SUMMARY:
Associate Development at Marriott is positioned to fuel performance, enrich lives, and accelerate reinvention. It is an integral function that directly impacts and supports business performance and drives the organization’s people priorities around growing great leaders, investing in our associates, and ensuring access to opportunity. The Senior Director, Associate Development Technology Strategies & Solutions role provides the opportunity to drive tremendous change and create meaningful and lasting impact given the following accountabilities:

• Partner across the Associate Development team at HQ and in continent to drive solutioning for both the business and learners, maximizing the capabilities of our current tools

• Shape & execute upon a learning technology strategy & roadmap inclusive of AI and where the space is going as the pace of technology changes continues to accelerate

• Lead with a product mindset, putting the end user at the center

• Ensure the voice of the learner and needs of the business directly shape the associate development digital solutions we use – this includes the learning experience platform, cohort learning technology, in- tool/performance support, and other digital learning solutions

• Strengthen and champion the innovation muscle within the associate development COE through tech whether it be the actual tech used, digital learning modalities leveraged and digital delivery mechanisms to reach our learners

• In partnership with internal technology partners, identify capability gaps and emerging needs to then influence our providers and their product roadmaps such that we may level up our learning strategy through technology

This position will partner with colleagues in other teams who also have critical responsibility for driving the following aspects of ensuring a solid learning tech stack and ultimately, creating a great learner experience. Partnership and stellar communication will be key as it relates to the following – which are led by colleagues in other teams:

• Learning Administration: Implementations of learning programs and content are completed by the Design & Development team

• Feature/Release Management: While vendor relationships are critical for this role and it will influence/shape specific product features within the ecosystem, care and feeding for releases is ultimately managed by the technology organization

• Technology Integrations: Systems and data flawlessly integrating between one another is managed by our technology organization

• Learner Support: Flawless system support and issue management/escalation is cared for by our HR delivery team and technology partners. This role may however evaluate service and issues at a thematic level to then translate them into enhancements and product upgrades as appropriate.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

Solutioning:

• For annual strategic planning and on an initiative or project-by-project basis, translate business priorities into learning solutions powered through tech. Partner with the Performance Advisors, learning design/development leads, and continent learning teams to meet specific learner/business needs through maximized utilization of current learning tech and its specific features while also staying on top of where the space is heading, gaps, and future tech investments that may be neededWith a strong grounding in the current capabilities of our tech stack, influence learning strategies and drive impactful learning solutions through thoughtful and creative application of our tech.

• Work with Associate Development colleagues to develop and drive use cases and adoption for new ways of learning. Combine science-driven learning with voice of the learner and business to result in useful, innovative tech-enabled experiences for our learners. Partner with deployment and continent learning teams to evaluate and drive adoption of new ways of learning and utilization of solutions.

• In all solutioning related efforts, maximize our current tools to meet business/learner needs. Where required, develop high-level business requirements. Work closely with internal technology teams as they translate business requirements into technical requirements and work with our vendor partners through design phases. Prior to any launches, serve as voice of the Associate Development COE/learners/business stakeholders and validate that expected business outcomes are being met.

Voice of the Learner & Business:

• Ensure voice of the learner and needs of the business are represented in our HR technology strategy, technology stack and vendor roadmaps both near and long term. Partner with Associate Development colleagues and business stakeholders in order to conduct comprehensive, deeply insightful needs analysis so that we continually ensure learner and business needs are understood and capability gaps are identified.

• In caring for the voice of the learner and the business, identify capability gaps (e.g. features) and work with internal technology partners to ensure capability requests are understood and prioritized with a focus on highest impact/highest priority needs are being addressed.

• Drive a continual feedback loop back to stakeholders representing learners and the business to communicate how capabilities are or will be met.

Roadmap, Strategy + Impact:

• Create a comprehensive Global Associate Development innovation strategy and roadmap inclusive of AI; gain buy-in from stakeholders and team members to shape, drive adoption of and evolve the strategy.

• Keep the ADinnovation strategy ahead of the curve; continually assess the value and impact of new learning technologies, tools, and systems and serve as an evangelist for driving business and learner impact through tech. Drive a culture of benchmarking, researching the market and identifying learning trends that are relevant to Marriott in providing best-in-class learning experience. Care for the measurement + impact studies of our learning tools, programs, and solutions.

• Manage the pull-through of our strategy into our ecosystem of digital learning solutions and modalities used to reach learners. In partnership with our internal technology teams, care for the strategic relationship management of current learning technology providers. Facilitate a strong partnership by driving business reviews and working to align priorities and roadmaps. Convey business/learner priorities and capability needs.

OUR EDUCATION + EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree, ideally in business, education, digital technology, user experience or a relevant discipline that provides a solid grounding on human behaviors and motivations

• Ten or more years of experience that includes learning strategy, innovation, strategy/solutions, or digital product management

This leader must:

• Be culturally aware, process-oriented with structured problem-solving skills, and an ability to work cross-functionally

• Have a consultative touch in the way they work – be an excellent listener, distill insights into action, and exercise creativity to meet stakeholder/user needs

• Have a bias for action and execution while maintaining a strategic mindset towards the future

• Be able to juggle multiple and shifting priorities while landing planes in a complex, global, matrixed environment