Design & Projects Manager – Interior Design at NOURA ALKHENAINI INTERIORS

NOURA ALKHENAINI INTERIORS; Riyadh; Hybrid; SAR 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

NOURA ALKHENAINI INTERIORS in Riyadh seeks an experienced Interior Design Project Lead to drive design projects from outset to handover, ensuring quality, coordination, and on-time delivery.

You will manage a design team, coordinate with procurement and site teams, and oversee technical drawings, FF&E, and BOQ, while maintaining strict design standards.

Ideal candidate brings 7–10 years' experience, strong Arabic/English communication, and a hands-on leadership style.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, or a related field.
• Approximately 7–10 years of interior design experience with project and team management.
• Experience directly managing designers and drafters and handling multiple projects.
• Strong technical understanding of interior drawings, dimensions, detailing, materials, finishes, FF&E, and site execution.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD and project tracking tools.
• Professional Arabic and English communication, both written and spoken.

Responsibilities

• Lead, organize, and distribute work among interior designers, senior/junior designers, and drafters.
• Prepare and maintain project timelines with milestones, responsibilities, deadlines, and approvals.
• Monitor daily/weekly progress and address delays before they affect delivery.
• Manage design workflow including mood boards, space planning, 2D drawings, 3D design, materials, FF&E, BOQ coordination.
• Review drawings for accuracy, coordination, and constructability.
• Ensure consistency between 3D visuals, plans, elevations, specs, and materials.
• Coordinate with Procurement and Execution to finalize design packages.
• Document materials, samples, specs, and client approvals before procurement.
• Identify risks early and propose solutions.
• Lead design/team review meetings with clear action items.
• Provide weekly project status reports to management.

Skills

Team leadership

Project planning

Progress monitoring

Design workflow

Quality assurance

Coordination

Revision control

Cross-department coordination

Documentation

Risk management

Reporting

AutoCAD

Project tracking

Arabic/English

Education

Bachelor's degree in Interior Design/Interior Architecture/Architecture

Tools

AutoCAD

MS Project / Project tracking tools

Job description

Role Purpose: To lead and manage NK Interiors' interior design projects and design team from project initiation through final design handover, ensuring quality, technical accuracy, coordination, and on-time delivery while reducing the need for daily follow-up by senior management.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Lead, organize, and distribute work among interior designers, senior/junior designers, and drafters based on project priorities and team capacity.
• Project Planning: Prepare and maintain a clear project timeline for every project, outlining milestones, responsibilities, deadlines, and required approvals.
• Proactive Monitoring: Follow up on daily and weekly project progress and proactively address delays, workload issues, and dependencies before they affect delivery.
• Design Workflow Management: Manage the complete design workflow, including mood boards, space planning, 2D drawings, 3D design, materials, FF&E, BOQ coordination, and technical drawings.
• Quality Assurance: Review drawings and design packages for dimensions, technical accuracy, coordination, completeness, and constructability before issue or handover.
• Design Consistency: Ensure consistency between approved 3D visuals, plans, elevations, details, specifications, and selected materials.
• Revision Control: Control and track client comments, revisions, and approvals to ensure no instruction or modification is missed or duplicated.
• Cross-Department Coordination: Coordinate closely with Procurement and Execution teams to ensure the design package is complete and clear before purchasing or site execution.
• Documentation: Confirm that materials, samples, specifications, and client approvals are properly documented before procurement or execution.
• Risk Management: Identify project risks and technical issues early, propose solutions, and elevate only decisions that require senior management approval.
• Review Meetings: Conduct design/team review meetings and ensure clear action items, owners, and deadlines are assigned and followed up.
• Reporting: Provide a concise weekly project status report to management covering progress, delays, risks, team workload, and decisions required.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, or a related field.
• Experience: Approximately 7-10 years of relevant interior design experience, with proven responsibility for project and team management.
• Management Skills: Proven experience directly managing designers and drafters, and handling multiple projects simultaneously.
• Technical Knowledge: Strong technical understanding of interior drawings, dimensions, detailing, materials, finishes, FF&E, and site execution requirements.
• Analytical Skills: Ability to review design packages and identify missing information, coordination conflicts, and execution risks before site handover.
• Core Competencies: Strong project planning, prioritization, communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
• Software Proficiency: Proficiency with relevant design/project tools; strong working knowledge of AutoCAD and project tracking tools is expected.
• Languages: Professional communication skills in both Arabic and English, written and spoken.

Key Performance Expectations (KPIs)

• Projects and design stages delivered according to approved timelines.
• Reduction in technical errors, missing information, and repeated revisions before execution.
• Clear team ownership, balanced workload distribution, and consistent follow-up.
• Complete and coordinated design handover to Procurement and Execution teams.
• Early identification and resolution of project risks and delays.
• Reduced dependency on the Managing Director/Owner for routine project follow-up and operational decisions.

Ideal Candidate Profile: A technically strong interior design professional who has progressed into team and project leadership. The ideal candidate is organized, proactive, accountable, detail-oriented, decisive, and able to manage people and deadlines without constant senior-management supervision.

Authority & Escalation

• Independent Authority: Expected to resolve routine design, coordination, scheduling, and team-management issues independently within approved company policies and project scope.
• Escalation Path: Escalates major design-direction changes, significant client disputes, material budget impacts, contractual scope changes, or decisions requiring owner approval.

Expanded Project & Site Responsibilities

• End-to-End Management: Manage and follow the project from the design stage through procurement, execution, site progress, final snagging, and turnkey handover.
• Schedule Alignment: Maintain and actively manage the overall project delivery schedule, ensuring that design, procurement, execution, and site activities remain aligned with the approved handover date.
• Site Inspections: Personally conduct periodic site visits as required to verify actual progress, workmanship quality, and compliance with approved drawings, details, materials, and design intent.
• Stakeholder Follow-up: Follow up with site engineers, supervisors, designers, procurement, suppliers, and contractors to ensure issues are resolved promptly and do not delay the project.
• Site Readiness Verification: Verify site readiness before key installation stages and ensure that completed works meet NK Interiors' required quality standards before acceptance.
• Hands-on Leadership: Lead the team with clear responsibilities, priorities, deadlines, and accountability, and ensure effective communication between design and execution teams.
• Project Ownership: Take full ownership of project delivery and proactively intervene when progress, quality, coordination, or deadlines are at risk.

Location: [Riyadh - KSA] Employment Type: Full-time Work Location: Hybrid remote in Riyadh.