Senior Director, General Manager Development

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Director, General Manager (GM) Development serves as the enterprise leader and architect of Marriott’s global General Manager Development strategy. This role is accountable for defining, governing, and continuously evolving a comprehensive, end-to-end GM Development Ecosystem—spanning onboarding, acceleration, continuous development, readiness, and succession—serving all General Managers across brands, service models, and geographies.

Operating as a strategic thought partner to senior Operations, Commercial and HR leadership, the Senior Director ensures GM development directly supports Marriott’s business strategy, operational excellence, and leadership bench strength. This leader sets global direction, establishes standards and governance, drives enterprise alignment, and ensures measurable impact on GM capability, hotel performance, and leadership readiness.

The Senior Director leads through influence in a highly matrixed environment, orchestrating global and continent-level learning teams, senior operational leaders, subject matter experts, and external partners to deliver scalable, high-impact development solutions that reflect Marriott’s culture, leadership principles, and operational realities.

 

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Development, Business, Hospitality Management, or related field;
• Extensive senior-level hotel operations leadership experience, with a deep understanding of the General Manager role across brands, service levels, and geographies.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-scale projects in complex, global, matrixed organizations.
• Experience and interest in leading globally relevant and culturally nuanced leadership development and learning strategies.
• Proven ability to shape strategy, set vision, and drive execution across multiple stakeholders without direct authority.
• Advanced expertise in leadership development architecture, including onboarding, assessment, acceleration, readiness, and succession.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to translate enterprise and operational strategy into leadership capability requirements.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with VP and SVP-level leaders as a trusted advisor.
• Expertise in leveraging data, assessment, and analytics to measure leadership impact and inform decision-making.
• Exceptional executive communication, facilitation, and storytelling skills; credible and influential with senior leaders and external partners.
• Experience with modern learning technologies, global vendors, and external thought partners preferred.

 CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

Enterprise Strategy & Governance

• Define and lead the global strategy, vision, and governance model for General Manager Development across Marriott International.
• Establish a clear, enterprise-wide GM Development Ecosystem that integrates onboarding, continuous learning, assessment, readiness, and succession.
• Ensure GM development priorities are aligned with Marriott’s business strategy, brand growth, operational transformation, and leadership philosophy.
• Set global standards, frameworks, and success measures while enabling flexibility for regional and brand-specific needs.

Program Architecture & Portfolio Leadership

• Own the global GM development portfolio, ensuring clarity of purpose, role-based pathways, and a cohesive learning experience across the GM lifecycle.
• Guide the design and evolution of flagship GM programs and experiences, leveraging best-in-class learning methodologies and hospitality-relevant practice.
• Oversee integration of diagnostics, assessments, feedback mechanisms, and experiential learning to drive sustained behavior change and performance impact.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, operationally relevant, and consistently executed across continents.

Executive Partnership & Influence

• Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior HR, Operations, and Brand leaders on GM capability, readiness, and leadership risk.
• Partner with Continent Learning and Operations leaders to drive adoption, alignment, and accountability for GM development outcomes.
• Influence senior stakeholders to prioritize leadership capability as a driver of hotel performance, engagement, and owner value.
• Represent GM Development in enterprise talent, leadership, and succession discussions.

Measurement, Insights & Bus