Chief People Officer

We’re Sonesta International Hotels. The 8th largest hotel company in the U.S.—and growing fast.

We’re Sonesta International Hotels. The 8th largest hotel company in the U.S.—and growing fast.
An epic blend of full-service and focused hotels in major cities, Sonesta’s uniquely diverse portfolio of owned, managed, and franchised properties makes us everywhere you want to be. Driven by the human side of hospitality, we deliver service with passion, loyalty with purpose, and experiences that truly connect.

— bringing quality, value, and amazing hospitality to every guest, every stay, across 1000+ properties in eight countries and counting.

The Chief People Officer (“CPO”) is responsible for enterprise-wide people strategy, ensuring strong governance, compliance integrity, and operational excellence across all Human Resources (“HR”) functions. Balancing business savvy and strategic vision with pragmatic solutions and innovative thinking, the CPO is expected to collaborate with the company’s executive leaders to build organizational capability, support growth initiatives, mitigate employment risk, and drive measurable business performance across a distributed work environment.

Reporting to the company’s EVP, General Counsel and Head of People, and based in the company’s Newton, MA office, this role provides direction and oversight in the design and delivery of HR programs and services across the company, including organizational design, talent acquisition and workforce planning, performance management, learning and development, compensation and benefits, employee engagement, compliance, HR data and analytics, and other programs that attract, develop, and retain talent.

The CPO will be passionate about people, shaping culture, and driving a positive and engaged workforce.

As the leader of the HR function, the CPO’s responsibilities will include:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive people strategy aligned with enterprise growth, operational performance, and long-term business objectives.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to executive leadership on organizational design, workforce optimization, succession planning, and leadership capability.
• Nurture a culture of caring, accountability, service excellence, and operational rigor.
• Partner closely with Legal to ensure robust governance, regulatory compliance, and proactive risk mitigation across all HR disciplines.
• Collaborate and lead workforce due diligence, labor cost modeling, organizational restructuring, and talent transitions in support of the company’s franchise growth strategies, acquisitions, and dispositions.

• Foster and manage the Corporate HR function, and also oversee Field HR functions, ensuring consistent policy execution and service delivery across all locations.
• Establish scalable HR operating models that support decentralized field operations while maintaining enterprise standards and compliance integrity.
• Drive continuous improvement of HR systems, processes, and service frameworks to enhance efficiency and employee experience.
• Serve as a visible, credible leadership presence across corporate and field operations.

• Lead an integrated talent acquisition and management function to attract, hire, and retain high-performing talent across corporate and field roles.
• Develop proactive recruiting strategies and talent pipelines in competitive labor markets.
• Oversee workforce forecasting, succession planning, and organizational modeling to mitigate talent risk and ensure leadership bench strength in alignment with long-term growth plans and needs for the entire enterprise.
• Asses…