Director of Design and Delivery
Role summary
Seeking a Director of Design & Delivery to build, implement, and scale systems governing design and project execution. This role partners with the COO/CFO to create the firm's 'front-of-house' operating system, ensuring creative excellence and execution scale together. Responsibilities include defining design production, review, and delivery processes, establishing quality control, implementing project management best practices, providing creative leadership, aligning studio directors, and developing teams. The ideal candidate is a hybrid designer and operator with strong systems thinking and leadership capabilities, experienced in complex organizations and building scalable structures.
Position Overview
We are seeking a Director of Design & Delivery to build, implement, and scale the systems that govern how design and project execution operate across the firm.
This role serves as the
front-of-house counterpart
to the COO/CFO, who owns finance and operations. While the COO/CFO builds the back-end systems of the business, the Director of Design & Delivery is responsible for building the
design and project delivery engine
—ensuring that creative excellence and execution scale together.
Working with our studio directors, this individual will define how design is produced, reviewed, delivered, and maintained across all projects—transforming a founder-led design process into a
structured, repeatable, and scalable system
.
This role combines:
- Design leadership (taste + quality)
- Project delivery systems (process + execution)
- Organizational architecture (how teams operate at scale)
Key ResponsibilitiesDesign & Delivery Systems (Core Mandate)
- Design, implement, and continuously improve firm-wide systems for:
- Design development and decision-making
- Project delivery and workflow management
- Cross-team coordination and accountability
- Define how projects move from concept through execution across all studios.
- Establish input-driven systems (not personality-driven processes).
- Build repeatable frameworks that enable the firm to scale without loss of quality.
Design Review & Quality Control System
- Establish a firm-wide design review structure with mandatory checkpoints.
- Define approval authority and criteria for advancing work between phases.
- Lead cross-studio critiques to ensure alignment and calibration of design quality.
- Ensure no project progresses without meeting defined standards.
- Create feedback loops that improve quality across all teams over time.
Project Management & Delivery Standards
- Define and implement best practices for:
- Project timelines and milestone tracking
- Deliverables and documentation expectations
- Client communication cadence
- Ensure consistency in how projects are managed across studios.
- Partner with COO/CFO to align project delivery with financial performance.
- Introduce visibility into project health (progress, risk, coordination).
Creative Leadership (Design Authority)
- Serve as a senior design authority across all projects.
- Ensure consistency in design quality, clarity, and intent across studios.
- Intervene when projects fall below the firm’s standards.
- Maintain balance between creative autonomy and firm-wide coherence.
Studio Alignment & Organizational Structure
- Align studio directors around shared systems, standards, and expectations.
- Define how resources are allocated and shared across studios.
- Ensure decentralized teams operate within a unified framework.
- Build mechanisms for accountability across senior leaders.
Partnership with COO/CFO (Back-of-House Alignment)
- Work in tandem with the COO/CFO to align:
- Design systems ↔ operational systems
- Project delivery ↔ financial performance
- Ensure design decisions and workflows support business objectives.
- Act as the primary owner of the “front-of-house” operating system.
Team Development & Leadership
- Identify and develop future design and project leaders.
- Elevate the capabilities of studio directors and their teams.
- Foster a culture of accountability, critique, and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
- Professional degree in Architecture, Interior Design, or related field.
- 15–20+ years of experience in high-end residential or comparable environments.
- Demonstrated experience leading multiple teams or studios.
- Proven experience building or improving design and/or project delivery systems.
- Strong understanding of both design process and project execution.
- Experience operating in complex, multi-project organizations.
- Exceptional design judgment and leadership capability.
Ideal Candidate Profile
- A hybrid
designer + operator
who understands both creativity and execution.
- Thinks in systems, workflows, and scalable structures—not just projects.
- Comfortable creating order within ambiguity.
- Capable of holding senior team members accountable.
- Able to balance creative freedom with operational discipline.
- Motivated by building an organization, not just delivering work.
Success Metrics (First 6–12 Months)Systems
- Implementation of a firm-wide design review and approval system
- Defined project delivery framework adopted across all studios
Quality
- Increased consistency and clarity of design output across projects
- Reduction in rework, misalignment, and design drift
Execution
- Improved predictability in project timelines and deliverables
- Increased visibility into project status across the firm
Leadership Leverage
- Reduction in CEO involvement in day-to-day design and delivery decisions
- Stronger alignment and accountability among studio directors
Role Positioning
- Reports directly to CEO
- Works in direct partnership with COO/CFO (peer relationship)
- Oversees studio directors from a systems, quality, and delivery standpoint
- Holds authority to enforce standards and intervene when necessary