Director of Information Technology Operations - Hospitality The First Group

The Director of IT Hospitality is responsible for leading, managing, and continuously improving all technology systems supporting hotel and restaurant operations. This role ensures that IT platforms enable exceptional guest experiences, operational efficiency, and business scalability across hospitality assets. The position has end-to-end accountability for property-level and corporate hospitality IT, including infrastructure, hotel systems, restaurant systems, cybersecurity, vendor management, and IT service delivery. The Director works closely with Operations, Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Property Leadership to ensure technology solutions align with business needs and brand standards.

Hospitality Technology Leadership

• Own and manage all IT systems supporting hotels and restaurants, ensuring high availability, performance, and security.

• Act as the senior technology partner to Hotel Operations, F&B, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Commercial and Corporate Leadership .

• Translate hospitality operational needs into scalable and reliable technology solutions.

Hotel Openings, Re-branding & Transitions

• Lead all IT-related activities for new hotel openings, re-branding projects, and property transitions, ensuring seamless cutover with minimal operational disruption.

• Plan and deliver technology roadmaps for hotel openings, including PMS, POS, networks, guest Wi-Fi, payments, IPTV, and back-office systems.

• Manage technology decommissioning and replacement during re-branding initiatives, ensuring data integrity and system continuity.

• Work closely with Operations, Brand, Finance, and external owners to meet brand standards, timelines, and commercial objectives.

White-Label & Business Development Support

• Partner with the Business Development team to support TFG s positioning as a white-label hospitality operator.

• Provide technology input into proposals, tenders, and commercial discussions, including system capabilities, integration models, and operating costs.

• Support pre-opening technology due diligence for third-party owned hotels and hospitality assets.

• Design flexible, scalable IT architectures that support multiple brands and ownership models under a white-label operating structure.

Systems & Applications

• Oversee core hospitality systems including:

• Property Management Systems (PMS)

• Point of Sale (POS) systems

• Payment gateways and integrations

• Guest Wi-Fi and networking

• Digital signage, IPTV, and in-room technology

• Workforce management and back-office systems

• Lead system upgrades, migrations, integrations, and rollouts across properties.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor s degree in information technology, Computer Science, or related field.

• 8 12+ years of progressive IT experience, with significant exposure to hospitality IT (hotels and/or restaurants) .

• Proven experience managing PMS, POS, payment systems, and multi-site hospitality environments.

• Demonstrated leadership experience managing IT teams and third-party vendors.

• Experience supporting 24/7 operational environments.

Skills and Competencies

• Bachelor s degree in information technology, Computer Science, or related field.

• 8 12+ years of progressive IT experience, with significant exposure to hospitality IT (hotels and/or restaurants) .

• Proven experience managing PMS, POS, payment systems, and multi-site hospitality environments.

• Demonstrated leadership experience managing IT teams and third-party vendors.
• Experience supporting 24/7 operational environments.
• Willingness to provide on-call or after-hours support during critical incidents or system deployments.
• Ability to travel between properties as required
• Commitment to staying current with hospitality technology trends and regulatory requirements