Vice President of Resident Experience
Sonida Senior Living, Dallas, TX, United States
About Sonida Senior Living
About Sonida Senior Living
Sonida Senior Living is one of the nation’s leading operators of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities for senior adults. The Company operates96 communities that are home to nearly12,000 residents across 20 states providing comfortable, safe, affordable communities where residents can form friendships, enjoy new experiences and receive personalized care from dedicated team members who treat them family.
Job Description Job Description
The Vice President of Resident Experience is a senior leader responsible for owning the vision, strategy, and execution of the end-to-end resident experience across Independent Living (IL), Assisted Living (AL), and Memory Care (MC) communities, with a strong strategic emphasis on elevating the Independent Living experience.
This role is designed to bring best-in-class hospitality, lifestyle, and service excellence principles into senior living, creating a differentiated, scalable, and emotionally resonant experience for residents and families. The Vice President of Resident Experience will ensure that every touchpoint—from first impression through daily life—reflects a consistent, premium, resident-centered experience across the portfolio.
Responsibilities Enterprise Resident Experience Strategy
Own and lead the vision and long-term strategy for resident experience across IL, AL, and MC, with a primary focus on enhancing and differentiating the Independent Living experience.
Define what “great” looks like for residents and families at every stage of the journey—from first contact and move in through daily living and long-term residency.
Ensure the resident experience strategy supports occupancy growth, retention, reputation, and brand differentiation.
Experience Standards & Service Design
Establish clear, scalable experience standards that span:
Programming and lifestyle offerings
Culinary and dining experience
Service culture and hospitality behaviors
Day-to-day interactions and community atmosphere
Design end-to-end service journeys and playbooks that can be consistently executed across diverse communities.
Ensure standards are practical, measurable, and embedded into daily operations.
Service Culture & Hospitality Excellence
Build and lead a best-in-class service culture rooted in hospitality, empathy, and personalization.
Translate premium hospitality concepts (e.g., guest journey design, emotional connection, anticipation of needs) into senior living operating environments.
Serve as the executive owner of service excellence, ensuring residents feel known, valued, and cared for—not just served.
Cross-Functional Leadership
Partner closely with Operations, Sales & Marketing, Clinical/Wellness, Culinary, and HR to integrate resident experience standards into hiring, training, performance management, and daily operations.
Collaborate with Sales & Marketing to align the prospect and move-in experience with the promised resident experience.
Work with community leadership teams to operationalize experience standards while allowing for appropriate local personalization.
Scaling & Multisite Execution
Design and deploy experience models that can scale across a multi-state, multi-brand portfolio.
Lead senior-level, multi-site teams responsible for programming, lifestyle, culinary experience, and service excellence.
Identify and spread best practices across communities while ensuring consistency in core brand experience.
Measurement & Continuous Improvement
Establish KPIs and feedback loops to measure resident satisfaction, engagement, loyalty, and emotional connection.
Use resident, family, and team member feedback to drive continuous refinement of the experience strategy.
Lead targeted improvement initiatives for communities that are underperforming on resident experience measures.
Field Leadership & Visibility
Maintain a strong, visible presence in communities to model service excellence and reinforce expectations.
Travel regularly (30–40%) to coach leaders, assess execution, and support experience transformation initiatives.
Serve as a cultural ambassador for hospitality and resident-centered service across the organization.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality, Culinary, Geriatrics or similar relevant field, strongly preferred.
Senior leadership experience owning guest or resident experience in hospitality, lifestyle, or service-driven organizations (e.g., premium hospitality brands, all-inclusive resorts, cruise lines, entertainment destinations, or similar experience-led environments).
Proven experience designing and leading service culture initiatives across multiple locations.
Demonstrated success building and scaling consistent experience standards across geographically dispersed operations.
Experience overseeing programming, lifestyle, culinary experience, and service excellence functions at an enterprise level.
Strong understanding of end-to-end customer/resident journey design in complex, multi-touchpoint environments.
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Sonida Senior Living is one of the nation’s leading operators of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities for senior adults. The Company operates96 communities that are home to nearly12,000 residents across 20 states providing comfortable, safe, affordable communities where residents can form friendships, enjoy new experiences and receive personalized care from dedicated team members who treat them family.
Job Description Job Description
The Vice President of Resident Experience is a senior leader responsible for owning the vision, strategy, and execution of the end-to-end resident experience across Independent Living (IL), Assisted Living (AL), and Memory Care (MC) communities, with a strong strategic emphasis on elevating the Independent Living experience.
This role is designed to bring best-in-class hospitality, lifestyle, and service excellence principles into senior living, creating a differentiated, scalable, and emotionally resonant experience for residents and families. The Vice President of Resident Experience will ensure that every touchpoint—from first impression through daily life—reflects a consistent, premium, resident-centered experience across the portfolio.
Responsibilities Enterprise Resident Experience Strategy
Own and lead the vision and long-term strategy for resident experience across IL, AL, and MC, with a primary focus on enhancing and differentiating the Independent Living experience.
Define what “great” looks like for residents and families at every stage of the journey—from first contact and move in through daily living and long-term residency.
Ensure the resident experience strategy supports occupancy growth, retention, reputation, and brand differentiation.
Experience Standards & Service Design
Establish clear, scalable experience standards that span:
Programming and lifestyle offerings
Culinary and dining experience
Service culture and hospitality behaviors
Day-to-day interactions and community atmosphere
Design end-to-end service journeys and playbooks that can be consistently executed across diverse communities.
Ensure standards are practical, measurable, and embedded into daily operations.
Service Culture & Hospitality Excellence
Build and lead a best-in-class service culture rooted in hospitality, empathy, and personalization.
Translate premium hospitality concepts (e.g., guest journey design, emotional connection, anticipation of needs) into senior living operating environments.
Serve as the executive owner of service excellence, ensuring residents feel known, valued, and cared for—not just served.
Cross-Functional Leadership
Partner closely with Operations, Sales & Marketing, Clinical/Wellness, Culinary, and HR to integrate resident experience standards into hiring, training, performance management, and daily operations.
Collaborate with Sales & Marketing to align the prospect and move-in experience with the promised resident experience.
Work with community leadership teams to operationalize experience standards while allowing for appropriate local personalization.
Scaling & Multisite Execution
Design and deploy experience models that can scale across a multi-state, multi-brand portfolio.
Lead senior-level, multi-site teams responsible for programming, lifestyle, culinary experience, and service excellence.
Identify and spread best practices across communities while ensuring consistency in core brand experience.
Measurement & Continuous Improvement
Establish KPIs and feedback loops to measure resident satisfaction, engagement, loyalty, and emotional connection.
Use resident, family, and team member feedback to drive continuous refinement of the experience strategy.
Lead targeted improvement initiatives for communities that are underperforming on resident experience measures.
Field Leadership & Visibility
Maintain a strong, visible presence in communities to model service excellence and reinforce expectations.
Travel regularly (30–40%) to coach leaders, assess execution, and support experience transformation initiatives.
Serve as a cultural ambassador for hospitality and resident-centered service across the organization.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality, Culinary, Geriatrics or similar relevant field, strongly preferred.
Senior leadership experience owning guest or resident experience in hospitality, lifestyle, or service-driven organizations (e.g., premium hospitality brands, all-inclusive resorts, cruise lines, entertainment destinations, or similar experience-led environments).
Proven experience designing and leading service culture initiatives across multiple locations.
Demonstrated success building and scaling consistent experience standards across geographically dispersed operations.
Experience overseeing programming, lifestyle, culinary experience, and service excellence functions at an enterprise level.
Strong understanding of end-to-end customer/resident journey design in complex, multi-touchpoint environments.
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