Senior Director – IT Change and Release Management at Marriott

Job Number 24171643
Job Category Information Technology
Location Marriott International HQ, 7750 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland, United States VIEW ON MAP
Schedule Full-Time
Located Remotely? Y
Relocation? N
Position Type Management

We are seeking a dynamic and forward-thinking Senior Director of Change and Release Management to lead our global team through an exciting period of transformation. This pivotal role involves orchestrating software and infrastructure changes across an evolving organization, supporting a visionary shift from traditional IT Service Management (ITSM) concepts to a more modern, DevOps-driven philosophy. The ideal candidate will possess a unique blend of leadership, technical proficiency, and a deep understanding of both ITSM and DevOps strategies and tactics.

As the Senior Director of Change and Release Management, you will be at the forefront of fostering innovation and driving the adoption of best practices in change and release management. You will oversee a talented global team of analysts and developers, guiding them in the creation and implementation of processes that enable efficient and effective flow of change, seamless coordination of releases, and stringent governance around change and release standards.

At Marriott, Change and Release Management has three core philosophies:

1. Improve the flow of changes to software and/or systems, advocating for automation where applicable.
2. Proactively detect problems with changes and related releases before they happen.
3. In the event a failure or an incident, recover as fast as possible.

This role demands a strategic thinker who can balance the need for agility with the necessity of maintaining control and compliance in a complex IT environment. Your leadership will be instrumental in transforming our change and release management practices, ensuring they not only support our current needs but are also aligned with our future growth and evolution towards a more agile, responsive IT organization.

 

CANDIDATE PROFILE 

Education and Experience 

Required:

• 10+ years overall work experience in Information Technology, application development or similar relevant experience including: 
  • 7+ years’ experience supporting cross-functional application and infrastructure teams with technology change and release needs.
  • 5+ years in a technical discipline role with experience in planning, implementing and evaluating change and release processes, systems and/or initiatives
  • 4+ years applications support in a cloud environment, technical infrastructure, system implementation experience. 
  • 4+ years ensuring change and release process elements are in full compliance with security policy and relevant national or international standards
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience/certification in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Extensive experience working with ServiceNow ITSM, ITOM, Asset Management and Application Portfolio Management.
• Ability to work across organizational boundaries to lead and influence continuous improvement initiatives. 
• Advanced knowledge of ITSM processes, procedures, infrastructure change and release management.

Preferred:

• Experience with and knowledge of IT outsourcing activities in a managed services environment.
• Extensive experience working with ServiceNow ITSM, ITOM, Asset Management and Application Portfolio Management.
• Experience working in a private and public cloud.
• Experience collaborating with teams across operations, incident and problem management, application development, 
• Familiarity working in a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) organization supporting change management, capacity planning, efficiency, and emergency response.
• Broad technical acumen across multi- discipline applications with a solid understanding of current technologies
• Experience operating in a DevSecOps environment
• Experience applying measurement processes/methods for assessing program outputs and outcomes or progress toward goals and objectives.
• Experience working with global, distributed team members in different time zones.
• Proven ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to work across organizational boundaries, to help lead and influence change
• Ability to command the process across all levels to ensure customer focus; including being assertive and self-starting
• Demonstrated leadership experience in influence and garnering alignment from external organizations
• Ability to align change and release management strategies with concurrent projects and organizational strategies
• Skilled in conceptualizing creative solutions, documenting them, and presenting/selling them to senior management.
• Extremely high level of analytical ability with complex problems. Ability to lead and guide teams in an ambiguous environment.
• Very high level of interpersonal skills to work effectively with others, motivate employees, and elicit work output in a team environment.  
• Proven experience, knowledge and demonstration of continuous process improvement. 

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES 

Develops Standards, Process and Tools to Define and Document All Changes and Releases 

• Acts as process owner for the change management process. Leads the assessment and analysis of change and release, automated or manual. Evaluates risks to the integrity of service environment inherent in proposed changes and releases (including availability, performance, security and compliance of the business services impacted).
• Leads team to define, document and be responsible for high quality of all upcoming application and infrastructure changes and releases.
• Ensures that release process elements are in full compliance with security policy and relevant national or international standards, for example ISO9001, ISO 20001, ISO 22301, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley
• Leads and acts as an escalation point for Change and Release Management team to ensure that all defined releases are on change/release management roadmap with risks appropriately documented, assessed and mitigated.
• Proactively updates Enterprise Application and Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, and Product teams of Release Management Planning. 
• Updates service knowledge management system.
• Ensures coordination of both non-production and production environment and release teams with particular emphasis on potential interdependencies and conflicts. 
• Develops implementation plans for complex requests for change, including overall assessment, approval and schedule for implementation, Holds teams accountable to the organization’s established technical implementation policies and procedures.
• Drives awareness for key stakeholders, including business partners, of the master application release schedule and performance against organizational goals and service level agreements.
• Creates and communicates with key stakeholders effective process vision, strategy, process maturity, and overall direction of team. 
• Promotes awareness of structured change and release control processes using value-based messaging to coach, consult and train team and partnering organizations to adhere to established Change and Release Management processes and procedures.
• Drives continuous improvement amongst team and across partnering organizations to ensure that Change and Release Management functions meet changing business needs. 
• Leads the development and communication of data and related analytics to draw conclusions on change and release progress.
• Defines service release and deployment standards, policies and procedures across the organization. 

Building Successful Relationships

• Collaborates with Enterprise Application, Architecture and Infrastructure teams to drive continuous improvement to processes and procedures. 
• Develops relationships with Product Managers and Business Service Owners to successfully communicate value of the Change and Release organization, effectively bridging the gap between technology and business.
• Liaises with vendors and Service Providers to optimize service quality and select services and tools that best meet company goals.

Managing Projects and Priorities

• Develops strategy and defines specific goals to prioritize, organize, and accomplish work for self and direct reports.
• Provides leadership and assistance to other teams regarding dependent projects. Determines priorities, schedules, plans and necessary resources to ensure completion of projects on schedule.
• Analyzes information and evaluates results to drive continuous improvement. 
• Thinks creatively and practically to develop, execute and implement new plans or programs. Generates and provides accurate and timely results in the form of analytics, presentations, etc.
• Plans, develops, implements, and evaluates the quality of the teams’ operations on a regular basis. Ensures highest quality of team operations through ongoing leadership and management. 
• Produces recommendations to improve the effectiveness of processes or programs; leads effort to full completion while holding self and partnering teams accountable to results.
• Understands and meets the needs of key stakeholders.
• Supports achievement of performance goals, budget goals, team goals, etc.

Leading Discipline Team

• Chairs meetings that review and progress the control of changes and releases, such as change advisory boards (CABs).
• Reviews the effectiveness of change and release processes. Suggests improvement to organizational procedures governing change control
• Leads audits of the change and release process and takes responsibility for resulting actions based on findings and recommendations
• Provides vision for change and release delivery in a DevSecOps environment.
• Works with direct reports and peers to develop and implement strategic goals and deliver results.  Communicates a clear and consistent message to produce desired results.
• Makes and executes the necessary decisions to keep team moving forward toward achievement of goals.
• Provides targeted and timely communication of results, achievements and challenges to direct reports, peers, and leaders.

Managing and Conducting Human Resources Activities

• Interviews and hires employees.
• Promotes the fair and equitable treatment of employees.
• Facilitates regular, ongoing communication in department (e.g., staff meetings).
• Fosters employee commitment to providing excellent service, participates in daily stand-up meetings and models desired service behaviors in all interactions with customer and employees.
• Incorporates customer satisfaction as a component of staff/operations meetings with an emphasis on generating innovative ways to continually improve results.
• Sets goals and expectations for direct reports using the performance review process and holds staff accountable for performance goals.
• Solicits employee feedback.
• Utilizes an “open door policy” and reviews employee satisfaction results to identify and address employee problems or concerns
• Promotes adherence to policies consistently, follows disciplinary procedures and documents items according to Standard and Local Operating

Procedures (SOPs and LSOPs) and supports the Peer Review Process.

• Conducts annual performance appraisal with direct reports according to Standard Operating Procedures.
• Champions ongoing improvements. 
• Ensures brand and regional business initiatives are implemented and communicates follow-up actions to team as necessary.
• Identifies talents of direct reports and their teams and assists with their growth and development plans.

 

The salary range for this position is $183,200 to $235,300 annually. In addition to the annual salary, the position will be eligible to receive an annual bonus and restricted stock units/stock grants.

Washington Applicants Only: Employees will accrue 0.04616 PTO balance for every hour worked and eligible to receive minimum of 7 holidays annually.  

All locations offer coverage for medical, dental, vision, health care flexible spending account, dependent care flexible spending account, life insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance, adoption expense reimbursements, paid parental leave, educational assistance, 401(k) plan, stock purchase plan, discounts at Marriott properties, commuter benefits, employee assistance plan, and childcare discounts.  Benefits are subject to terms and conditions, which may include rules regarding eligibility, enrollment, waiting period, contribution, benefit limits, election changes, benefit exclusions, and others.

Marriott HQ is committed to a hybrid work environment that enables associates to Be connected.  Headquarters-based positions are considered hybrid, for candidates within a commuting distance to Bethesda, MD;  candidates outside of commuting distance to Bethesda, MD will be considered for Remote positions.

The application deadline for this position is 28 days after the date of this posting, October 2, 2024.

 

Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive, people-first culture. We are committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis, such as disability and veteran status, or any other basis covered under applicable law.

Marriott International is the world’s largest hotel company, with more brands, more hotels and more opportunities for associates to grow and succeed. Be where you can do your best work,​ begin your purpose, belong to an amazing global​ team, and become the best version of you.