Name: Jeremy S.
Position: Senior Software Engineer
Location: Marriott HQ

When it comes to big-scale tech, you don’t get bigger than having to integrate 1,000+ Starwood properties with the Marriott interface — at least, that’s according to Senior Software Engineer Jeremy S.

“That was a massive project,” says Jeremy of the enormous hospitality integration that followed the Marriott and Starwood merger. “It was the biggest in the industry.”

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Jeremy joined Marriott’s Global Tech team as an Associate Software Engineer in 2017. Before that, he was an outside consultant with Marriott as a client, and now he’s one of MI’s senior software engineers. From his expert point of view, while the Starwood integration was immense — with far-reaching impact and thousands of employees and third-party contractors working on the initiative — what really stands out is the way the company pulled together to make it happen.

“Every associate at Marriott was involved in this project in some capacity,” says Jeremy. “There was a camaraderie between all the different teams. I’ve never been on a project before where everyone just wanted to help and support each other.”

As Jeremy experienced, that hard work was met with care kits, snacks, drinks, dinners and even private concerts — Jeremy got to see the Plain White T’s perform a show just for the associates at the close of the project.

There are lots of big, complex and career-defining initiatives are frequent at Marriott, but Jeremy is also given opportunities to make an impact on the day-to-day as well. Jeremy’s work focuses on MI’s global property management system — the main system that is used to check guests in and out of hotel properties, manage financials and housekeeping, and more critical tasks all happening simultaneously across the globe. “It’s kind of like the core primary system that every associate would use in the day-to-day operation.”

In that work, Jeremy is empowered to try new things, solve problems, and find efficiency. Most important to him, when Jeremy flags these opportunities, he gets support from leadership to implement and move forward, so that his creativity can have lasting, global impact.

“Having someone believe in you makes me feel like ‘wow, I really am valued here,’” he says. In his previous jobs, he didn’t find the same opportunities. “I was given some leeway, but ultimately, you were given a circle and you had to stay in your circle; you were not allowed to really think outside the box.

“At Marriott I feel like I don’t have those same restrictions. I have a bigger box or a bigger circle that I can move around in, and that lets me grow and adapt and try and challenge myself to do new things.”

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