Retail Design Architect

PeopleStrong; Hinoba-an; On-site; PHP 2,653,000 - 4,642,000; Full time

Job summary

Lodha Group, Mumbai-based luxury retail developer, seeks a Design Architect / Interior Designer to lead architectural design authority for retail assets. The role requires coordinating with leasing, operations, and project teams to ensure design excellence and operational readiness across assets.

You will oversee end-to-end design review, sign-off processes, and alignment with brand standards, while mentoring a three- to four-member design team. Travel to project sites across India is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or Master's diploma in Architecture, Interior Design, or related field.
• Membership of COA, IIID, or equivalent preferred.
• 14–18 years of experience in Retail architecture/interiors, with 3+ years in a senior capacity.
• Experience with large architecture or interior design firms or developers with retail credentials.

Responsibilities

• Strategic design management: implement design mandates and standards across Retail assets.
• Design review & approval for retail areas including interiors, atria, and circulation zones.
• Tenant layout and shopfront approvals from submission to sign-off, ensuring SF Guidelines compliance.
• Provide feedback to tenants and track design approvals to execution handover.
• Review signage, wayfinding, lighting, and public art proposals for retail common areas.
• Maintain in-house design proposals and studies.

Skills

Retail design

Design review

Tenant coordination

Brand standards

Stakeholder management

Education

B.Arch - Bachelor of Architecture

Tools

AutoCAD

SketchUp

3D Modelling

MS Office

Job description

Organizational Info

Country Operations India Operations

Business Unit Central Zone – Corporate Support Functions

Business Segment Central Functions

Region Corporate

Market Core Central Services

Department Commercial

Cell Retail

Country India

State Maharashtra

Working location Corporate Office

Project/Office Corporate Office

Sub-Office Corporate office

Knowledge

Commercial Design Construction Management MEP Design MEP Coordination Retail Warehouse Project analysis Project Coordination Project designing Project Exposure Project Control Engineering Design

Graduation

B.Arch - Bachelor of Architecture

Job Description

Department

RETAIL

Reports To

Location

Mumbai (with travel to project sites across India, local and national)

Employment Type

Full-Time, Permanent

Purpose of the Role

The Design Architect / Interior Designer will serve as the primary design authority for the retail assets, ensuring that Lodha Group maintains its position as a Category A+ developer. The incumbent will drive design quality and standards, retail footprint optimization, fit-out compliance with operational excellence while collaborating closely with leasing, operations, and project teams.Ability to represent Lodha confidently while engaging with Tenant design and Project teams in Joint design review forums, coordination meetings and approval discussions.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Design Management

• Ensure and implement policy-level design mandates, standards and recommendations across Retail assets.
• Benchmark against Cat A+ developers & share best practices with project teams to continuously elevate standards.
• Have a continuous improvement mindset to keep Lodha Group at the forefront of the Retail real estate market.

2. Design Review & Approval — Retail Areas

• Proactively lead end-to-end project design review and approval process for all retail common areas, including (FOH & BOH areas) interiors, atrium, circulation zones, F&B courts, anchor transitions, façade, plazas & traffic movement
• Evaluate design submissions from consultants for compliance with Lodha's design standards, brand vision and asset positioning. Ensure same is communicated across to form the foundation of the retail assets.
• Provide structured, actionable feedback to project teams and consultants and ensure timely closure.
• Track approved designs translate accurately into execution — from intent from concept through to final handover.
• Review and approve all signage, wayfinding, lighting design, and public art proposals for retail common areas.
• Create in-house design proposal or carrtiut studies

3. Tenant Layout & Shopfront Approval- aesthetic and technical

• Own the design approval process for all tenant shop layouts, shopfronts(, signage and service coordination — from initial design submission through to fit-out completion sign-off.
• Review tenant-submitted drawings for compliance with Design Shopfront(SF) Guidelines, Technical fit-out manual Lodha brand standards, efficiency, overall aesthetic and Design narrative of the asset.
• Assess shopfront designs critically for materials, finishes, signage treatment, lighting, display window concepts, and façade integration with the mall/high-street environment.
• Evaluate services coordination in tenant drawings — HVAC, electrical, plumbing, drainage, and fire — to ensure correct integration with base building provisions and no conflict with common area systems.
• Provide clear, written design approval or revision comments to tenants within agreed turnaround timelines.
• Manage a design approval tracker across all tenants for each asset, escalating non-compliance or delays to the leasing and operations, including retail project teams timely as needed.

4. Retail Design Know-How & Tenant Industry Expertise

• Bring deep knowledge of how retail brands — across fashion, F&B, electronics, lifestyle, beauty, and luxury — approach store design, customer journey, visual merchandising, and operational requirements.
• Understand the nuances of retail tenant categories: the spatial, structural, and services requirements that differ between an anchor, a boutique luxury brand, a fast-fashion retailer, an F&B operator, and a kiosk.
• Stay current on global and Indian retail design trends, emerging brand concepts, and evolving SF & FT standards.
• Provide retail design advisory to the leasing team when onboarding new tenants — assessing design feasibility for proposed units and flagging constraints early.
• Support the leasing team with knowledge of what works spatially for specific tenant categories — helping secure commitments from brands by offering design-backed solutions.
• Serve as the primary design liaison between the leasing, operations, and tenant fit-out teams — ensuring that design decisions are aligned with commercial, operations, Lodha brand objectives and policy guidelines at all times
• Working knowledge of leasing nuances: demise boundaries, shell-and-core vs. warm shell handover, fitout contribution structures, and the design implications of lease terms.
• Monitor and ensure tenant fit-out activities getting executed in line with approved design- with no compromise on compliance or asset standards.
• Represent Lodha with authority in all tenant-facing forums — design reviews, fitout coordination meetings, and site discussions — managing brand aspirations while holding asset-wide design consistency.
• Act as a trusted, knowledgeable counterpart for international and domestic brand design and project teams, bringing credibility and efficiency to the retail design development and approval process.

6. Tenant Design management and Fit-out Compliance

• Review, refine and maintain Design Shopfront guidelines, Technical Fit-out Manual and Operational Manuals for existing & new assets, educate the Tenants to upgrade themselves to better design standards & Lodha's policy.
• Oversee fit-out planning handovers, site readiness assessments, design reviews & solution-oriented coordination.
• Monitor and enforce compliance with Design shopfront guidelines and technical requirements during design review and approval stage, execution till pre-opening and immediately post-opening.

7. Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Recruit, mentor, engage and manage team of three to four design members, capable of delivering Lodha's luxury-grade experience across all retail and mixed-use assets.
• Train the team to uphold design standards, compliances, maintain quality and support seamless handovers
• Foster a culture of precision, accountability, and design excellence within the team
• Project Design review-approval of all Retail project assets and tracking the delivery meeting Retail AOP timelines.
• Prepare comprehensive Retail briefs, Design SF guidelines, technical manual & Operational Manuals for all assets.
• Retailor/ Tenant shop layout and shopfront approvals for design disciplines completed on time, with zero non-compliance for fit-outs progressing to site without design sign-off OR opening without design function approval.
• Ensure Retail Policies, Retail brief and requirements are embedded in new development projects from the earliest planning and concept design stages. For existing and ongoing constructional projects, all efforts to be made these are implemented to the extent feasible.
• Prepare Benchmarking reports with best practice recommendations, also Document- learnings & sharing regularly.
• Documentation at all stages to be maintained and updated timely.

Qualifications & Experience

Educational Background

• Bachelor's degree or Master's diploma in Architecture, Interior Design, or related field from a recognized institution.
• Membership of a recognized professional body (COA, IIID, or equivalent) is preferred.

Professional Experience

• 14-18 years of experience in Retail architecture and/or interiors, with at least 3 years in a senior capacity
• Prior work with a large, reputed Architecture or Interior Design firm or Developer with proven retail credentials.
• Experience working with or within a Project Management Consultancy (PMC) environment is highly desirable.
• Exposure to Retail operations, leasing strategy, operations, FM & nuances of working with Tenant design teams.

Domain Knowledge

• Deep understanding of high-street retail and shopping mall design — common areas, anchors, F&B zones, atria, and circulation — and how design decisions directly impact tenant performance and footfall.
• End-to-end fluency in the tenant design approval process: from LOI through design submission, review and approval cycles, design monitoring during execution, and pre- and post-fitout sign-off through to opening.
• Strong, thorough knowledge of shopfront design principles — materials, signage, display windows, lighting, sound, digital and IT integration, services, and façade articulation — across all retail categories and typologies.
• Full understanding of structural and MEP systems in the context of retail fitout and common area design — including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, firefighting, IT and digital infrastructure, fire safety, and building code compliance — with the ability to identify conflicts early and ensure integration into base builds.
• Knowledge of retail tenant industry nuances — the differing spatial, technical, and brand requirements across luxury, premium, fashion, F&B, electronics, beauty, and lifestyle categories — and the ability to translate these into a retail design brief.
• Working knowledge of leasing mechanics: demise drawings, shell-and-core vs. warm shell handover conditions, fit-out allowances and their design implications.

Luxury, Premium & High-Street Retail — Added Advantage

• Prior exposure to luxury and premium retail environments — malls, high streets, or mixed-use developments — with working knowledge of how global luxury brands approach store design, shopfront standards, finishing palettes, and the design approval process.
• Understanding of the heightened design sensitivity required when engaging luxury brand design teams — adherence to global brand guidelines, materials specifications, and international vendor and contractor standards.
• Experience managing design approvals for international fashion houses, premium F&B, jewellery, or lifestyle labels — where design precision and response quality are critical to tenant relationships and brand commitments.
• Ability to elevate asset and development design standards to be commensurate with a luxury retail positioning — and equally, to translate that environment into a compelling proposition for premium tenants.

Leadership & Soft Skills

• AutoCAD
• SketchUp and other 3d modelling & visualization softwares
• Microsoft- word, excel, powerpoint
• Strong cross-functional stakeholder management with the ability to drive alignment and decisions across design, leasing, and operations
• Solution-oriented and decisive under pressure
• Team development and performance management-— setting clear expectations, building capability, and holding the team accountable to outcomes
• Attention to detail with strategic perspective
• Design quality control across concept, review, and execution — with the judgement to distinguish non-negotiables from areas of flexibility