Senior Director Brand Leader, LivSmart Studios

Exceptional Hospitality Starts with You

This role is based our corporate office in McLean, VA

This is your chance to be part of an in-house Brands team of industry experts in the domains of hospitality, brand management, innovation, food and beverage, wellness, owner relations, and more, for all of Hilton's unique brands!

Hilton is seeking a strategic, commercially and operationally minded leader to serve as Senior Director, Global Brand Leader, LivSmart Studios by Hilton - our midscale extended stay brand delivering simple, apartment-style studio suites for travelers seeking convenient, quality accommodations, powered by an efficient model that supports strong, sustainable owner returns.

Reporting to the Vice President Brand Leader, Home2Suites, you will set and evolve the global direction for LivSmart Studios — translating strategy into sustained performance across brand health, guest experience, owner value, and long-term growth. Working within a matrixed environment, you will orchestrate and influence cross-functional alignment and activation to deliver against the brand vision. As a visible brand steward, you will build trust with owners, operators, and internal stakeholders, representing the brand with clarity and conviction.

What you'll do during a typical day:

• Shape and Protect the Brand
  • Serve as the chief steward, storyteller, and advocate for the LivSmart Studios brand, ensuring a clear, compelling, and consistently understood brand narrative across internal partners, owners, and hotel teams.
  • Define and deliver a differentiated brand offering for guests and owners, grounded in market insight, competitive context, guest satisfaction, operational reality, and owner profitability.
  • Safeguard brand reputation and long-term value by identifying risks, setting guardrails, and making informed trade-offs.
  • Maintain a deep understanding of the brand's role within Hilton's broader portfolio and its contribution to enterprise strategy.
• Develop and Execute Brand Strategy
  • Define and evolve the global brand strategy to ensure sustained relevance, differentiation, and health over the medium and long term.
  • Set brand aspiration, positioning, and guest and owner value propositions that drive competitive advantage and growth.
  • Stay closely connected to consumer, competitor, and market trends to inform strategic direction and decision-making.
  • Own mid- to long-term brand performance outcomes, partnering with Commercial and Development teams to understand results, remove barriers, and unlock opportunities.
  • Advocate for appropriate enterprise resources and investment in support of brand objectives.
  • Ensure brand strategies, standards, and investments support strong owner returns and best-in-class profitability.
• Define the Brand Experience
  • Set the vision and strategic parameters for product strategy, including prototypes, design guidance, wellness, and F&B, in partnership with functional teams.
  • Define, maintain, and evolve brand standards across design, service, F&B, and programming to deliver a distinctive, on-brand guest experience while balancing owner economics. Ensure Brand Standards align with brand goals and desired guest outcomes.
  • Ensure physical product and service experiences align with brand positioning, operational realities, and financial targets.
  • Define, champion, and evolve the brand's culture, service ethos, signatures, and rituals, partnering with Operations and Learning teams to embed the experience for guests and team members.
• Drive Brand Performance
  • Partner with Marketing to ensure brand positioning, messaging, and voice are expressed across consumer touchpoints, while Marketing leads execution.
  • Leverage performance data and competitive insights to inform strategy and strengthen brand performance over the medium and long term.
  • Identify risks to growth and performance, addressing structural barriers and enabling corrective action.
  • Oversee brand engagement in important lifecycle and contractual moments, ensuring alignment with brand strategy and long-term portfolio value.
• Enable High-Quality Brand Growth
  • Define and govern a clear global development strategy that balances growth ambition with brand quality and integrity.
  • Establish and articulate the “brand box” to enable Development teams to position and sell the brand.
  • Approve and manage brand exceptions with discipline, in collaboration with regional brand leaders.
  • Partner with Development and regional teams to drive high-quality, market-appropriate growth aligned with brand strategy.
  • Ensure regional teams have clear parameters to regionalize and deploy the brand.

How you'll collaborate with others:

• Lead brand-level owner engagement and governance, building relationships to support retention, growth, and long-term brand success.
• Navigate and lead within a complex matrixed organization, developing and activating partnerships to deliver brand imperatives.

Projects you'll take ownership of:

• Align cross-functional partners around brand priorities and enterprise initiatives to deliver measurable outcomes.

What It Takes to Make the Stay

You have these minimum qualifications:

• Ten (10) or more years of experience in hospitality, brand management/strategy, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience helping to lead a global or multi-market brand or comparable business.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the development of strategic initiatives—building business cases, securing alignment across a complex, matrixed organization, leading through influence, and driving execution through implementation.
• Experience leading market assessments, consumer insights work, and competitive benchmarking to inform strategy and decision-making.
• Direct experience engaging owners, operators, and franchise partners.
• Willingness to travel up to 40%.

It would be useful if you have:

• Experience leading extended stay, focused service, or select service hospitality brands. Specific experience in leading extended stay is preferred.
• A growth-stage brand leader with deep owner credibility and experience scaling new concepts into commercially successful, owner-adopted brands.
• Background in brand growth, repositioning, or large-scale brand evolution.
• Experience developing annual plans, budgets, forecasts, and multi-year roadmaps.

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/night at our world-class hotels through our Go Hilton travel program
• Own a piece of Hilton – Through our employee stock purchase program (ESPP), you can invest in Hilton shares at a 15% discount to help build your financial future
• Paid parental leave – Because family matters. We offer paid leave for eligible Team Members, including partners and adoptive parents
• Personalized caregiving support – Access dedicated caregiving concierge services to help navigate caregiving for yourself and your loved ones
• 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. Eligible Team Members can access free counseling and support through our best-in-class Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Generous paid time off (PTO) – Recharge, relax, and take time for what matters most
• Health & welfare benefits – From checkups to dental cleanings to new glasses, we offer a variety of health plans that keep you and your family covered
• Financial security for your future – Our retirement plans make it easier to save for what's next

*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.

Hilton offers its eligible team members a comprehensive benefits package to support their mental and physical well-being, so they can Thrive personally and professionally. The pay range for this role is $160,000 – $210,000 and is determined based on applicable and specialized experience and location. Subject to plan terms and conditions, you will be eligible to participate in the Hilton Annual Incentive (Bonus) Plan, and the Company's long-term incentive plan, consistent with other team members at the same level and/or position within the Company.