Design Manager

Kimball International is seeking a Design Manager to lead a dynamic team of designers focused on supporting dealer partners and the Architecture & Design community. The role involves overseeing the creation of strategic design solutions and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to enhance design's contribution to business growth.

Responsibilities:

• Inspires and motivates the design team to reach new heights and deliver exceptional solutions to our customers
• Creates & drives the business actions needed when business conditions change or new product categories are launched
• Proactively drives business enhancements & continuous improvements based upon customer requirements
• Measures & manages team performance
• Drives development & continuous improvement on technology enablers, database, training & development platform that facilitates desired performance, best practices & key learnings across Design Team
• Creates & drives the business actions needed to enable Design Strategists, Outsource Specifiers, Dealers, Designers the ability to create value-spec solutions
• Facilitates best practices, key learnings & trends on products, specs, and project execution tips across Design team. Drives information & feedback to Technical team, Product Development/ Positioning & Marketing
• Directs the internal Design Strategists and assigned to areas of Marketing, Product Development/Positioning & Training
• Creates & maintains a training & development platform for Design Strategists
• Documents training plan for each team member, inclusive of approximate timeline dependent upon type of skill set entering into the role
• Collaborates with Sales and A&D Leadership on additional training & development to improve performance in specification accuracy, speed, application usage & business needs to improve win ratio
• Drives sharing of tips & best practices amongst Design Team
• Organizes & maintains an audited outsource network for specification overflow
• Works directly with Sales Leaders to source & manage outsource specifiers
• Drives common understanding & execution of adjusting business processes to align with dealer, A&D, & Sales Leadership needs
• Assess outsource specifiers through use of formal audit process, or Design Team feedback
• Collaborates with Sales teams on continuous improvement efforts related to Design Team
• Outsource Efficiency: Data guides decisions on when and where to outsource design work for cost-effectiveness
• Progress Tracking: Uses data-driven metrics to measure team progress on projects. Ensure proper information is being shared from field sales to move a project through the funnel in a timely manner
• Resource Allocation: Analyzes data to optimize the use of design resources, aligning skills with project needs
• Project Hour Oversight: Monitor team hours per project to ensure projects stay on schedule, field sales properly utilizes design resources and maintain a balanced workload for Design Strategist

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree in Interior Design, or equivalent practical experience
• 10+ years Interior Design experience
• 10+ Office furniture specification experience
• Travels to customer & dealer sites as needed
• Configura/ CET, AutoCAD & CAP
• Interior Design space planning and codes
• Solid knowledge of Alternative workplace strategies & Activity Based Design
• Ability to listen to customer needs & create product applications based upon discussion
• Learns & reinforces the use of new technologies related to the entire sales process
• Strategic, sales-driven mindset that understands how design influences win rates
• Experience leveraging AI resources related to design
• Experience utilizing Salesforce and Salesforce reporting
• Experience using Teamwork, or other workload management programs
• Fosters an environment of trust and respect with peers, leaders & employees; has integrity
• Self-starter, identifies & drives desired results
• Drives progress to hit targeted deadlines
• Ensures the sharing of product, spec and project execution tips to various functions
• Provide coaching & feedback to improve results
• Ability to facilitate conflict resolution
• Ability to co-lead with Sales Leaders to drive results
• Seeks out personal development opportunities to enhance your skills and those in Design Team roles
• Experience leading remote team members
• Consults with Sales leaders to understand business needs & drives actions to aid in hitting region based targets
• Understands & anticipates customer needs based upon market realities, builds training, processes, & centralized tools to meet those needs
• Excellent verbal, written and listening skills
• Effectively presents to small groups
• Adjusts communication & style for audience
• Prepared with objectives & anticipates questions