Lead Designer - Event Exhibition Company

Live Recruitment; Billericay; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Live Recruitment is seeking a Lead Designer, Events & Staging to head a small design team and steer hands-on design work from concept to production. You will coordinate priorities with Project Management and Production, ensuring clear, actionable documentation for manufacturing and installation.

The role blends technical credibility with people leadership in a mid-size events construction firm experiencing growth and investment in new capabilities and space, with a supportive, long-serving team

Qualifications

• Solid background in design within events construction or closely related industry.
• Experience supervising or mentoring other designers, formally or informally.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously without dropping detail.
• Comfort with the technical side: CAD/CAM software, technical drawing, and producing workshop-ready documentation.

Responsibilities

• Lead, support and develop the design team day to day.
• Manage workloads, priorities and deadlines across live projects.
• Deliver design work from initial brief through to production-ready information.
• Ensure drawings and technical documentation meet manufacture and installation standards.
• Provide technical guidance on materials, construction and manufacture.
• Maintain CAD and documentation standards across the department.
• Coordinate the design schedule with Project Management and Production.
• Identify and drive improvements to design processes and systems.

Skills

Design leadership

Technical drawing

Team mentoring

Project coordination

Tools

CAD/CAM software

Job description

Bespoke scenic and set builds for luxury fashion and technology brands, a business in active expansion, and a design team that needs someone to lead it. If hands‑on design work combined with real team ownership sounds like the next move, the Lead Designer, Events & Staging opportunity is worth a close look.

• Hands‑on design leadership, not a purely managerial step away from the work
• High-end luxury and tech brand projects for your portfolio
• Stable team where long‑serving colleagues are the norm
• Active growth phase with floor space and capability expanding
• Sustainability‑led business with formal accreditation standards

The Company

This is a mid‑size events construction specialist with fifteen years of trading behind it and a reputation built on bespoke, high‑specification builds for luxury and technology clients, delivered mainly through agency partnerships. The Lead Designer, Events & Staging role sits within a close‑knit culture: a significant number of the team have been here for six years or more, many considerably longer. The business is now in a planned expansion phase, adding floor space and capability, and hiring the specialists to support it.

The Role

The Lead Designer, Events & Staging sits at the point where creative design meets workshop‑floor reality, responsible for both producing technical design work and providing day‑to‑day direction to a small design team, coordinating priorities with Project Management and Production, and helping shape the processes that will underpin the business as it grows.

• Lead, support and develop the design team day to day
• Manage workloads, priorities and deadlines across live projects
• Deliver design work from initial brief through to production‑ready information
• Ensure drawings and technical documentation meet manufacture and installation standards
• Provide technical guidance on materials, construction and manufacture
• Maintain CAD and documentation standards across the department
• Coordinate the design schedule with Project Management and Production
• Identify and drive improvements to design processes and systems

The Candidate

The right person for the Lead Designer, Events & Staging role has a solid background in design within events construction or a closely related industry, and is genuinely comfortable with the technical side: CAD/CAM software, technical drawing, and producing documentation that a workshop can work from without ambiguity. Equally important is experience of supervising or mentoring other designers, whether formally or informally, and the ability to hold multiple projects in the air at once without dropping the detail.

Knowledge of ISO accreditation and compliance frameworks would be beneficial but is not essential, as would experience of white‑label or agency‑side working, or a background that spans construction manufacturing and installation. What matters most is the right blend of technical credibility and genuine enthusiasm for developing a team.

Real design output, day‑to‑day team leadership, and serious investment behind the business's next chapter: the Lead Designer, Events & Staging role offers all three.

We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, embracing diversity across all intersecting dimensions, including ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, well‑being, abilities, and neurodiversity.

We are dedicated to ensuring a supportive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any adjustments or accommodations for any reason, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Vacancy Ref: MR18672

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Lead Designer - Event exhibition company Billericay, Essex, England