Design Manager

About the role

As a Project Designer at Gin Design Group, you will play a central role in guiding hospitality interior projects from initial spark through final execution. Based on-site in Houston, Texas, you’ll direct project workflows, champion creative vision, and mentor junior designers to deliver exceptional spatial experiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead project kickoff and milestone planning, ensuring clear timelines, deliverables, and ownership are established for all phases of projects.
• Oversee day-to-day project management, maintaining momentum and proactively addressing obstacles to protect schedule and budget.
• Conduct site evaluations and client meetings, providing expert insight, documenting findings, and translating operational needs into actionable design direction.
• Monitor scope, raise flags early, and develop solutions to mitigate scope creep or outline additional services when needed, while maintaining client trust and project integrity.
• Drive communication across all project stakeholders: clients, vendors, contractors, and internal teams, ensuring questions, updates, and deliverables flow clearly and promptly.
• Manage project billing cycles, forecasting, and progress billing in coordination with the Director of Operations, ensuring accuracy and alignment to project progress.
• Maintain organized, labeled, and up-to-date project documentation, ensuring the team has clear access to the latest information.
• Contribute to a culture rooted in hospitality, creativity, collaboration, and innovation, elevating the studio’s design aesthetic through thoughtful, guest-centric solutions.
• Interpret client goals and brand standards into practical, experiential, high-impact interior environments aligned with project budgets and schedules.
• Leverage your F&B operations background to advise clients on interior hospitality standards, highlighting requirements, opportunities, and best practices they may not know to ask about.
• Develop and review design documentation from programming through construction documents, and construction administration ensuring accuracy and consistency throughout.
• Produce drawings, 3D views, design presentations, and physical material samples for internal reviews and client presentations.
• Review and guide furniture selections, specifications, and budgets while collaborating with GEWL and junior team members.
• Lead design charrettes, bringing fresh ideas, references, and design solutions that support project progression.
• Mentor junior designers and interns, offering constructive feedback on design thinking, documentation, space planning, and studio operations.
• Engage in interviews with potential design hires, evaluating experience, creative cohesion, and overall fit, and share comprehensive feedback with the Creative Director and/or Director of Operations.
• Demonstrate design leadership by challenging design decisions, process improvement, and gdg standards where needed, ensuring constant desire for efficiency and growth.
• Foster team alignment through consistent communication, transparency, and supportive leadership.
• Attend vendor meetings, showroom visits, and trade shows; bring back and share materials, insights, contacts, and creative inspiration to support the studio’s collective design innovation.

Qualifications & Skills

• Experience: 5–8+ years of professional interior design experience, with proven leadership managing hospitality projects (restaurants, bars, F&B, boutique commercial) from concept through installation.
• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Interior Design or Architecture.
• Project Management Expertise: Track record of driving design schedules, managing deliverables across multiple active projects, tracking budgets, and balancing creative intent with real-world deadlines.
• Technical & Documentation Skills: Strong command of Revit (for CD sets and millwork details), SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop), along with proficiency in project management and specification software.
• Team & Workflow Leadership: Experience guiding, delegating to, and mentoring project designers and junior designers—monitoring workflow, maintaining documentation quality, and ensuring design output remains consistent and precise.
• Tech Hospitality Knowledge: Deep understanding of commercial finishes, custom millwork construction, lighting integration, ADA accessibility, and local building codes.
• Consultant & Client Coordination: Natural ability to lead client presentations, collaborate seamlessly with general contractors and architects, and partner with local artisans, vendors, and procurement teams to bring custom elements to life.