London, UK
Design director
at Celine Interior Design
Celine Interior Design is seeking a design director to join its team in London.
Director responsibilities and expectations
10 per cent performance-based bonus.
Commercial and residential experience in the luxury design sector.
1. Leadership and team management:
- streamlined processes: ensure you follow, expand and maintain clear processes to ensure projects are completed efficiently and with clarity. Ensure your team are in line with processes
- client updates: ensure the team sends weekly Friday updates to clients, ensuring strong communication and transparency
- daily team check ins: conduct daily check-ins with the team to confirm task understanding and progress. This is not to trigger a sense of micro-management but to ensure they feel comfortable executing the task you have set and to ensure that if you are working on deadlines you don’t come to the day’s end finding you have an extra layer of work to do for a task incomplete or incorrectly executed as a result of misunderstanding
- task scheduling: assign tasks one week in advance, enabling team members to prepare and ask questions as needed. Daily check-in to make sure each team member feels comfortable with their task and knows how to execute in the way you expect. Ensuring your set tasks are very well explained in Asana with examples, if required
- team development: mentor and guide team members to foster collaboration, innovation and professional growth. There should be a clear program of growth created for the whole team and each member individually so that everyone feels encouraged and inspired to grow and build alongside the company. They must be provided with a clear career growth strategy by creating a chart shared in the company so that each person has a clear growth and can see what their next position, responsibility level and salary will be. This should be developed within the first three months of employment and maintained and updated every six months to ensure each profile and growth plan is still relevant
- team bonding: the company will cover a team activity or session for team building every 14 days to encourage team building and a sense of friendship and camaraderie (where the director cannot attend this is of course acceptable but if possible kept to a minimum so the team has a sense of togetherness etc.)
- company policy: ensuing company policy is adhered to and respected and encouraged
- brand guidelines: ensuing brand guidelines are adhered to and respected and encouraged
- inspiring the team: monthly to talk about the company’s vision with the team, give someone a monthly voucher and do a small talk saying how that person has improved and what contribution to growth, to the company or to a project they have made. We should always be celebrating people and trying our best to make them feel appreciated
- team charitable project: we should monthly contribute to one charitable project that the team chooses, it could be to redo a young person’s room or to spend half a day in an elderly home sprucing it up together or other ideas they or you can come up with. We should always strive to be a kind company, one that looks after others and seeks to do more to help those around us
2. Project oversight:
- creative oversight: direct all stages of design, ensuring alignment with the company’s creative vision and operational standards
- quality control: review and approve project documents, maintaining accuracy and attention to detail at all stages
- project management: ensuing a master program and a weekly-monthly program are followed
- project workflow: ensuring you have set enough time in between project deadlines to ensure workflow is consistent and considers any unforeseen circumstances. This will also mean managing time off from staff and ensuring there is a proper team always available to cover the work. This will also involve ensuring there is a clear project summary available and updated monthly on every client folder so that in the case of any sudden absence, there is always an up-to-date summary of each project including its timeline and a clear master cost program checked and updated on file
- monthly folder review process: it is imperative that documents and folders are saved in the way prescribed in the folder protocol guide in the drive. This system needs to be reviewed and checked monthly to ensure there are no issues that become bigger with the extension of time
- process: ensuring the company process is always followed and is used as a tool to assist, encourage and support designers
3. Collaboration with the board of directors:
You will lead the design team with autonomy, but certain decisions and processes will require collaboration and final approval from the Board:
- financial company decisions: approval to be requested from the founder/board
- major hiring and firing decisions: as these are company financial decisions, they must align with the company’s financial capacity and strategic goals
- design style direction and the aesthetic perspective, including concepts, style direction and layouts, must be reviewed and signed off by the founder to ensure alignment with the company’s vision. This can be translated more clearly by presentations being sent to the director with a clear 48-hour timeline to review and make comments (this can be done together with the director or sent to the founder or board following the director review). These presentations and the reporting meetings are the only time the director and founder or board will meet to make decisions (in person or by Zoom). For further clarity emails requiring sign-off from the director or board should be labelled (48 hour sign off – following the name of the presentation and project)
- director and founder collaboration on pitches and fee strategy and timeline structure
- board meetings: every three months a board meeting will take place and will have a senior overview of projects’ ongoing status and new business and project program and pipeline generally
4. Reporting to the founder/board:
- weekly reports: provide updates on project progress, team performance, client feedback and upcoming goals
- monthly reviews: collaborate with the founder and/or board to review financial performance, team updates and strategic planning
- annual reports: present a comprehensive review of accomplishments, challenges and a vision for the next year
5. Client engagement and business development:
- represent the company in high-profile projects, ensuring exceptional client satisfaction
- work with the founder to identify new opportunities for business development and growth
- attend all new business meetings to ensure new projects are obtained
- keep clients consistently updated with brilliant communication and response times upheld
Additional benefits:
- annual bonuses: up to 10 per cent of your base salary, subject to meeting performance criteria
- professional development: access to leadership programs, design workshops and industry events. The events and workshops will be agreed on by the design manager and director and should not go over one monthly event so they don’t affect workflow. Professional development such as Estimac courses, AI courses or anything to benefit the team will be considered weekly for approval. Any event that has a cost attached should be reviewed in the weekly or monthly reporting session to ensure approval first
- work flexibility: arrangements to support creativity and productivity. There is a clear desire to provide a Friday work-from-home discretionary offer that will require a clear process and management as well as investment to ensure it is a smooth transition
- gym membership
- weekly activities
Salary: £70,000 - £75,000