ETSSenior/ Lead Industrial Designer
Apply NowLINKEDIN JOB TITLE : Creative Design Lead / Senior Designer – Food & Beverage & Furniture
LOCATION: London
COMPANY: Product and Furniture Design for Premium Hotel, Restaurant and Retail Groups Worldwide.
DURATION: Permanent
SALARY: From £60,000 Base + Benefits dependant on experience.
Company Overview:
Our Client specialises in creating beautiful, intelligently designed, durable products for the premium Hotel, Restaurant & Retail groups to create innovative luxury solutions that differentiate their brands.
In addition to their catalogue range, for larger projects, they also offer an extensive in-house design and product development service.
Our Client enables premium hospitality brands to deliver exceptional customer experience through intelligent design.
The quality and integrity of their supply and manufacturing partnerships is key to the business success.
They are looking for a creative design lead who can inspire and build a design team, whilst focusing on solving client problems by exploring innovative solutions and creating beautiful product.
The ideal candidate would be an experienced designer with experience inspiring and building a team. They will need a strong record of working across different manufacturing processes and product typologies to design and support development of both Internal and client projects.
This is a pivotal role within the NPD Team, requiring a leader who is a flexible, adaptive designer comfortable working across all phases of the design and development process.
You will work alongside clients, our sales team and our manufacturing partners.
The role requires someone who is naturally curious, a conceptual thinker who is focused on delivering excellence within time and on budget.
The Creative Studio
The in-house design team comprises of Product Designers, Product Developers and Design Engineer.
The Product Developer will be mainly focused on the Business product catalogue and client sponsored product development and project management.
The role oversees the end-to-end development of new products from qualifying requests, defining milestones, quality and budget, through to delivery of product.
Team Members have a passion for both the products the business designs but also the Industry the business currently works within – premium Hotel, Restaurant & Retail groups.
Key Deliverables and Expectations
Building a Design Team that is Design-forward & Consistently Curious
- Building & developing a design team that thrives on gaining a deeper understanding of client needs and providing creative solutions to those challenges.
- Partnering with senior members of the sales team & our clients to understand the 5* hospitality market and the challenges they face.
- Ability to lead & develop product strategy and ideal product pipeline.
- Comfortable finding & managing external design resource where needed to deliver business goals.
Leading Early-Stage Concept Development to Create Inspirational Product Solutions
- With a strong grounding in understanding client needs, inspiring a team to consistently add creative ideas to the innovation pipeline that expand the existing systems solutions or create new typologies.
- Managing & delivering market briefs, including required price points, to ensure successful product launches to customers.
- Ability to develop & inspire a strong systematic approach within the design team to drive product through the stage & gate development process.
- Leading & working across all phases of the design process from embryonic research through to concept development, testing, engineering, manufacturing & launch
- Leading a creative team to develop tight product development briefs to partner with the product development team managing engineering development through to market launch.
- Create & Project Manage the departments innovation pipeline to ensure delivery of all phases on time and to budget.
- Creating a learning organization whereby new materials, concepts and ideas are shared throughout the design team to inspire the creation of sustainable, innovative products.
Working Cross-Departmentally to deliver Products Go-To-Market Strategy
- Beginning at early development stages creating a Go-To-Market plan for new products
- Creative input into design related marketing (photoshoots/assets/tradeshows) to ensure products are marketed and inspire customers as per initial brief.
Growing & Developing Supplier Partnerships
- Partner with existing manufacturing partners to develop a detailed understanding of their capabilities and how we can design to enhance their skills.
- Finding & developing new vendor relationships where required to deliver to our innovation pipeline and growing business needs.
Technical
- Strong engineering skills and experience working with woods, metals and plastics.
Key Desirables
- Lives in or within proximity to London (Client is based near Paddington)
- Ability to inspire, lead & manage a creative team.
- Strong sense of on-brand design requirements.
- Strong portfolio that demonstrates forward thinking design, as well as solid design process skills
- Strong skills in concept development, visualisation form, development, CAD and rapid prototyping.
- Experience in specifying colours, materials and finishes appropriate for manufacture.
- Excellent, 2-D and 3-D skills
- Independent and intelligent problem solver who is technically minded.
- Strong commercial awareness & ability to guide the product development team.
- Willingness to learn from others and take direction.
- Versatility to manage multiple projects + thrives under pressure.
- Great verbal and written communication
- Focused on learning: coming out of your comfort zone, taking on new challenges and learning new skills.
- A growth mindset, setting and achieving goals, finding purpose, having a vision and being the best version of yourself.
Qualifications and Experience
- Degree level or equivalent in Product, Industrial or Furniture Design
- 8 years’ + experience in a design or development role, demonstrating product development capabilities.
- 2-3 years’ experience leading/ managing a Design Team to bring commercially successful products to market.
- Experience of liaising with stakeholders and managing early stages of the design process
- Project Management Experience (DFM)
- Strong manufacturing & production understanding
- Experience working with range of materials and manufacturing processes; particularly wood, fabricated/cast metals and other furniture type materials.
- High attention to detail and understanding of high-quality standards.
- Microsoft Office
- Adobe Creative Suite and 3D such as Rhinoceros, KeyShot and SolidWorks
Interview Process
This Client has a 3 – 4 stage Interview Process. Part of the interview process will involve completion of a 2-part online assessment and a technical task is likely to be issued, please do not apply if you are not willing to complete these.
Benefits:
A great package of benefits is available, some of the Core Benefits include;
- Pension Scheme
- Health Care Cash plan (number of different areas such as dental, physio, in-patient stays, GP recommended massages etc.)
- Bonus scheme – subject to company performance and meeting personal objectives.
- Hybrid Working – gives employees flexibility to work between the office and their home – dependent upon business needs and priorities.
- Birthday Holiday – must be used within one month from the date.
- 23 days holiday during the Holiday Year (pro-rata). Holiday allowance will increase after one full holiday year completed by one day for every year worked up to a maximum of 25 days.
In addition to your Core Benefits, our client also offers the following;
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Access to Perkbox
- GP Medical Service
- Death in Service
- Gym Flex – Discounted Gym Membership
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Season Ticket Loan
- Buy & Sell Holidays
- Health Coaching
- Childcare Vouchers
- Pride Awards
- Discounted Products
- Pet Friendly Office
Please only apply if you are based in or around London, overseas applicants will not be considered as onsite Studio presence is required.
Please also apply if you can demonstrate any prior experience of leading, managing or developing a team as this is a core component of this role.
If you feel you possess the majority or the skills required, and share an affiliation for a business of this nature, please send a copy of your CV and portfolio to Mike by email: Mfernandes@jbc.team
