Position Summary:
The Openings Executive – EMEA drives hotel openings across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, ensuring each property launches with strong operational readiness, brand compliance, owner confidence, and commercial momentum. The role provides disciplined project leadership from pre-opening planning through post-opening stabilization, aligning ownership groups, hotel leadership, corporate functions, and brand teams around clear milestones, risks, and success measures. The ideal candidate is a commercially aware hospitality leader who can translate strategy into execution, resolve complexity with pace, and help deliver exceptional guest and team experiences from day one.
Key Responsibilities:
This position centrally manages the openings process across all brands, with accountability for project governance, operational readiness, stakeholder alignment, launch quality, and measurable post-opening performance.
- Lead hotel opening projects from early planning through post-opening stabilization, ensuring clear governance, ownership, and escalation management.
- Develop and maintain detailed opening plans, critical path timelines, milestones, risks, dependencies, and deliverables.
- Coordinate ownership groups, hotel leadership, regional teams, and Hilton brand functions to align decisions, actions, and launch priorities.
- Ensure all hotel departments are prepared to operate effectively at launch, with readiness tracked against agreed pre-opening milestones.
- Support onboarding, training, system adoption, and operating rhythm creation for pre-opening teams.
- Align opening activities with Hilton brand standards, regional strategies, owner expectations, and hotel-level commercial priorities.
- Monitor post-opening performance indicators, including guest experience, operational stabilization, commercial ramp-up, and brand readiness outcomes.
- Provide targeted coaching, issue resolution, and operational support to hotel leadership teams during stabilization.
- Capture lessons learned and convert opening insights into repeatable process improvements that improve efficiency, scalability, and launch quality.
Support Activities:
Contribute to regional KPIs through opening projects, including Hilton Honors enrolments, Stay Experience Score, and commercial ramp-up.
Maintain and enhance support materials, knowledge articles, tools, and processes to reflect the latest brand voice, improve adoption, and drive efficiency, scale, and quality.
QualificationsEssential Qualifications and Experience:
Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Minimum five years of hotel operations experience, ideally including exposure to pre-opening or transitional environments.
Strong understanding of Hilton brand standards, hotel operating disciplines, and systems.
Excellent communication, organization, stakeholder management, problem-solving, and influencing skills.
Willingness and ability to travel across EMEA to support hotel openings and stakeholder engagement.
Preferred Qualifications and Skills:
Multilingual capability, with English required and additional EMEA languages advantageous.
Project management certification or equivalent experience managing complex, cross-functional delivery plans.
Experience working across both managed and franchised hotel operating models.
About Us
How We’ll Help You Thrive
At Hilton, the hospitality we’re known for doesn’t end with our guests. We proudly invest in our Team Members’ wellbeing, supporting you through all of life’s moments. When you join Hilton, our exceptional care extends to you with unmatched perks and benefits, including*:
Incredible travel perks – Enjoy 110 nights of deeply discounted travel, with room rates as low as $40 USD/night at our world-class hotels through our Go Hilton travel program
Paid parental leave – Because family matters. We offer paid leave for eligible Team Members, including partners and adoptive parents
Crisis concierge – In times of loss, our Crisis Concierge offers a single, compassionate point of contact for both practical support and emotional care
Mental health resources – Your wellbeing comes first. Through our Care for All hub, we provide resources to help our Team Members to care for themselves and their loved ones. In many countries, eligible Team Members receive free counseling and support through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
*Benefits availability may vary depending on Team Member’s location as well as terms and conditions of employment and are subject to the terms and conditions of each specific program/plan.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Hospitality, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
- Minimum five years of hotel operations experience
- Experience with pre-opening or transitional hotel environments
- Strong understanding of Hilton brand standards, hotel operating disciplines, and systems
- Excellent communication, organization, stakeholder management, problem-solving, and influencing skills
- Willingness and ability to travel across EMEA
- Multilingual capability, with English required and additional EMEA languages advantageous
- Project management certification or equivalent experience managing complex, cross-functional delivery plans
- Experience working across managed and franchised hotel operating models
Hilton Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — The Go Hilton travel program offers up to 110 discounted nights per year, with employee room rates as low as $40 and additional friends-and-family and on‑property dining discounts. Select programs like Thrive Sabbatical and Thrive Reset provide paid time off with stipends for personal goals or recharge.
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Retirement Support — The U.S. 401(k) match is 100% on the first 3% of pay plus 50% on the next 2%, enabling up to a 4% employer match when contributing 5%. This delivers a clear, formula-based boost to long‑term savings.
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Parental & Family Support — New parents receive four weeks of fully paid parental leave, with birthing parents receiving an additional eight weeks for a total of 12 weeks. Adoption assistance and caregiving support resources are also available.
Hilton Insights
What We Do
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 28 world-class brands comprising more than 9,400 properties and nearly 1.4 million rooms, in 144 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its founding vision to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality, Hilton has welcomed over 4 billion guests in its more than 100-year history. Named as the No. 1 World’s Best Workplace by Great Place to Work and Fortune, Hilton aims to create the best culture for its 500,000 team members around the world. Hilton has introduced industry-leading technology enhancements to improve the guest experience, including Digital Key Share, automated complimentary room upgrades and the ability to book confirmed connecting rooms. Through the award-winning guest loyalty program Hilton Honors, the more than 260 million Hilton Honors members who book directly with Hilton can earn Points for hotel stays and experiences money can't buy. With the free Hilton Honors app, guests can book their stay, select their room, check in, unlock their door with a Digital Key and check out, all from their smartphone.
Why Work With Us
Hilton is proud to be recognized as the World’s Best Workplace by Great Place to Work and Fortune. At Hilton, every job makes the stay. Team Members can make an impact, be themselves, build new skills, grow their careers, explore opportunities around the world, and enjoy people-first benefits like Go Hilton travel discounts.
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Hilton Offices
OnSite Workspace
With more than 9,400 hotels and properties in 144 countries and territories, plus corporate offices and teams around the world, Hilton offers opportunities to build a career in destinations and communities worldwide.
