Design Team Manager – Kitchen & Contract Design

Location: Lincolnshire / Yorkshire & the Humber
Salary: £45,000 – £50,000
Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent, Monday to Friday

About the Client

KBB Recruitment are representing a well-established and growing kitchen and design organisation operating across the contract, public sector and wider kitchen design markets. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Design Team Manager to take responsibility for a large and diverse team of approximately 35 of design professionals.

The successful candidate will play a key leadership role, overseeing designers working across contract design, public sector projects and specialist design functions, while ensuring consistently high standards of performance, customer service and technical delivery.

About the Role

This role offers the successful candidate the opportunity to lead and develop a team, providing clear direction, support and accountability across multiple areas of the business.

You will be responsible for managing the day-to-day performance of the design team, ensuring projects are delivered on time and to a high standard while maintaining strong communication between designers, project teams, clients and senior management.

This is a hands-on leadership position suited to an experienced design professional who is confident managing a large team and working across multiple sectors and project types.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a team of designers and design professionals.
• Oversee designers working across contract kitchen design, public sector projects and specialist design functions.
• Manage team performance, productivity, workloads and resource allocation.
• Provide leadership, mentoring and ongoing development to designers.
• Set clear objectives and monitor individual and team performance against agreed KPIs.
• Ensure designs are delivered accurately, efficiently and within agreed deadlines.
• Review design quality and ensure company standards and processes are consistently followed.
• Identify training and development requirements across the design team.
• Support recruitment, onboarding and development of new designers where required.
• Manage workloads across multiple projects and ensure resources are allocated effectively.
• Act as a senior point of escalation for design-related issues and challenges.
• Work closely with senior management, project management and other internal departments.
• Drive continuous improvement across design processes, systems and procedures.
• Encourage a positive, collaborative and high-performing team culture.
• Monitor capacity and future resource requirements to support business growth.
• Ensure excellent communication between the design team, clients, contractors and internal stakeholders.

Requirements / Skills:

• Proven experience managing a sizeable design team, ideally 20+ people.
• Previous experience within kitchen design, interiors, KBB, contract design, construction or a related design environment.
• Strong understanding of contract and/or public sector design projects would be highly advantageous.
• Excellent leadership and people-management skills.
• Proven ability to manage multiple teams, projects and competing priorities.
• Strong organisational and workload-management skills.
• Confident managing performance, providing feedback and developing team members.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Commercially aware with a strong understanding of project deadlines and operational requirements.
• Ability to work under pressure while maintaining high standards of quality and service.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• A proactive and supportive management style with the ability to motivate and inspire a large team.
• Must be based within Lincolnshire or the Yorkshire & the Humber region, with the ability to travel across the region as required.

What’s on Offer:

• £45,000 – £50,000 salary.
• Full-time, permanent position.
• Monday to Friday working hours.
• Senior leadership responsibility across a team 
• Opportunity to influence and develop a large, established design function.
• Exposure to contract, public sector and specialist design projects.
• Opportunity to make a significant impact on team performance and business growth.
• Supportive and professional working environment.
• Excellent long-term career opportunity.

How to Apply

To apply, please send your CV and a brief covering note to KBB Recruitment or contact Amber on 01933 448877.

KBB Recruitment are acting as the employment agency for this position.