Director of Technical Services & Asset Delivery

Director of Technical Services & Asset Delivery

Sydney

Full time: $140,000 – $160,000 per year + superannuation

About the Business

Urban Rest is a high-growth flexible living operator and technology platform disrupting the serviced apartment and corporate housing space across APAC and Europe. The business focus is on owning the distribution layer for the contracted travel market into living assets, while delivering a consistent brand and guest journey through technology. Urban Rest also offers physical asset operation services that enable branded accommodation assets such as hotels to be managed with greater efficiency and distributed to contracted clients such as enterprise, government, insurance and SME clients. We provide the digital infrastructure and services that connect institutional living-sector assets and the contracted travel market at scale. Our mission is to make flexible living seamless.

Benefits and Perks

• Employee, friends and family discounts at at Urban Rest properties
• One flexible work from home day per week when business allows
• Mental Health Leave days and Volunteer days available
• Regular team socials and events
• As the company grows, this role will provide plenty of room for career growth and progression
• We’re a social bunch and we strive to have a fun, friendly, and collaborative work environment
• Pet friendly (for house-trained and well-behaved pets) office in Surry Hills, close to public transport

About the Role

The Director, Technical Services & Asset Delivery – APAC is a senior operational leadership role responsible for everything that happens to a property before it becomes a live Urban Rest asset – and the technical disciplines that govern how the physical environment is designed, specified, and built. Your mandate begins the moment a new property enters the pipeline from the Real Estate function and ends when it has been handed over to Operations as a fully guest-ready, brand-compliant asset with no open defects, no technical gaps and a complete operational brief.

This is a specialist leadership role that sits at the intersection of technical property expertise, project delivery and supply chain governance. You bring together three functions that are deeply interdependent: Technical Services – encompassing space planning, design review and engineering assessment – New Property Onboarding & Asset Delivery and Supply Chain. These are not separate workstreams that happen to report to the same person. They are a single integrated function that ensures every Urban Rest property is designed right, built right, supplied right and handed over right.

You are the primary point of contact for owners, developers and external property stakeholders throughout the pre-operational phase. You manage those relationships with professionalism and commercial discipline, navigating landlord negotiations, design sign-off processes, make-good obligations and defect periods with the confidence of someone who understands both the technical and contractual dimensions of the work.

You report to the Regional General Manager – APAC and sit on the APAC Senior Leadership Team. Your closest working relationship within the leadership team is with the Director of Operations, who receives your handovers and whose in-life operational experience feeds directly back into how you design and specify future properties. That feedback loop is one of the most important quality mechanisms in the business and you invest in it deliberately.

Responsibilities

Technical Services: Space Planning, Design & Engineering Review (25%):

• Lead Urban Rest’s technical review process for all new and refurbished APAC properties – assessing architectural plans, space layouts, interior design proposals, and engineering specifications against Urban Rest’s brand standards, operational requirements, and guest experience principles.
• Own the space planning function – evaluating apartment layouts, common area configurations, back-of-house workflows, and furniture placement plans to ensure that every space is optimised for both guest experience and operational efficiency.
• Conduct or commission engineering reviews for new properties – covering electrical, hydraulic, HVAC, building services, and structural considerations – to identify technical risks, compliance gaps, or specification deficiencies before they become costly in-construction or post-handover issues.
• Establish and maintain Urban Rest’s technical standards documentation – including design briefs, specification guides, engineering checklists, and brand compliance requirements – as the definitive reference for what a new Urban Rest property must meet before it is approved for construction or fit-out.
• Work with Interior Design, Real Estate, and external architects and designers to provide technical feedback at design development stage – early enough to influence outcomes, not late enough to force expensive variations.
• Develop and manage the technical sign-off process for new properties – with clear gate criteria, documented approvals, and a transparent escalation pathway for items that fall short of standard.
• Feed operational learnings from the Director, Operations – APAC back into technical standards and design briefs – ensuring that the lessons from the live portfolio are systematically incorporated into how future properties are designed and specified.

New Property Onboarding & Project Delivery (25%):

• Own the end-to-end onboarding process for all new Urban Rest properties across APAC – from design sign-off and construction oversight through fit-out, furniture installation, technology commissioning, and operational readiness sign-off.
• Manage new property projects with rigorous programme management discipline – clear project plans, milestone tracking, risk registers, budget accountability, and stakeholder communication from first site visit to handover.
• Lead and develop the APAC Onboarding team – setting performance standards, providing structured coaching, and building a team capable of managing multiple simultaneous property launches across different markets.
• Coordinate across Real Estate, Technical Services, Operations, Revenue, IT, and Sales to ensure every new property is fully guest-ready before the first booking is taken – with all technology, linen, supplies, and documentation in place at handover.
• Establish and continuously improve the Urban Rest onboarding playbook – a property-type-specific framework that defines exactly what is required from a new asset before it enters the live portfolio, and the precise process for getting it there.
• Manage the relationship with landlords, developers, and building owners through the construction and fit-out phase – navigating make-good obligations, lessor works, access arrangements, defect liability periods, and practical completion processes with rigour and professionalism.
• Ensure all new properties meet Urban Rest’s safety, compliance, and regulatory requirements prior to opening – working with Operations and Legal to confirm that nothing is missing before the first guest arrives.
• Deliver a structured, documented handover to the Director, Operations – APAC for every new property – including a complete operational brief, outstanding items register, supply inventory, and technical systems guide.

Supply Chain Management (15%):

• Own the end-to-end supply chain function for the APAC portfolio – covering procurement of FF&E, soft furnishings, appliances, consumables, and operational supplies across all properties and asset types.
• Build and manage Urban Rest’s APAC vendor and supplier panel – running periodic tender processes, evaluating new suppliers, and maintaining a panel that is commercially competitive, operationally reliable, and aligned to Urban Rest’s brand and sustainability standards.
• Lead commercial negotiations with suppliers and vendors – securing favourable pricing, payment terms, warranty coverage, and service commitments that reflect the scale of Urban Rest’s portfolio and its growth trajectory.
• Develop and maintain a centralised procurement framework – covering category management, approved supplier lists, purchase order governance, spend thresholds, and authorisation protocols that ensure cost control without creating procurement friction for the operations team.
• Manage FF&E specification and standardisation across the APAC portfolio – working with Interior Design and Operations to establish product standards that balance guest experience, durability, and lifecycle cost, and ensuring those standards are consistently applied across new builds, refurbishments, and like-for-like replacements.
• Build inventory management systems and par stock frameworks for consumables and operational supplies – ensuring properties are never understocked without carrying unnecessary working capital.
• Monitor supply chain performance – lead times, defect rates, fulfilment accuracy, and cost-per-unit trends – and use that data to drive continuous improvement in supplier selection, category management, and procurement processes.
• Ensure supply chain practices meet Urban Rest’s ethical sourcing, sustainability, and compliance requirements – and that supplier relationships reflect the brand’s values.

Owner, Developer & External Stakeholder Management (15%):

• Serve as the primary Urban Rest contact for property owners, developers, architects, and project managers throughout the design, construction, and fit-out phases of new APAC properties.
• Manage owner and developer relationships with professionalism, technical credibility, and commercial discipline – representing Urban Rest’s interests without damaging the long-term relationship with the asset owner.
• Lead the negotiation and management of lessor works, owner contribution schedules, defect liability periods, and make-good obligations – ensuring Urban Rest’s contractual entitlements are understood, documented, and pursued.
• Maintain a clear communication cadence with owners and external stakeholders throughout the onboarding process – providing regular project updates, managing expectations on timeline and scope, and escalating risks before they become disputes.
• Build and maintain Urban Rest’s reputation as a professional, technically capable operator in the eyes of owners, developers, and the broader property investment community – recognising that this reputation directly influences the quality of future deals the Real Estate function is able to secure.
• Collaborate with the Real Estate function during the due diligence and HMA or lease negotiation phase – providing technical input on design obligations, owner delivery requirements, and fit-out specifications that will be embedded in the formal agreement.

Lifecycle Planning & Cross-Functional Governance (10%):

• Develop and maintain Urban Rest’s APAC asset lifecycle planning framework – covering multi-year FF&E refresh schedules, capital replacement cycles, and planned refurbishment programmes – providing Finance and the Regional GM – APAC with a forward view of capital expenditure requirements.
• Partner with the Director, Operations – APAC on the governance boundary between in-life maintenance (Operations) and capital works, refurbishments, and technical interventions (Technical Services) – ensuring clear ownership, documented handoff criteria, and no accountability gaps.
• Provide lifecycle cost input into the annual budgeting process – contributing defensible CapEx forecasts and FF&E replacement cost estimates by property and asset class.
• Feed technical and supply chain learnings from completed onboarding projects back into the design standards, specification guides, and procurement frameworks that govern future properties.
• Represent the Technical Services & Onboarding function on the APAC Senior Leadership Team – contributing a technical, project, and supply chain perspective to operational and strategic discussions across the broader leadership agenda.
• Champion continuous improvement across the Technical Services & Onboarding and Supply Chain functions – identifying opportunities to improve processes, tools, and workflows that make the team more effective and every new property launch smoother than the last.

Team Leadership & Operational Governance (10%):

• Lead, coach, and develop the Onboarding and Supply Chain teams – setting clear performance expectations, providing regular structured feedback, and building a team culture defined by accountability, precision, and pride in the physical product.
• Plan and manage team resourcing across the APAC portfolio – ensuring the team has the capacity, capability, and geographic coverage to support both the current portfolio and planned growth across onboarding and supply chain functions.
• Develop and maintain KPI and reporting frameworks that give leadership a clear view of project health and delivery performance, supply chain performance, and new owner pre-opening satisfaction across the APAC portfolio.
• Champion continuous improvement across the Technical Service, Onboarding and Supply Chain functions – identifying opportunities to improve systems, workflows, technology, and processes that make the team more effective and the portfolio better maintained.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 90 days:

• Full audit of the current onboarding pipeline completed – every property in progress assessed for programme status, technical compliance, budget position, and owner relationship health.
• Technical standards documentation reviewed – design briefs, specification guides, and engineering checklists assessed for currency, completeness, and fitness for purpose.
• Supply chain baseline established – vendor panel reviewed, contract terms assessed, performance gaps identified, and a remediation or retendering plan in place for any underperforming relationships.
• Key relationships established – Director, Operations – APAC, Real Estate, Finance, and Regional GM – APAC engaged as genuine partners, with joint working rhythms agreed.
• Owner and developer relationships for all active onboarding properties personally engaged – with a clear picture of relationship health, outstanding obligations, and any live risks.

By end of Year 1:

• Every new property launched in the year was delivered on time, on budget, and with a clean handover to Operations – zero open defects, complete operational brief, and a positive owner relationship preserved.
• Technical standards documentation is current, comprehensive, and being used consistently by the onboarding team – every design review follows the same framework, and every sign-off is documented.
• The supply chain function is operating with discipline – a competitive, well-managed vendor panel, standardised FF&E specifications across the portfolio, and procurement governance that is followed without being a burden.
• The feedback loop between Operations and Technical Services is functioning – operational learnings from the live portfolio are systematically informing how future properties are designed and specified.
• Urban Rest’s reputation with owners and developers is strong – the business is seen as a technically capable, professionally managed operator that is easy to work with and delivers on its commitments.

What We Look For

Essential

• A technically strong property professional with a background spanning at least two of: space planning, interior design review, building services or engineering, project management, or hospitality operations – ideally in serviced apartments, hotels, build-to-rent, or a comparable sector.
• A disciplined project manager – you have delivered complex, multi-site property projects on time and on budget, and you bring genuine programme management rigour to every onboarding.
• Commercially literate in the context of property – you understand CapEx allocation, OpEx vs CapEx boundaries, lease and HMA obligations, owner negotiation dynamics, and lifecycle cost modelling.
• Detail-oriented and systematic – you believe that consistency and rigour in process is what separates a smooth launch from a chaotic one, and you build that rigour into everything the function does.

Desirable

• Procurement and supply chain capable – you understand category management, vendor negotiation, contract structuring, and the operational realities of managing a multi-site supply chain at scale.
• A collaborative internal partner – your closest relationship is with the Director of Operations, and you invest in that relationship because you understand that technical decisions made at design stage have ongoing operational consequences.
• A natural team leader who develops capability deliberately – you build a team of onboarding and technical specialists who are excellent at their craft and proud of what they deliver.
• A skilled external stakeholder manager – you are credible, professional, and commercially astute with owners, developers, architects, and contractors, and you know how to represent Urban Rest’s interests without burning relationships.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Urban Rest, we extend our invitation to candidates from Indigenous, neurodiverse, disabled, international and diverse cultural backgrounds. Our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace ensures that all applicants receive the necessary support and accommodations throughout the recruitment and onboarding process. We encourage candidates from various backgrounds to apply, as we value diversity and believe in creating an environment where everyone can succeed. Please let us know if you require any additional adjustments or support to help you through this process so you can shine as the best version of yourself.

How to Apply

Please submit your application through the link on this website by including an up-to-date resume with relevant skills and experience, alongside a cover letter addressing how you meet the criteria and your interest in the role.

If you want to learn more about our company, please see our website – https://www.stayurbanrest.com – We look forward to hearing from you!