Vice President Human Resources

Vice President, Human Resources – New York Hotels

Highgate is a leading real estate investment and hospitality management company with over $15 billion of assets under management and a global portfolio of more than 400 hotels spanning North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America. With a 30-year track record as an innovator in the hospitality industry, this forward-thinking company provides expert guidance through all stages of the property cycle, from planning and development through recapitalization or disposition. Highgate continues to demonstrate success in developing a diverse portfolio of bespoke lifestyle hotel brands, legacy brands, and independent hotels and resorts, featuring contemporary programming and digital acumen. The company utilizes industry-leading revenue management tools that efficiently identify and predict evolving market dynamics to drive outperformance and maximize asset value. With an executive team of seasoned hospitality leaders and corporate offices worldwide, Highgate is a trusted partner for top ownership groups and major hotel brands.

The Vice President, Human Resources – New York Hotels is the senior market HR leader responsible for developing and executing the people strategy across Highgate's New York hotel portfolio. This role serves as a strategic partner to property General Managers, regional and corporate leadership, ownership groups, and hotel HR teams to drive organizational performance, strengthen leadership capability, ensure compliance and risk management, and cultivate a high-performance culture that supports both business objectives and associate engagement.

This position requires extensive experience within New York City hotel operations and a deep understanding of labor relations in a highly unionized hospitality environment. The VP will provide strategic oversight and guidance on collective bargaining agreements, labor strategy, grievance management, workforce planning, and complex employee relations matters. Working closely with hotel leadership and union representatives, the role requires the ability to navigate sensitive situations with sound judgment, credibility, professionalism, and a practical understanding of the operational realities of New York hotels.

The SVP will lead all facets of the human resources function, including talent strategy, succession planning, leadership development, organizational effectiveness, recruitment, culture and engagement, change management, employee relations, compliance, and workforce planning. This role will focus on strengthening leadership capability, building talent pipelines and succession plans, and supporting organizational effectiveness across the portfolio to ensure Highgate attracts, develops, and retains top talent while driving business performance.

As a member of Highgate's senior leadership team, the VP will champion the Company's culture and values while aligning talent strategies, organizational priorities, labor relations, and compliance practices to support the continued growth and success of the portfolio. The successful candidate will bring a balanced combination of strategic thinking, business acumen, talent leadership, operational expertise, and labor knowledge to drive results across one of Highgate's most important markets.

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.
• Partner with legal counsel and corporate HR on agency charges, EEO matters, wage and hour claims, unemployment, workers' compensation, OSHA, audits, subpoenas, and other employment-related proceedings.
• 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

• 10+ 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.

Benefits

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