Design Manager
Posted
Summary
A hands-on people-management role leading a team of ten fashion designers at Disturbia in London. The manager runs one-to-ones, performance coaching, workload/capacity planning against collection deadlines, and builds Excel-based productivity reports, while the Design Director keeps the creative vision. Hybrid, 3 days a week in office.
We are looking for an experienced Design Manager to lead, support and develop our team of ten designers.
Reporting to the Design Director, you will take responsibility for the day-to-day people leadership, workflow and operational performance of the Design team. You will create the structure, clarity and accountability the team needs to produce high-quality work efficiently and consistently.
This is a hands-on leadership role. You will lead regular one-to-ones, manage performance, coach designers and provide practical support when challenges arise. You will oversee workloads across product categories, monitor capacity and ensure design output remains aligned with collection plans, critical-path deadlines and commercial priorities.
You will also bring a quantitative approach to design management. Using category counts, planned workloads, completed output and delivery data, you will build clear reports that provide visibility of team productivity, capacity and performance. You will use these insights to improve workflow, identify risks and make informed recommendations about priorities, resourcing and development.
Working closely with the Design Director, you will translate the brand’s creative vision into clear team priorities and strong execution. Your leadership will enable the Design Director to remain focused on the overarching brand vision and design aesthetic, while you ensure the team is supported, developed and delivering effectively.
You will need a strong understanding of fashion design and product development. While you will not own the overall creative direction, you must be confident reviewing work, providing credible feedback, contributing a considered product view and representing the Design team in cross-functional meetings.
Key responsibilities:
- Directly line manage, motivate and develop a team of ten designers across multiple product categories.
- Lead regular one-to-ones, objective setting, development reviews and performance conversations.
- Set clear expectations, provide constructive feedback and address performance or capability concerns fairly and promptly.
- Own the allocation, coordination and prioritisation of design work, ensuring workloads align with collection plans and critical-path deadlines.
- Monitor team capacity and delivery, resolving bottlenecks and providing hands-on support when designers need guidance.
- Build and maintain reports using category counts, planned workload, completed output and delivery data to provide a quantitative view of team performance.
- Translate the Design Director’s creative vision into clear briefs, priorities and standards for the team.
- Work cross-functionally with Buying, Garment Technology and other teams to improve product development, workflow and delivery.
Core skills:
- People leadership: Able to motivate, coach and develop a sizeable creative team.
- Performance management: Confident setting expectations, giving feedback and managing underperformance.
- Pastoral management: Supportive and emotionally intelligent, while maintaining appropriate boundaries and accountability.
- Workflow management: Skilled in balancing workloads, managing capacity and prioritising competing demands.
- Data and reporting: Able to build clear output reports and interpret category counts, productivity and delivery data.
- Product judgement: Credible enough to review work, challenge decisions and provide useful design and product feedback.
- Communication: Confident representing Design in cross-functional and senior stakeholder meetings.
- Commercial thinking: Able to use sales, customer and operational insight to inform decisions.
About you:
- You have proven experience directly line managing and developing a team of fashion or product designers.
- You are confident leading one-to-ones, setting objectives, supporting development and managing performance. You can balance empathy and pastoral support with clear expectations, honest feedback and accountability. You have strong operational leadership skills and can improve workflows, manage capacity and increase team output. You are confident using Excel or equivalent tools to analyse category counts, workloads, productivity and delivery.
- You have experience creating clear performance or output reports for senior stakeholder
- You bring strong multi-product fashion design knowledge and can contribute a credible, considered view in product meetings.
- You understand critical-path-led product development and can translate a creative vision into clear priorities and measurable team delivery.
- 25 days holiday, accruing with length of service
- Holiday purchase scheme
- Enhanced sick pay
- Family friendly benefits including enhanced maternity/paternity pay
- Participation in managers bonus scheme
- Comprehensive private health insurance
- Cycle to work scheme
- Flexible and hybrid working (3 days a week in office)
- Brand discount
- Discounts at numerous high street retailers