Senior Interior Designer - Team Lead (MBJ0141)

Senior Interior Designer & Team Lead

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Interior Designer & Team Lead to join our client's dynamic and creative team.

About Our Client

We are a super creative, award-winning design studio, fashioning exciting and unique commercial, hospitality (F&B/hotels) and residential design projects. We get involved in almost every aspect of designing the spaces we create, from the building exterior and terraces to the design of every element of the interiors, from finishes to FF&E, the creation of original art and lots of bespoke lighting and joinery design. We also have a dedicated graphic design team and a lot of our projects are commercial hospitality projects, with the branding team devising the creative branding, visual identity, website and in-venue graphics, creating a seamless concept across brand and interiors. So, this is a great opportunity to be part of a truly multi-disciplinary design team.

Your track record

You'll need to have fantastic design skills and bags of experience running jobs already, driving the detailed Concept and CAD design, client communication and implementation of stylish bars, restaurants, hotels and stylish residences and boutique guest stays. You need to be hyper-organised and able to juggle lots of projects and deliver output to deadlines.

On a personality front, we love friendly, positive, glass half-full, can-do people.

Key duties:

• Act as lead designer on commercial, hospitality and residential interiors projects across the studio, organising, driving and overseeing team output (working into the creative director), and leading other senior and mid-level designers from concept to completion and photography
• Conceptualising and delivering amazing hospitality and residential designs, which look and work brilliantly for clients, presenting creative work beautifully
• Leading and inspiring the team, problem-solving and mentoring, working with the interior design project manager to meet deadlines
• Involvement in pitching, fee proposals & contracts with others
• Once a project is won: working alongside the interior design project manager in the setting up, planning and scheduling of timings plans
• Overseeing the creation of drawing issue lists and generally creating design project strategy and deliverables
• Creating and returning design analysis and client return briefs
• Ensuring design output meets the brief, coming to life brilliantly and within budget
• Creation of exciting concepts, developed design schemes, detailed technical design packs, specifications and tender documentation for sharing with clients and contractors
• Doing hands-on concept and CAD design and hand-sketching, art directing CGIs, sourcing, procurement and putting together schemes and all other creative assets and project documentation relating to projects
• Setting design to-dos and deadlines for the team and working with the interior design project manager to set and complete all project deadlines
• Briefing, delegating, overseeing and directing others in all of the above, including directing and editing others' design work, sourcing and procurement activity
• Leading site meetings and internal studio meetings with clients, suppliers and contractors, also mentoring others to do so, giving them a clear role in meetings
• Managing design project teams and tracking the scope of works and invoicing with the interior design project manager and studio manager
• Managing FF&E project budgets, estimates and reconciliations
• Working with the project and studio manager to track profitability
• Transferring those learnings into fee proposals and negotiations
• Training other team members in creativity, project leadership and client handling

Skills and experience needed:

• A really exciting design portfolio across hospitality and residential design, both highly creative and technically strong
• Experience working in a client-facing capacity at a senior level
• Team leading and job-leading experience essential (as day-to-day client contact) running large-scale, stylish projects, including commercial and residential for minimum of five years, juggling multiple projects
• Experience managing and inspiring more junior team designers
• Hyper organised and able to deliver well against multiple deadlines
• Strong understanding of project set-up, procedures, processes, programmes, budgets and contractual arrangements
• Strong construction and onsite knowledge and experience
• Inventive, stylish sourcing and specifying of FF&E and finishes
• Experience negotiating with suppliers to secure best value for clients
• Proven experience working with fabricators and specialist suppliers and manufacturers to design and procure bespoke products and finishes
• Excellent organisation skills and proven ability to work under pressure
• Ability to prioritise & deliver projects within budget and timescales
• Willingness to go the extra mile where necessary
• Excellent technical skills with a beady eye for detail
• Proficiency in Vectorworks or willingness to transition from AutoCAD (essential), same with InDesign, Photoshop, SketchUp (a bonus)
• Great communication skills and staying ahead of to-do lists
• A really positive, entrepreneurial attitude

The studio

We work from a really stylish studio in London (NW6) with lots of buzzy restaurants, cafes, other architect and designer ateliers and workshops. We're a happy, friendly place to work and you'd be joining a team of highly creative interior designers, and graphic designers working across F&B, hotel and F&B projects. A great bunch of people who love what they do!