Area Director of Finance - Remote
Description
Position Overview
The Area Director of Finance is the remote finance leader for a portfolio of four or more Remington-managed hotels, and someone who thinks like an owner. The role owns accurate, on-time accounting, strong internal controls, reliable forecasting, and disciplined cash management across every asset.
The portfolio spans several ownership groups and legal entities, and it includes both established hotels and newly onboarded properties that need process stabilization. This leader standardizes how finance runs across the area while keeping each asset independently controlled and reported.
The Area Director of Finance leads a lean, partly remote team through layers, including on-property Directors of Finance. The role also acts as a practical business partner to General Managers and operations leaders, turning financial results into actions that improve hotel performance.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Accounting, Close, and Reporting
- Own a standardized monthly close calendar across all assigned hotels, with clear deadlines, review standards, and escalation paths.
- Review and certify balance-sheet reconciliations each month, applying materiality thresholds and resolving exceptions before sign-off.
- Prepare, review, and present monthly financial statements and owner reporting packages, following the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) and GAAP.
- Maintain legal-entity discipline across multiple ownership groups, including intercompany and due-to/due-from activity, management and incentive fees, and separate bank accounts. No unauthorized cash pooling between owners.
- Keep every hotel audit-ready and lead support for internal, external, owner, and brand audits.
Internal Controls and Compliance
- Design, test, and remotely verify controls over cash, bank reconciliations, purchasing and AP, payroll, revenue, inventory, and capital spending.
- Enforce segregation of duties and approval authority, adapting controls to lean property staffing.
- Address policy exceptions and management override directly, document remediation, and escalate repeated issues.
- Partner with HR and Payroll to support wage-and-hour compliance, timekeeping accuracy, and payroll tax obligations.
- Support SOX and owner-specific control requirements where applicable.
Forecasting, Budgeting, and Cash Management
- Lead the annual operating and capital budget process for each hotel in partnership with General Managers and department leaders.
- Build driver-based rolling forecasts and challenge occupancy, ADR, labor, F&B, and expense assumptions while keeping ownership of results with operations.
- Track forecast accuracy and lead monthly variance reviews with clear corrective actions.
- Maintain a 13-week cash forecast for each asset, covering restricted cash, payroll and tax obligations, AP aging, and seasonal scenarios.
- Prioritize disbursements during off-season periods, flag funding gaps early, and prepare cash-call requests so owners are never surprised.
New Hotel Onboarding and Stabilization
- Lead the finance side of new hotel transitions, including opening balances, chart of accounts mapping, bank and vendor setup, and system access.
- Diagnose process gaps at newly onboarded or underperforming hotels and deliver a 30/60/90-day stabilization plan with owners and milestones.
- Write and roll out SOPs while keeping the rest of the portfolio on schedule.
Systems and Process Improvement
- Identify and implement improvements across accounting, PMS/POS interfaces, AP automation, reporting, and forecasting tools.
- Map current processes, run user acceptance testing, train users, and measure adoption and results.
- Lead change with property teams so new tools are used consistently, not worked around.
Remote Team Leadership
- Lead the Senior Hotel Accountant, property accountants, and on-property Directors of Finance through clear decision rights, delegation, and escalation (for example, a RACI).
- Empower on-site finance leaders while holding consistent standards across the area, without duplicate supervision.
- Hold regular one-on-ones, use dashboards to track deliverables, and coach to development goals.
- Diagnose missed deadlines as capacity, training, process, or performance issues, and act with documented expectations and follow-through.
- Recruit, onboard, and develop finance talent, building bench strength for future Director of Finance roles.
Operations and Ownership Partnership
- Serve as a trusted financial partner to General Managers, Area/Regional VPs of Operations, and asset managers.
- Turn financial analysis into practical operating actions on labor productivity, flow-through, margin, and cost control, then track the results.
- Reset relationships where Finance is seen as an obstacle, using clear expectations, practical tools, and respectful accountability without relaxing controls.
- Communicate results, risks, and recommendations to ownership groups with clarity and candor.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Pay range: 140K to 165K