Senior Vice President Human Resources

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior HR business partner for assigned New York hotels, aligning people first priorities with property performance, guest experience, owner expectations, and Highgate’s broader business strategy.
• Coach and advise General Managers, executive committee members, and property HR leaders on leadership effectiveness, organizational structure, succession planning, workforce planning, and change management.
• Translate companywide HR priorities into practical, market-specific action plans that reflect the pace, complexity, and labor environment of New York hotels.
• Build credibility across properties by balancing strategic counsel with hands-on support during high-priority operational, associate relations, and labor matters.
• Lead labor relations strategy for assigned unionized properties, ensuring consistent and thoughtful administration of collective bargaining agreements, side letters, past practices, and property-specific labor commitments.
• Advise leaders on contract interpretation, seniority, scheduling, job classifications, wage and benefit provisions, progressive discipline, investigations, leaves, accommodations, subcontracting considerations, and operational changes that may have labor implications.
• Partners with property leadership, corporate HR, legal counsel, and union representatives to resolve grievances, prepare for arbitration or hearing, and reduce avoidable labor risk.
• Maintain a constructive, professional working relationship with union representatives while protecting business needs, associate fairness, contractual obligations, and Highgate standards.
• Provide sound guidance on complex employee relations matters, including investigations, performance concerns, conduct issues, harassment or discrimination complaints, workplace conflict, separations, and sensitive leadership situations.
• Ensure compliance with federal, New York State, and New York City employment requirements, including wage and hour, leave laws, pay transparency, anti-harassment, accommodations, recordkeeping, safety, immigration, and posting obligations.
• Promote consistent documentation, fair process, appropriate escalation, and timely resolution of employee and labor matters across assigned hotels.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition and property leaders to strengthen staffing strategies for high-volume and leadership roles, with attention to market competitiveness, internal mobility, and diversity of candidate pipelines.
• Guide succession planning and talent reviews for critical hotel leadership roles, identifying readiness, development gaps, retention risks, and internal bench strength across the New York portfolio.
• Develop, coach, and mentor HR Directors and HR teams, raising the standard for business partnership, compliance discipline, associate engagement, and operational follow-through.
• Support onboarding, leadership development, service culture, training compliance, and manager capability programs that improve associate experience and operational consistency.
• Champion a positive and inclusive associate experience that reflects Highgate’s values, hotel service culture, and the expectations of a highly visible New York hospitality environment.
• Use engagement feedback, turnover data, exit interviews, employee relations trends, and operational input to identify root causes and drive practical retention and culture-building actions.
• Partner with property leaders on communications, recognition, associate events, listening strategies, and manager accountability for a respectful, high-performing workplace.
• Oversee effective execution of HR processes across assigned properties, including HR budgeting, compensation administration, personnel records, performance management, policy implementation, required training, and HR reporting.
• Ensure accurate and timely use of HR systems and processes, including applicant tracking, associate data, compliance documentation, onboarding workflows, and reporting tools.
• Monitor key people metrics such as staffing levels, turnover, overtime drivers, grievance activity, leave trends, employee relations cases, training completion, and compliance gaps; convert insights into action plans.
• Travel regularly within the New York market and maintain a strong on-property presence to support leaders, inspect HR practices, build trust, and resolve issues before they escalate.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive Human Resources leadership experience, including significant experience supporting hotel, hospitality, multi-unit, or service-intensive operations.
• Demonstrated success leading HR in a New York City hotel or comparable unionized hospitality environment is strongly preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of New York State and New York City employment laws and regulations, with the judgment to know when to escalate to legal counsel or corporate HR leadership.
• Experience advising senior operators and General Managers in a fast-paced, high-touch, guest-facing environment.
• Proven ability to lead through influence, build trust quickly, manage sensitive issues discreetly, and balance advocacy with business priorities.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to write clearly, present recommendations, facilitate difficult conversations, and communicate with credibility across all levels of the organization.
• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Hospitality, Labor Relations, or a related field preferred; advanced degree or HR/labor certification is a plus.
• Ability to travel regularly throughout the New York market and work flexible hours as needed based on hotel operations, labor matters, investigations, and business priorities.
• Business-minded HR leader who understands hotel operations, ownership expectations, and the importance of associate experience in driving guest satisfaction and financial performance.
• Balanced labor relations partner who is firm, fair, prepared, respectful, and solutions oriented.
• High-integrity advisor who handles confidential matters with discretion and sound judgment.
• Hands-on operator who is comfortable moving from strategy to execution and can support properties during urgent or complex situations.
• Developer of people who raises the capability of HR teams and property leaders across the portfolio.
• Establish trusted relationships with General Managers, property HR leaders, corporate HR, legal partners, and union stakeholders across the New York portfolio.
• Assess labor relations practices, CBA administration, grievance trends, employee relations risk, staffing gaps, and HR operating rhythms across assigned hotels.
• Create clear market action plans that improve consistency, compliance, associate experience, leadership capability, and issue resolution across properties.
• Strengthen HR Director capability through coaching, process discipline, practical tools, and clearer escalation expectations.
• Improve visibility into people metrics and convert data into targeted actions for retention, engagement, compliance, and operational effectiveness.