Director, Interior Design
About MN Custom Homes
Founded in 2011 by two Bellevue locals, we have grown to become the preeminent Eastside luxury home builder today. Since Day 1 we have been driven by innovation and obsessed with setting our homes apart through their overall design and functionality. We truly get a thrill doing what we love most: building thoughtful homes that inspire community.
Learn more about us and see our work at: https://mncustom.com
Why MN?
We pride ourselves on our empowered team environment and dedication to taking care of our people. We believe in setting you up to succeed with clear career progression, learning opportunities, and ownership of your role from the get-go. Accountability is huge for us, and we place a lot of trust in our employees to do the right thing. We believe that a supportive and inclusive culture yields happy people, and happy people are the most successful at what they do.
About This Role
Translates product strategy into interior design standards, capsule collections, kits-of-parts, and reusable selection systems.
Defines and refines distinct capsule identities with clear stylistic parameters, ensuring collections remain differentiated, cohesive, and aligned with target buyer demographics.
Provides creative direction that translates conceptual vision into actionable, executable design standards and minimizes downstream reinterpretation.
Establishes clear design rationale, material strategies, and architectural alignment early in the process to support stronger decision-making and reduce rework.
Grounds design decisions in local market and buyer-based reasoning rather than one-off preferences.
Evaluates reselections, vendor substitutions, and field-driven changes against original design intent to ensure capsule collections maintain integrity over time.
Builds a coherent, repeatable MN Interior Design Language.
Delivers luxury-grade, cohesive interiors that translate the exterior expression into interior spaces and resonate with buyers.
Maintains high standards for detailing, composition, and execution so design intent translates successfully from concept through construction.
Designs research questions and engages buyers and agents to test new ideas and validate key hypotheses.
Uses buyer insights, market comps, and lifestyle data to guide design direction.
Partners with Procurement to strategically source capsule collections and improves margins via standardization and value engineering.
Leads “Design-to-Value” work to determine high-impact features.
Implements AI-enabled workflows across selection tools, visualization, and digital libraries to simplify and automate ID deliverables.
Promotes cross-functional collaboration with Architecture, Procurement, Construction, Land Acquisition, Sales, Home Experience, and Marketing teams to align design goals.
Champions clear ownership and accountability structures across cross-functional teams and represents design intent in design reviews, cross-functional decisions, and executive discussions.
Ensures alignment between design systems, operational constraints, and customer expectations.
Builds a culture of creative partnership where design cohesion is a shared outcome, not a downstream hand-off.
Leads a team of designers (approximately 5-8) with a mentorship mindset, actively developing and inspiring designers through coaching, technical guidance, collaborative critique, and strategic involvement rather than task delegation.
Fosters an environment where designers contribute ideas, build category ownership, and strengthen cross-functional confidence with Architecture, Procurement, Construction, Land Acquisition, Sales, Home Experience, and Marketing.
Provides clear, timely, and actionable feedback that helps designers grow both creatively and technically.
Builds trust through transparency, consistency, and clear communication, ensuring teams understand priorities, expectations, and the reasoning behind key design decisions.
Establishes clear expectations, accountability structures, workflows, and development pathways.
Identifies and helps recruit strong design talent aligned with organizational needs.
Participates in all employee lifecycle activities including but not limited to: interviewing, onboarding, training, mentoring, conducting weekly 1-on-1's, just-in-time coaching, disciplinary actions, performing regular performance reviews, and offboarding.
Preferred Qualifications
Deep understanding of luxury residential design, including how interior design, architecture, procurement, and construction interrelate.
Experience working directly with homeowners to solicit input and feedback and address key needs and expectations.
Strong interior design portfolio demonstrating aesthetic judgment, technical capability, and systems thinking.
Experience developing reusable design assets, standards, or scalable selection libraries.
Ability to balance feasibility, desirability, and viability in all design decisions.
Ability to provide elevated aesthetic, experiential, and technical design quality across all projects.
Able to create a positive impact on margin performance through efficient design systems, use of technology and AI, and smarter design decisions.
Able to create a reduction in plan defects and design-related rework through systemized design standards.
Strong understanding of residential construction, critical path order, building codes, and trade coordination.
Familiarity with Revit or BIM-based workflows; experience supporting Materials & Details migration a plus.
Hands-on experience working with homeowners a plus.
Excellent communication and storytelling skills; able to articulate design intent clearly.
Ability to lead through influence with a low-ego, coaching-first approach.
Demonstrates a strong executive presence.
Planning and Functional Alignment: Ability to develop a 1 to 3-year functional strategy aligned to company objectives and translate organizational priorities into clear roadmaps, OKRs, and team-level performance expectations.
Change Leadership: Skilled in leading significant change initiatives using structured change management practices, including communication planning, milestone tracking, and feedback loops that keep teams informed and engaged through transitions.
Leader Development and Succession: Demonstrated ability to identify, develop, and sponsor emerging leaders within the function; builds coaching capacity in direct-report managers so leadership capability compounds across team layers.
Cross-Functional Collaboration and Systems Thinking: Ability to break down silos by partnering across departments on shared objectives, and to understand how functional decisions ripple across the broader organization before acting.
Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Climate: Skilled in setting the emotional tone for the organization, creating conditions where honest feedback flows in both directions, and responding to team health issues before they become systemic.
Ownership and Executive Communication: Ability to own functional budgets, OKRs, and operational metrics with full accountability; proactively communicates status and surfaces risks to executive leadership without waiting to be asked.
Future-Focused and Data-Informed Decision Making: Knowledge of industry trends, competitive landscape, and emerging technologies; uses data to improve functional performance and positions the team to build capabilities needed 3–5 years out.
Servant Leadership at Scale: Ability to position themselves as a resource rather than a decision-maker for everything; delegates broadly, invests time in developing the leadership team, and creates organizational conditions (structure, culture, resources) that let others do their best work.
What You Bring To MN Custom Homes
Bachelor’s degree in interior design or a related field required.
Master’s degree preferred.
NCIDQ certification preferred.
10+ years of residential interior design experience, with a focus on luxury single-family homes.
5+ years leading interior design teams in the residential construction or homebuilding industry.
Strong command of:
Interior design principles and luxury residential aesthetics.
Material and finish specifications.
Housing code compliance (local & national).
Construction documentation and trade coordination.
Procurement and sourcing processes.
Proficiency with design visualization and selection software.
Proven experience influencing executives and leading cross-functional initiatives.
Strong understanding of cost drivers and value-engineering techniques.
Employee Benefits
100% covered employee premiums for medical and dental self-coverage.
100% employer-paid life insurance.
100% employer-paid long term disability insurance.
Paid medical and family leave.
Critical illness insurance.
401(K) with generous company match, no vesting schedule, and access to professional financial advisors.
Lifestyle reimbursement account.
20 days of PTO & 9 holidays.
New iPhone for your personal and business use.
Complimentary snacks & beverages.
Hours & Compensation
This is a full-time position paying $115,500 - $214,500 (+ discretionary bonus).