Horizontal Talent · 1 day ago
Director Solutions Strategy - Enterprise Architect
Horizontal Talent is seeking a seasoned Director of Solutions Strategy to lead the design and commercialization of end-to-end solutions for Travel & Hospitality clients. This role involves owning the solutions strategy, defining enterprise application roadmaps, and partnering with delivery and product leaders to translate strategy into measurable outcomes.
Responsibilities
Define the end-to-end solution vision across guest acquisition, booking, in-stay operations, and loyalty/retention
Map business capabilities to enterprise systems (PMS, CRS, RMS, CRM/CDP, CMS/AEM, booking engines, payment orchestration, data platforms) and design integration patterns (APIs/eventing/ETL)
Create solution archetypes for priority scenarios (e.g., CRS modernization, PMS migration, direct booking acceleration, loyalty re-platform, data monetization)
Own core sales assets (narratives, playbooks, pitch decks, demos, case studies) and partner marketing content; set differentiated value propositions for hotel sub-segments
Define pricing/commercial approaches (outcomes-based, subscription, build-operate-transfer)
Lead executive workshops; translate brand/owner/operator goals into a sequenced roadmap and OKRs
Maintain a feedback loop with delivery/product to evolve accelerators, standards, and reference implementations
Curate partner strategies across hospitality tech vendors and hyperscalers (e.g., Oracle Opera PMS, Saber/SynXis CRS, IDeaS RMS, Salesforce CRM/Marketing Cloud, Adobe Experience Cloud/AEM, AWS/Azure/GCP, payment providers); build joint offerings and co-sell motions
Publish POVs on distribution modernization, loyalty personalization, data clean rooms, and hotel commerce
Mentor solution architects and strategists; codify playbooks and training paths
Qualification
Required
10–15 years in T&H, with 7+ years focused on hospitality enterprise applications and systems across PMS/CRS/RMS/CRM/CDP/CMS, payment, and data platforms
Proven track in designing API-first integrations, event-driven architectures, and data platforms (lakehouse/streaming/real-time decisioning) that connect core hotel systems to digital channels and loyalty
Experience building repeatable, margin-accretive solution offerings; comfort with outcome-based pricing and business case development
Ownership of sales assets, demos, case studies, and presales motions; ability to coach teams and present to C-suite (brand, owner, and management company stakeholders)
Ability to translate strategy into execution (reference designs, standards, KPIs/OKRs) and govern multi-workstream programs
Preferred
Hands-on familiarity with Oracle Opera/OXI, Saber SynXis, IDeaS, Amadeus, Salesforce (Sales/Service/Marketing Cloud), Adobe Experience Cloud/AEM, Composable CDP, Mulesoft/Apigee, Kafka/Kinesis, Snowflake/Databricks, Power BI
Experience with booking engines, payments (PCI, tokenization, SCA), and revenue/forecasting analytics
Knowledge of OTA/GDS/TMC distribution, rate parity, channel management, and meta search
Exposure to loyalty modernization (tiers, partnerships, real-time earn/burn) and guest identity/unified profile
Background in data privacy/compliance (GDPR/CCPA), accessibility, and security in hospitality contexts
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Hospitality Technology, or related field; MBA or equivalent experience preferred
Relevant certifications (e.g., Salesforce/Adobe, cloud architect, data platform)