Vice President, Information Technology

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Company: Glacier Park Collection
Location: Denver, CO

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Overview

Pursuit is a hospitality and attractions company that connects guests and staff to iconic places through unforgettable and inspiring experiences and strives to become the world’s leading provider of experiential adventure travel. Pursuit generates revenue and shareholder value as one of two business units operated by Viad, an S&P SmallCap 600 international experiential services company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VVI.

We deliver rich travel experiences to the global market in iconic destinations through its unique hotels and lodges, recreational attractions, ground transportation services, retail, food and beverage, sightseeing, tours and travel products. Today, the company enjoys strong perennial demand with operations in or adjacent to Banff, Jasper and Waterton Lakes National Parks in Canada, and Glacier and Denali National Parks in the United States in addition to FlyOver Canada in Vancouver, B.C., FlyOver Iceland in Reykjavik, and coming soon – two new FlyOver attractions in Las Vegas and Toronto. The company is executing an aggressive growth strategy, expanding into multiple geographies and iconic locations that enjoy perennial visitor demand.

We are strengthening and improving our culture, our attractions and our operations to deliver these unforgettable guest and staff experiences. We will work hard to refine and execute our strategic plan for the expansion of the business, accelerate profitable revenue growth through strategic capital deployment, drive strong organic growth of our existing businesses, and acquire unique and complementary businesses. We will work tirelessly to build a strong entrepreneurial, fun and rewarding culture for our team members.

Responsibilities

The Vice President, Information Technology (“VP-IT”) leads Pursuit’s vision to create a technology ecosystem that supports our Hospitality Profit Chain:
  • Team Member Satisfaction & Engagement
  • Guest Satisfaction & Loyalty
  • Systems, Discipline & Execution
  • Profitability & Growth
As an active member of Pursuit’s Senior Leadership Team, the VP-IT engages key stakeholders and oversees our IT support model to improve how our technology works between systems, with our team members, and with our guests. They work to create a robust platform and ensure excellence in all IT operations. The VP-IT reports directly to the President and is involved at some level in almost every initiative across the business.


Key Objectives

Simplify our world.
  • Be less complicated.
  • Have fewer screens and systems.
  • Create smoother, easier interfaces across the enterprise.
Drive a better guest experience.
  • Provide a seamless and intuitive user interface.
  • Make it easy to learn about our offerings and make it easy to buy.

Create a better staff experience.
  • By providing a seamless and intuitive interface for our team members.
  • Less toggling between screens and systems.
Provide better insight.
  • Provide high quality insights to our business enterprise wide.
  • Help us become a technology-forward hospitality and attractions company.

Major Responsibilities

  • Establish and maintain an enterprise-wide long-term IT vision that will ensure innovation and value-added impact to our technology ecosystem.
  • Maintain a successful and collaborative relationship with the Viad Corp technology team and ensuring success in the interface between Pursuit and Viad in all things technology related.
  • Support Pursuit’s journey as a fast growing division of an NYSE publicly traded entity.
  • Maintain strong, collaborative end-user relationships throughout all areas of Pursuit’s operations.
  • Apply disciplined financial management to, and value analyses of, IT operational expenses and capital allocations.
  • Prepare and manage detailed annual IT business plans and budgets, reforecasting across the year to achieve plan.
  • Align the IT team structure and processes to deliver services effectively and efficiently on a

    24 / 7 basis.
  • Ensure IT issues and requests are evaluated, tracked, escalated when needed and resolved appropriately with key stakeholders and vendors.
  • Oversee software development and support to ensure that the applications portfolio anticipates the needs of the business, and delivers a seamless and intuitive experience to guests and staff.
  • Work closely within the business to prioritize applications enhancement requests and platform refresh cycles.
  • Drive the delivery of innovative, high-quality IT infrastructure services across Pursuit while following ITIL best practices.
  • Deliver data warehouse, reporting, analytics and dashboard solutions to provide timely, high-quality insights into our businesses enterprise-wide.
  • Stay current and informed on existing and evolving industry standards, practices, and technologies to better envision how emerging technologies can be used to benefit the business.
  • Coach IT team members to develop strengths and reduce weaknesses through mentorship, stretch assignments, recognition, and exposure to a variety of projects.
  • Actively participate actively in due diligence, acquisition and growth assessments.
  • Structure the IT team in an agile way to be able to respond and expand to new opportunities.
  • Ensure that all IT systems are compliant with PCI/DSS, SOX, and privacy legislation such as EU-GDPR.
  • Manage relationships with key IT vendors, including IT teams in affiliated companies.

Qualifications

  • 10 years’ experience in Information Technology Management, including at a Director level or higher.
  • Bachelor of Science in MIS/CS, or equivalent work experience.
  • Direct experience with the technology most often used in the Travel & Recreation industry: Call Center/Reservation systems, GDS/Switches, Property Management systems, Point of Sale systems, CRM solutions.
  • Knowledge of internal IT audit and SOX procedures in a US public company setting.
  • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to simplify technical messages and act as an advocate for our business, for IT teams and for our guests.
  • Excellent project management, follow through, and time management skills.
  • Understanding of effective service-monitoring techniques and service level requirements.
  • Ability to travel to multiple Pursuit locations when needed to provide input and direction on IT projects or to complete effectiveness check-ups.
  • Experience directly or indirectly leading data warehouse initiatives.
  • Experience managing integration and UX challenges in a heterogeneous applications environment.
  • Solid generalist knowledge in both applications and infrastructure disciplines, including a willingness to roll-up-the-sleeves to get things done.

Critical Competencies for Success
  • Demonstrated experience in IT management driving operational results, people development and budget management.
  • Strong commitment to working as a team with an ability to foster strong working relationships, gain agreement on timelines and data requirements and manage both external and internal stakeholder requirements.
  • Ability to lead a geographically-diverse team, serving our global business in a broad range of time zones.
  • Resourceful, adaptable, resilient, and having a strong sense of self-awareness.
  • Ability to organize and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.
  • Strong leadership skills, including the ability to consider multiple audiences, bring teams along the change curve, and articulate rationale for change throughout the organization.
  • Reputation as an unwavering role model.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Excellent hospitality mindset and guest service skills, including dedicated service to “internal customers.”
  • Strong sense of urgency.
  • A natural drive and curiosity about the business and what “could be…”

This list describes at a high level what a Vice President of IT at Pursuit does, but no job description can anticipate every single task, issue or project that could come up. Pursuit reserves the right to adjust, reduce, add or change job tasks as needed for the success of the business.

To handle this job successfully, any person hired must be able to perform responsibilities as described. Pursuit will make any reasonable accommodation to help a person with disabilities perform their job. This job is intended to be based in Denver, Colorado USA, but basing in one of the other Pursuit geographies is possible. Legal ability to work in the country where the role is based is required. Travel both domestically and internationally will be required, including holding a valid passport and driver’s license.

Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.