection and maintenance of market intelligence in the specific territories assigned as well as the generation of franchise leads which conform to agreed strategies and standards, and management of these to the approval stage.
• In collaboration with the Legal Department, provide terms and conditions of agreements with franchisees/ representatives. Ensure that agreement terms and conditions follow the correct legal process and contract obligations are acceptable to/ approved by the organisation. Thereafter, conduct the follow up until deal closure.
• Coordinate all aspects of the development process internal to WHR, including site inspections, technical services representatives, requesting feasibility studies and pro forma valuations when required, overseeing the due diligence process, involving the operations team, and presenting opportunities for approval by the Head of Development Central Europe and Wyndham's International Approval Committee ("IAC") as required.
• Establish and maintain purposeful and positive professional relationships with a strong network of contacts throughout your territories. These will include existing franchisees, partners and owners as well as potential new clients/ investors and their representatives, brokers, agents and other subject matter experts in order to maintain awareness of activities in the market for new opportunities, renewals and exit windows.
• Ensure that all aspects of leads, executions and openings are fully recorded and maintained within the CRM system so that all activities may be fully tracked and progress reviewed.

Complexity

Decision Making Authority

This position will have the authority to make decisions or recommendations related to:

• Lead qualification and processing (100% responsible).
• Providing standard key commercial terms for all/ any projects to all parties.
• Closing transactions.

Level of autonomy

• This position will have a high sense of autonomy. In many cases, the individual will have a remote or home office setup; therefore they will plan their own daily activities and organise their own travel schedule.

Impact

• The position has a direct impact on the company's image, pipeline and revenue growth. This individual will have a specific annual quota to meet and the achievement of this will make a measurable impact on the Company's bottom line performance.

Scope/ Financial Responsibility

• They will have monthly scorecard review meetings and annual Key Performance Objectives to meet which will be measured in terms of their contribution to System Growth (executions and openings) and agreed personal objectives.
• The position holder will be in a revenue generating position and their individual performance will have a direct impact on the Company's growth, financial performance and the achievement of the regional strategy.
• The incumbent will be responsible for managing their own travel and travel related expenses in accordance with an approved annual budget (the budget will be communicated to the individual).

Abilities/ Key Competencies/ Skills

• Highly developed negotiation, business development and analytical skills.
• Proactive attitude.
• Able to build and maintain positive professional relationships.
• Solution orientation, and able to anticipate and resolve potential obstacles.
• Able to meet deadlines and project timelines.
• Superior communication and presentation skills, both oral and written.
• Detail orientation.
• Highly self-motivated, goal oriented and target driven.
• Demonstrates the highest standards of honesty, integrity and discretion.
• Customer focused.
• Culturally sensitive and adaptable.
• Able to work remotely and autonomously whilst demonstrating a collaborative approach and spirit.

Experience/ Certificates/ Education

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, ideally in a Business Administration, Real Estate, Finance or Hospitality discipline.
• Post graduate qualification or equivalent experience in property advisory or similar would be an advantage.
• Previous experience in a corporate environment within the franchise development is required.
• Previous experience in the negotiation or brokerage of franchising, hotel management contracts, real estate development and/ or the hospitality sector are advantageous.
• Experience of working in the hospitality industry at hotel or corporate level is a must.
• Fluency in spoken and written English and a second language (Polish, Czech or Hungarian) is essential. Additional language capabilities would be a plus.
• Must be computer literate and experienced in using all Microsoft Office programmes including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Candidates must also have experience of using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.