Development Manager, Branded Residential - EMEA

About This Role

About Hilton

Hilton is one of the largest and fastest growing hospitality companies in the world, with over 9,000 properties with 1.3 million rooms in 138 countries and territories. In the 107 years since our founding, we have defined the hospitality industry and established a portfolio of 25 world-class brands, including our flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand, which is the most recognized hotel brand in the world. Hilton is proud to have an award-winning workplace culture, excellent Team Member benefits and we are consistently named among one of the World’s Best Workplaces.

Position Statement

Under direction from the MD Development Residential EMEA the candidate must work effectively with colleagues and industry contacts to assist in the execution of Hilton’s development strategy with respect to our chosen brands and business models, within EMEA.

Position Summary

The Development Manager establishes, maintains and enhances quality working relationships with key internal & external stakeholders with a view to effectively compiling up-to-date market intelligence and relevant information for the benefit of the EMEA Luxury & Branded Residential development team. This information will be used in commercial presentations, development collateral and internal reporting to leadership. The Development Manager is also responsible for maximizing Hilton’s development exposure through printed material, media, web sites, conference attendance and other industry-related events.

The role is responsible for ensuring the optimum usage of the deal reporting system, through active maintenance, training and optimising the interface with other relevant company systems. Additionally, a number of tools and resources will need to be maintained and updated regularly including the development website and various internal intelligence repositories and reporting platforms.

In addition, there will be project-specific support to the development team to accelerate the deal-signing process and support the attainment of aggressive signings targets.

Strong interpersonal skills are required in communications with the wider hospitality and residential real estate community, senior leaders and external stakeholders. This will also involve drafting a variety of compelling proposals and presentations for a wide range of audiences requiring the ability to work independently with limited supervision to deliver projects within tight deadlines.

Estimated Time Allocation:

• Internal reporting 15%.
• Commercial documents, tactical collateral and presentations 30%.
• Support strategic internal projects (market research, coordination, meetings) 20%.
• Addressing ad-hoc requests of development and collaboration with other teams 5%.
• Industry events and conferences (attendance and preparation) 15%.
• Administration/Planning/Training 15%.

Key Responsibilities

• Retains excellent and transparent filing and administration system; is the first point of contact for many development related queries.
• Participate in Development meetings, filtering of opportunities and assessing projects to work on. Produces commercial offers.
• Pro-actively seeks up-to-date and impactful market-derived and internal information to support commercial endeavors by the development team, maintaining up-to-date knowledge of Hilton brands, product initiatives and services and accordingly, maintain on-going relationship with the individuals driving these initiatives.
• Maintains and updates EMEA development tools and resources and coordinates the dissemination of relevant messaging among the wider hotel community.
• Manages Hilton’s presence at development conferences and events, including organization and setup of such conferences where applicable. Attendance at other EMEA hotel investment conferences may be required.
• Produces accurate development dashboards and other necessary activity reports.
• Compiles, reviews and/or consolidates as required, development deal summaries for internal approval.
• Assisting the EMEA Development team and senior leadership with required analyses, reports, research projects and commercial documents & presentations.
• Works effectively with all support functions (e.g., Legal, Feasibility, Finance, Corporate Compliance, Brands, etc.) to avoid any situations which prevents the completion of a development project.
• Maintains strong collaboration with other Development Managers across the organization in order to leverage best practices and ideas to the benefit of the region.
• Maintains functional, general and administrative activity within budget.
• Work with the EMEA Development team to review planned projects and required reporting/updates, provide an update on ongoing initiatives, and proactively prioritize tasks.
• Pro-actively suggests ideas to improve the department’s efficiency, to increase our exposure and raise our profile to ultimately support our growth.
• Takes on a number of ad-hoc requests aimed at facilitating the smooth running of the development function and support if and when needed specific regional teams.

What are we looking for?

Applicants will ideally have a background in hospitality development, real estate, feasibility and asset management. Other key skills / experience include:

• Accuracy, attention to detail, responsiveness and proactive behaviour.
• High proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
• Strong communication & interpersonal skills at different levels.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work autonomously across varied business situations.
• A self-starter with the ability to anticipate and not simply react to business needs.
• Managing a range of competing priorities and demands (strong time management skills are essential)
• Results-driven, tenacious, able to work under pressure and openness to regular feedback (in line with the wide audience addressed).
• Strong analytical skills and ability to make decisions on their own.
• Ability to work independently combined with a team spirit and desire to support a team.

Required Qualifications

• To hold a BA/BS/ Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• Experience in developing an expert level of analytic skills with the ability to present complex information to senior audiences.
• Fluency in English. Arabic is preferred but not mandatory.
• Ability to travel when required

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior industry experience (hotel operator, feasibility, consulting, sales), substantial hospitality industry experience preferred in similar roles.
• A solid understanding of and a passion for the hospitality and residential real estate industry with good analytical skills and either an experience or inclination towards sales-driven functions.
• An aspiration to build a career in hospitality and or branded residential development.
• Additional language(s) would be considered an advantage.
• Experience applying AI tools to improve reporting, analytics or business processes is advantageous.