Relocation Benefits Available
Business Context
Marriott Vacations Worldwide (MVW) is a leading global vacation company that offers vacation ownership, exchange, rental and resort and property management, along with related businesses, products, and services. The Company has over 120 vacation ownership resorts and approximately 700,000 owner families in a diverse portfolio that includes some of the most iconic vacation ownership brands. The Company also operates exchange networks and membership programs comprised of nearly 3,200 affiliated resorts in over 90 countries and territories, as well as provides management services to other resorts and lodging properties.
As a leader and innovator in the vacation ownership industry, the Company upholds the highest standards of excellence in serving its customers, investors and associates while maintaining exclusive, long-term relationships with Marriott International, Inc. and Hyatt Hotels Corporation for the development, sales and marketing of vacation ownership products and services.
The vision of MVW is to strive to build long-lasting relationships with their Owners, Members, customers, and associates to help them live their lives to the fullest. Innovation. Integrity. Excellence. This is the story of MVW. And while the company spans brands and businesses, decades and continents, their shared inspiration continues to drive them forward: delivering unforgettable experiences that make vacation dreams come true.
Global Technology Context
The Global Technology (GT) team at Marriott Vacations Worldwide (MVW) is on a multi-year journey to modernize technical and digital products and platforms across all business lines. This role demands a visionary leader with a range of strategic, innovative, and deep technical understanding across disciplines including machine learning, artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and platforms, agentic AI, data science, software development languages, methodologies, and operations (DevOps), data engineering, architecture tools and frameworks, as well as business acumen to apply to solving complex business challenges. Proven success as a leader in recruiting, developing, and retaining technical talent on high performing teams is required. The incumbent is a proven thought leader, a consensus builder, and an integrator of people, processes, and technology.
Specific Job Summary
Based at the Marriott Vacations Worldwide (MVW) Corporate Office in Orlando, FL, and reporting to the CIO, the Vice President (VP), Artificial Intelligence (AI) is responsible for driving the adoption of AI technologies related to machine learning, deep learning, augmented analytics, robotic process automation, and natural language processing.
This position requires a visionary leader with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative AI, LLMs (Large Language Models), RAG (Retrieval, Augmentation Generation) and AI Adoption who can spearhead the development and implementation of AI strategies across the enterprise. This role is responsible for building and managing an AI team, establishing best practices, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
This role is accountable for developing innovative & value adding AI solutions, enhancing machine learning and deep learning models, boosting AI and machine learning adoption, and strengthening AI ethics and compliance across the MVW Enterprise. In addition, the incumbent builds and maintains a team of AI engineers with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities necessary to successfully deliver AI solutions required for MVW to achieve its strategic objectives while establishing and maintaining the appropriate third-party relationships. The incumbent confirms the appropriate governance and controls are in place, to ensure the delivery meets MVW’s quality, cost, and compliance requirements.
The complexity of this position requires a leadership approach that is engaging, imaginative, and collaborative, with the ability to develop scalable, supportable, maintainable, and high-performing AI solutions that enable the achievement of MVWs vision and mission in a cost-appropriate and effective model.
Key Results
- Strategic Alignment: An AI Technology roadmap aligned with business strategies and innovation initiatives that drive business growth and create competitive advantages for MVW.
- Innovative AI Solutions: Deliver AI solutions that create operating efficiencies, create business value & increase revenue for MVW Enterprise.
- Continuous Learning: Staying up to date on the latest AI advancements in machine learning, deep learning, and related technologies to lead AI initiatives effectively.
- Team Performance: The AI team is engaged, motivated, and operates effectively. Enhancing the skills and capabilities of the AI team to drive innovation and achieve strategic goals.
Expected Contributions
Strategic Vision and Leadership
- Develops and implements a comprehensive AI strategy that aligns with MVW’s strategic goals. This involves identifying opportunities for AI to drive business value and create a competitive advantage within the vacation ownership industry.
- Establishes an AI Technologies Center of Expertise (COE) to ensure management routines are in place to deliver AI technology solutions based on MVW funding and governance policies.
- As a member of the Global Technology (GT) lead team, participates in the annual development and refresh of the GT strategy, operating budget, and long-range planning process.
- As a member of the GT Senior Leadership team, shares overall accountability for planning and governing the use of artificial intelligence technology across the MVW Enterprise.
AI Innovation and Solution Development
- Leads the design, development, and deployment of new Artificial Intelligence technologies and platforms related to machine learning, deep learning, augmented analytics, data mining, big data services, and natural language processing.
- Establishes processes that discover, analyze, define, and document technical and non-technical requirements that are related to the delivery of specific business objectives.
- Oversees the development and deployment of AI models and algorithms. This includes ensuring that technologies are scalable, efficient, and effective in solving complex technical and business problems.
- Oversees the analysis and preprocessing of data to ensure it is suitable for training machine learning models. This includes data cleaning, handling missing values, and transforming data into a usable format.
Collaboration and Partnership
- Partners with business leaders and business product owners to stimulate, surface, and shape business demand for technology; ensuring appropriate business partner engagement, ownership, and sponsorship.
- Works closely with other departments within Global Technology (GT), data scientists, software engineers, and business stakeholders to integrate AI solutions into existing systems and workflows of the business. This also involves collaborating with external partners and stakeholders.
- Promotes and fosters a culture of collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement within the team and across the organization.
Market and Trend Analysis
- Stays updated on the latest trends and advancements in AI and ML. Uses this knowledge to inform strategic decisions and keep the organization at the forefront of AI technology.
- Oversees research of trends and best practices in AI including, but not limited to organizational design, strategic priorities, communication, and other relevant measures, metrics, and performance benchmarks.
Regulatory Compliance and Ethics
- Ensures that AI initiatives comply with relevant external regulations and ethical standards. This includes addressing issues related to data privacy, bias, and transparency.
- Ensures compliance with data privacy and information security policies and regulations in all processes.
Performance Monitoring and Optimization
- Establishes measures, metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Results designed to measure the success of AI technology initiatives.
- Implements solutions designed to optimize technology infrastructure performance by dynamically adjusting resources based on current demand. This ensures efficient use of resources and improves system performance.
- Identifies and resolves issues with machine learning models and systems. This includes optimizing models for performance and scalability.
- Regularly reviews and reports on the performance and impact of AI projects.
Team Management
- Builds and manages a team of AI technology-based professionals, including ML engineers, and AI researchers. Provides mentorship and ensures the team has the resources needed to succeed.
- Oversees design and development of machine learning models and algorithms to solve specific business problems. This involves selecting appropriate data representation methods and algorithms.
- Oversees the training of machine learning models using various algorithms and evaluates their performance. This involves tuning hyperparameters and selecting the best model based on performance metrics. Includes the identification and resolution of issues with machine learning models and systems. This includes optimizing models for performance and scalability.
- Oversees deployment of machine learning models into production environments and monitors their performance. This includes setting up pipelines for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) and ensuring models remain accurate over time.
- Performs other related duties as appropriate.
Specific Candidate Profile
Education
- Bachelor of Science (BS) degree that is engineering, computer science, or statistical/math sciences required.
- Advanced degree in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related field highly preferred.
Experience
- Minimum 10 years of experience in applied AI, Generative AI, machine learning, large language models (LLMs) and data analytics, with a proven track record of leading successful AI initiatives.
- At least 5 years of senior leadership experience.
- Proven experience driving organizational change and leading technology transformations via stakeholder engagement and vendor performance management.
- Successful track record managing cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams to achieve business outcomes.
- Familiarity with Agile methodologies and continuous integration.
- Experience defining and leading large-scale projects with multiple stakeholders.
- Experience in a multi-national, matrix structured organization preferred.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- AI Engineering: Deep understanding of AI, machine learning (ML), and deep learning technologies. Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, and Java, as well as experience/exposure to AI agentic frameworks.
- Technical Skills: Strong expertise in generative AI, prompt engineering, machine learning, natural language processing and other AI technologies. Knowledge of data governance and privacy regulations. Experience/exposure to security best practices for generative AI development and deployments.
- Leadership Skills: Demonstrated ability to build, lead, and inspire a high-performing team of AI professionals.
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop and execute a strategic vision for AI in alignment with business goals and client needs.
- Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
- Proven ability to collaborate with end users and departments, understand their business challenges, and deliver AI solutions that drive value.
- Innovation: Passion for innovation and a deep curiosity about emerging AI technologies and industry trends.
- Partnership Building: Experience in establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships with cross functional business stakeholders, industry leaders, and technology vendors.
Marriott Vacations Worldwide is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture.
