The White Company
Design Manager (Home)
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Design Manager (Home)
Senior Design Director (Home Design)
About the Role
To lead and coordinate Home Design, ensuring the delivery of creative, distinctive, and commercially successful products that align with brand ethos and the overall commercial direction of the business.
This role sits cross-functionally between Research & Development and Home Buying, playing a critical role in translating seasonal creative direction (White Print) into clear, actionable product development.
As the key bridge between teams, you’ll safeguard creative intent from concept to production to drive commercial success in the Home market while elevating brand equity.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Generate and refine product concepts at White Print stage (business seasonal direction), ensuring a pipeline of innovative, differentiated ideas for Home.
- Translate ‘White Print’ and seasonal direction into clear, structured design and product development briefs for Buying teams and suppliers, ensuring alignment on:
- Design intent
- Quality expectations
- Commercial viability
- Bridge Research & Development and Home Buying, ensuring seamless collaboration and cross-functional alignment throughout the product lifecycle.
- Collaborate closely with Buying, Merchandising, and Product Technical teams to deliver:
- Commercially viable designs
- Sourceable products
- Consistently high-quality outcomes
- Define product specifications, including:
- Materials
- Finishes
- Print placements (for clarity with suppliers)
- Produce accurate, print-ready artwork and technical design packs—guaranteeing precision for supplier execution.
- Review samples to ensure alignment with:
- Design intent
- Brand standards
- Quality benchmarks
- Provide clear feedback on deviations.
- Maintain market expertise, including:
- Customer needs
- Competitor insights
- Emerging trends
- Leverage these for innovative, commercially driven products.
- Balance creativity with profitability, ensuring trends are executed as successful, sustainable products.
- Challenge final range sign-off, ensuring collections deliver:
- Sufficient newness
- Progression
- Alignment with White Print and brand vision.
- Identify key product stories and ‘hero items’ to support:
- Commercial planning
- Storytelling
- Customer engagement.
- Oversee colour palettes, materials, and finishes for:
- Consistency
- Continuity with brand strategy
- Optimisation of best-selling products.
- Set and manage the design critical path, ensuring timelines support:
- High-quality development
- On-time production.
- Manage design budgets and cost centres efficiently while preserving creative excellence.
- Develop and manage freelance designers, fostering a network of high-performance collaborators who uphold brand standards while optimising efficiency and budgets.
- Align all teams (Design, Buying, Marketing, Creative) to deliver a coherent brand story through product—with contributions to business presentations.
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Skills & Experience You’ll Need
- 10+ years’ experience in home product design/development, covering:
- Interiors
- Textiles
- Home accessories/furniture
- Hands-on designer skilled in end-to-end design execution within a fast-paced, resource-lean environment.
- Deep technical understanding of:
- Materials science
- Textiles
- Finishes
- Manufacturing processes (specific to Home goods).
- Proven record of delivering design-led, commercially successful products from concept to launch.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management—able to influence across levels.
- Customer-centric mindset, with:
- Market trend foresight
- Competitor benchmarking (highlighting brand differentiation).
- Strategic innovation skills, ensuring:
- Trends are commercially viable
- Products align with long-term brand positioning.
- Organisational agility to manage:
- Multiple projects simultaneously
- Tight deadlines without compromise on quality.
- Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign).
- Bonus: CAD/3D software familiarity.
What We’ll Offer You
Competitive Benefits & Rewards
- Discounts:
- Up to 50% on products
- Access to regular Sample Sales
- Paid Time Off:
- 25 days’ holiday (rising to 28 days with tenure)
- Holiday Buy Scheme: opportunity to purchase up to 5 extra days
- Pensions: Auto-enrolment in Group Personal Pension schemes.
- Performance-Incentivised Roles:
- Discretionary bonus scheme (eligibility-based) complementing competitive salaries.
- Workplace Wellbeing:
- Wagestream Finance App: access to home pay control.
- In-house Learning & Development Hub — structured career growth.
- Electric Vehicle (EV) Salary Sacrifice Scheme (grade-dependent/eligibility).
- Leadership Development Programme (for contract roles ≥6 months at grades D/E).
- Private Healthcare (backed by Babylon Digital Healthcare, based on contract).
- Life Assurance covered.
- Premium Perks:
- Tenants’ Membership at White City House (Soho House Group) at a discount—offering exclusive amenities.
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Additional Perks
- Daily fruit basket
- ** Coffee & tea provisions**
- Hybrid Working:
- Option to work remotely on Mondays & Fridays
- Social & Lifestyle Benefits:
- Annual Christmas party + year-round social events
- Regular Sample Sales
- Volunteer Day (with chosen charity)
- Location Advantages:
- Central workspace near Shepherds Bush Overground or White City/ Wood Lane Underground stations.
- Westfield Shopping Centre access for shops, restaurants, cinema, gyms.
Why The White Company?
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
We commit to diversity— ensuring our workplace reflects and celebrates any background or identity. Our values include:
- Inclusivity through recruitment, development, and leadership.
- Valuing every perspective for creative problem-solving.
- Active Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy integrated into hiring practices.
Sustainability Pledge
Our goal is a legacy of sustainability—ensuring every decision we make:
- Honours people and planet.
- Reflects in every aspect of our brand.
We aspire to ignite a brighter future—through people and purpose. We’d love your passion for a mission-driven role. Let’s create something extraordinary together.
Are you ready to shape the next chapter of Home Design?
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