Director, Seating Design

Teknion Corporation; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 144,000 - 176,000; Full time

Job summary

Teknion Corporation seeks a Design Director of Seating to lead the North York seating design and product development team. Reporting to the VP of Design and Innovation, you will define strategic product plans, shape the brand language, and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to grow the seating portfolio and revenue.

You will conduct research, lead design briefs, identify partners, and drive an insights-led development process across stages, ensuring compelling, market-relevant products

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, Design Management, or Furniture related
• Extensive seating/product design experience (15+ years) in manufacturing or consulting
• Portfolio demonstrating design thinking, concept generation, and research

Responsibilities

• Lead design direction for seating; drive vision and strategy across product categories
• Conduct design research through field observation, trends analysis and benchmarking
• Define strategic product plans with brand language and market relevance
• Identify partners for design development and licensing opportunities
• Inspire and structure the design team across development stages and deliverables
• Implement insights-driven design processes to create new products and relevance
• Manage stage gate processes and internal/external communications

Skills

Design leadership

Product design

Brand language

Ergonomic principles

Multidisciplinary collaboration

Portfolio presentation

Prototyping

Strategic planning

Research

Education

Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design

Job description

We are seeking a highly talented Design Director of Seating having senior leadership and product design experience. This candidate will join our Seating Design and product development team located at our North York, ON Seating Manufacturing Plant.

Reporting to the VP of Design and Innovation, the candidate will drive results through insights and collaboration with multi-disciplinary development team and strive to create inspiring and relevant products that express our Design Brand Language and evolve our future seating product portfolio direction to ultimately drive category revenue.

Responsibilities:

Communication & Leadership, Vision, Strategy, Research and Product Development

• Conduct design research activities through field observation, SME and client interactions, tracking broad industry trends, standards, materials and technology, and competitive product benchmarking.
• Generate new design briefs including supporting insights research, market analysis of new opportunities, defining the user experience, features, design brand language, and environments of use.
• Define a strategic product plan across all seating categories with an expressed and intentional POV and design brand language and market relevance .
• Identify strategic partners to collaborate on design development of new products, as well as identify new licenced product and brand opportunities.
• To inspire the industrial design team and bring vision, leadership and structure to the evolving development process and deliverables.
• Drive the creation and implementation of a new insights driven product design and development process that inspires new products and design brand relevance.
• Manage the multi-disciplinary stage gate development process including supporting internal and consulting resources and their documentation and deliverables, and all communication activities.

Key Skills:

• Aptitude for problem solving, demonstrate creativity and innovation in project solutions
• Ability to integrate & synthesize external inputs in the development of design ideas, and exercise agility and adaptability as project needs change
• In-depth knowledge of industry related standards of product design, including ergonomic principles, safety, sustainability, materials and various manufacturing processes
• Working knowledge of appearance and functional model building and prototyping
• Demonstrates integrity and diplomacy
• Multimodal communication skills with the ability to articulate and present through verbal storytelling, professional writing, and compelling visual sketching.
• Proven ability to drive results through senior leadership experience in product design
• Strong leadership skills, organizational and time management skills
• A keen sense of how design and brand impact business growth and market positioning.

Works with:

• Reports to VP of Design and Innovation
• Interfaces with multi-disciplinary Seating development team and collaborates with outside design contributors.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, Design Management, or Furniture related
• Extensive experience (typically 15 years) in various capacities related to Product Design and development within manufacturing or consulting environments, including at least 5 years specifically in seating or furniture
• Portfolio Submission: Please provide a portfolio that demonstrates your design thinking, concept generation, research and analytical skills.

The expected base salary range for this position starts at $114,845. Final base salary offers will reflect an assessment of the selected candidate's skills, demonstrated competencies, and adherence to our internal pay equity framework.

Teknion is committed to supporting a culture of diversity and accessibility across the organization, starting with the hiring process. It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. Teknion welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. All information received in relation to accommodation will be kept confidential.

By applying for a position with Teknion, you understand that, should you be made an offer, it will be contingent on your undergoing and successfully completing a background check consistent with Teknion's employment policies. Background checks may include some or all the following based on the nature of the position: SSN/SIN validation, education verification, employment verification, credit check and criminal check. You will be notified during the hiring process which checks are required by the position.