Director of Finance
HiltonHilton’s Hotels team in Auckland, New Zealand is looking for a Director of Finance to lead the hotel’s financial operations on site. This is a full-time, on-site role, based at Hilton’s Auckland property, with the chance to shape how money and hospitality come together in a busy hotel environment. Hilton has welcomed more than 3 billion guests worldwide and is known for an award-winning workplace culture that focuses on light, warmth and great guest experiences. If you like the idea of guiding financial performance while keeping the guest experience front and center, you’ll likely feel at home here.
As the Director of Finance, you’ll own the hotel’s accounting records and financial reporting, ensuring everything aligns with company, owner, statutory and fiscal requirements and timetables. You’ll act as a trusted financial partner to the General Manager, the hotel leadership team, and ownership, helping to strengthen financial performance and maximize business value through sound advice and rigorous controls. The role is about more than the numbers; it’s about delivering reliable reports, maintaining strong internal controls, and guiding decisions that sustain profitability and guest satisfaction alike.
You’ll enjoy this if you’re drawn to hospitality and want to influence the bottom line while collaborating across departments. You’ll be in a role that blends strategic thinking with hands-on leadership, overseeing a team and elevating the finance function to support the hotel’s goals and growth.
Steering the hotel’s financial heartbeat
Your typical day centers on leading the finance function and ensuring solid controls, processes and service delivery across the hotel. You’ll oversee the full range of financial operations and ensure they align with the hotel’s strategic aims to optimize profitability and performance. A core responsibility is guiding financial planning and analysis, from drafting annual budgets to forecasts and business plans, always with a view to providing clear, actionable insights for decision-making and commercial outcomes. In practice, you’ll be the go-to expert for the General Manager and ownership, offering guidance that strengthens financial performance and increases business value.
Ensuring accuracy in financial reporting is another key part of the role. You’ll supervise the timely preparation of month-end financial statements in line with Hilton standards and reporting requirements, while upholding GAAP and safeguarding assets through strong financial controls. This includes maintaining compliance with Hilton accounting policies and applicable standards, and ensuring robust internal controls across the property. You’ll also monitor and approve essential financial transactions, such as sales, purchases, salaries and expenses, to keep the operation financially disciplined and efficient. Alongside day-to-day management, you’ll continually review systems and processes to improve efficiency, accuracy and transparency, and you’ll lead a high-performing team through performance management, development and recognition programs.
What you must bring and what would be nice to have
Must-have experience and capabilities you’d bring to the role include the following:
- A university degree in finance, accounting or a related field
- At least ten years of hotel finance experience, with three or more years in a leadership role
- A professional accounting qualification is preferred
- Fluency in English, both written and spoken
- Practical knowledge of hotel systems such as OnQ, Check SCM, NAV/SUN, OPERA/OnQ PMS, MICROS and HRLINK
- Strong skills in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint
- A solid understanding of financial controls, compliance and reporting standards
- A proven ability to lead teams and work well with colleagues across departments
- A professional accounting qualification is preferred
The setup and what to expect on the ground
This is a full-time, on-site position based in Auckland, New Zealand. The posting does not list a specific schedule, travel requirements, work authorisation details, licenses or physical demands, so the focus is on your ability to manage the hotel’s finance function, align with Hilton policies, and drive performance in a on-site hotel environment.
Tips to help you stand out in your application
Lead with your hotel finance credentials. In your resume, put your university degree in finance or accounting and your 10-plus years in hotel finance up front, making clear you’ve held leadership roles for at least three years. If you’ve managed a finance team in a hotel setting, highlight the size of the team and the scope of operations you supervised, including budgeting, forecasting and month-end close.
Show how you prove you’ve got the must-have skills. Tie your experience to GAAP, financial controls and reporting standards, and call out the Hilton systems you’ve used, OnQ, Check SCM, NAV/SUN, OPERA/OnQ PMS, MICROS, HRLINK. Include concrete examples of budgeting, forecasting and producing timely month-end reports, plus any improvements you delivered to controls or processes and the resulting impact on accuracy or speed.
Be ready to talk through interviews how you translate financial data into action. Describe how you’ve advised hotel leadership and ownership, your approach to aligning financial planning with strategic goals, and the way you’ve collaborated across departments to improve profitability while maintaining guest satisfaction.
Ask a smart question that shows you’re ready to partner with the General Manager and ownership. For example, inquire about the hotel’s top financial priorities for the coming year and how the finance team collaborates with ownership reports to drive value for the business and guests.