APAC Spatial Design Lead

TEA EXPLORER PTE. LTD.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

CHAGEE seeks an APAC Spatial Design Lead to define and deliver the physical brand experience across Asia-Pacific. You will translate global brand principles into commercially viable stores, flagships, and pop-ups, working with cross-functional teams to ensure consistency and local relevance.

The role calls for leading regional design delivery, maintaining standards, and collaborating with Real Estate, Operations, Procurement, and market teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Architecture, Spatial Design, Environmental Design, Retail Design, or a related discipline.
• Approximately 8–12+ years of relevant professional experience in retail, F&B, hospitality, lifestyle, consumer, or commercial interior design.
• Demonstrated experience leading regional or multi-market design projects across APAC or similarly complex international markets.
• Strong portfolio showing end-to-end delivery of physical retail environments, including store concepts, flagships, hospitality spaces, F&B outlets, cafés, lifestyle retail, or other high-traffic consumer spaces.
• Experience in a fast-growing retail, QSR, beverage, hospitality, fashion, beauty, sportswear, or consumer-lifestyle brand is highly preferred.
• Experience managing external design consultants, construction partners, suppliers, and technical stakeholders.
• Prior people-leadership experience is preferred; candidates with strong project leadership and readiness to build a regional team will also be considered.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own APAC spatial-design strategy, principles, standards, and playbooks for CHAGEE retail environments.
• Translate brand identity and customer-experience ambition into scalable APAC store experiences.
• Establish design frameworks for standard stores, mall locations, flagships, and pop-ups.
• Define regional design language across storefronts, layouts, materials, lighting, signage, and visual merchandising.
• Lead end-to-end design delivery for priority APAC projects from concept through handover.
• Partner with Real Estate and Store Development to assess site potential and brand impact.
• Develop mood boards, test fits, layouts, material palettes, and visualization briefs.
• Ensure designs support efficient operations, beverage equipment, service counters, and flow.
• Lead flagship and concept-store experiences communicating CHAGEE's tea culture and innovation.
• Support spatial design for pop-ups, events, and activations where required.
• Build regional standards, guidelines, and toolkits for local markets and external partners.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Architecture, Spatial Design, Environmental Design, Retail Design, or a related discipline

Job description

The APAC Spatial Design Lead will define, elevate, and deliver CHAGEE's physical brand experience across Asia-Pacific. This role will translate global brand and store-design principles into commercially viable, operationally efficient, and locally relevant retail environments. You will own the regional spatial-design direction across new stores, flagships, concept formats, renovations, pop-ups, and seasonal activations. Working closely with Brand, Store Development, Operations, Real Estate, Procurement, Marketing, and local market teams, you will ensure every CHAGEE space delivers a consistent yet locally resonant expression of the brand.

Role Responsibilities

Regional Spatial Design Strategy

• Develop and own APAC spatial-design strategy, principles, standards, and playbooks for CHAGEE retail environments.
• Translate CHAGEE's brand identity, tea heritage, and customer-experience ambition into scalable physical store experiences across APAC.
• Establish design frameworks for standard stores, mall locations, street-front formats, Tea Bars, flagships, café-style concepts, kiosks, pop-ups, and event spaces.
• Define regional design language across storefronts, layouts, materials, furniture, lighting, signage, visual merchandising, customer touchpoints, and cultural storytelling.
• Evolve the store experience in response to consumer insights, market trends, operating needs, and the F&B and lifestyle-retail landscape.
• Balance regional consistency with appropriate local adaptation while protecting brand integrity.

Store Concept and Delivery

• Lead end-to-end design delivery for priority APAC projects, from site assessment and concept development through technical documentation, implementation, and handover.
• Partner with Real Estate and Store Development teams to assess site potential, visibility, customer flow, frontage, operational feasibility, and brand impact.
• Develop or oversee concept decks, mood boards, test fits, customer-journey maps, layouts, material palettes, furniture selections, and visualisation briefs.
• Ensure designs support efficient ordering and collection, customer flow, seating, accessibility, back-of-house planning, food-safety needs, and team-member experience.
• Work with Operations and Product teams to incorporate beverage equipment, storage, service counters, queue management, cleaning areas, and operational workflows.
• Lead the development of flagship and concept-store experiences that communicate CHAGEE's tea culture, craftsmanship, innovation, and local relevance.
• Support spatial design for pop-ups, events, roadshows, and brand activations where required.

Design Governance and Collaboration

• Build and continuously improve regional standards, technical guidelines, material libraries, fixture specifications, signage rules, visual-merchandising principles, and approval processes.
• Develop practical toolkits that enable local markets, business partners, and external consultants to execute consistently and efficiently.
• Establish design-review gates from concept to construction, ensuring adherence to brand, quality, budget, and timeline requirements.
• Conduct design reviews, site visits, and post-opening audits; identify improvements based on customer behaviour, operational feedback, maintenance needs, and store performance.
• Partner with Brand, Marketing, Real Estate, Construction, Procurement, Finance, Legal, Operations, IT, and local teams to align design, commercial, operational, regulatory, and delivery requirements.
• Lead external architecture, interior design, MEP, lighting, signage, creative, and project-management partners.

Commercial and Project Management

• Manage multiple concurrent project scopes, consultant briefs, timelines, approvals, and deliverables across APAC.
• Partner with Procurement and Project Management to source durable, cost-effective, and locally available materials, fixtures, and finishes.
• Drive value engineering without compromising customer experience, design intent, durability, brand expression, or operational functionality.
• Support design budgets, cost estimates, tender reviews, scope alignment, supplier negotiations, and project decisions.
• Identify modular, scalable solutions that improve speed-to-market and reduce store-build complexity.
• Ensure projects meet agreed design, quality, cost, timeline, safety, and regulatory requirements.

Role Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Architecture, Spatial Design, Environmental Design, Retail Design, or a related discipline.
• Approximately 8–12+ years of relevant professional experience in retail, F&B, hospitality, lifestyle, consumer, or commercial interior design.
• Demonstrated experience leading regional or multi-market design projects across APAC or similarly complex international markets.
• Strong portfolio showing end-to-end delivery of physical retail environments, including store concepts, flagships, hospitality spaces, F&B outlets, cafés, lifestyle retail, or other high-traffic consumer spaces.
• Experience in a fast-growing retail, QSR, beverage, hospitality, fashion, beauty, sportswear, or consumer-lifestyle brand is highly preferred.
• Experience managing external design consultants, construction partners, suppliers, and technical stakeholders.
• Prior people-leadership experience is preferred; candidates with strong project leadership and readiness to build a regional team will also be considered.