Disrupting the Hospitality Industry

I’m back! This blog has been dormant for a long time since the advent of Twitter. But now I have something to share that is a bit longer than 140 characters…

About a year and 4 months ago I accepted the position of Chief Technology Officer at Hyatt Hotels Corporation. It was really a no-brainer decision since I now have the pleasure of working with Alex Zoghlin again. I’ve known Alex for a long time, ever since I joined his first company as a software engineer at Neoglyphics.

We have convinced the senior leadership team at Hyatt that technology will be a strategic advantage that will enable us to disrupt the hospitality industry. As software eats the world, all companies in all industries will eventually become technology companies, or they will perish. At Hyatt, for strategic initiatives this means that we are reversing the trend of outsourcing technology and treating it like a cost center. We are hiring a plethora of technologists in many disciplines from product, to dev, to ops, to help us develop platform and application products in a Continuous Delivery model. Check out hyatt.jobs for details.

Especially in my area, we are hiring technologists with some or all of these characteristics:

• You are just as skilled at communicating with humans as you are with machines.
• You are a software craftsman who values quality over quantity, but you are not a zealot or perfectionist.
• You like Agile. You like DevOps. Thus you like Continuous Delivery. However, you understand that Agile doesn’t mean you can skip planning, and DevOps and ITIL can coexist in harmony.
• You like Clouds, providing agility, provided by automation, made possible by standards, discipline, and pragmatic governance.
• You like to build platforms composed of loosely coupled, contractually obligated services. Terms like API Façade make you smile.
• You love Open Source and are willing to contribute back to the communities.
• You want to help software take over the world, and help provide authentic hospitality in the process.
• You want Mobile apps to be first class citizens in the software world that anticipate your needs.
• You like to laugh in the face of adversity.
• You are a maker and you are driven by the thought of seeing your creation in the hands of millions of customers.
• You like the challenge of simplifying complex systems, and you always consider the big picture even when acting locally.
• You are a pleasure to work with and value a great company culture.

We have so much interesting work ahead of us, and the best part is that you can actually visit one of our hotel properties and see how your work enhances the experience of our guests and hotel associates.  So as they say in infomercials… don’t wait, act now! -> hyatt.jobs <- Do it, do it!

-Matt