Senior Director - Wayfinding & Branded Environments

GNU Group; Pleasant Hill (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Choice of select medical plans

Dental Plan

Vision Plan

Paid time off

Bereavement Leave

IRA

Life Insurance

Job summary

GNU Group in Pleasant Hill, CA seeks a Principal to drive new business growth and lead complex client projects from concept to delivery. You will shape strategy for wayfinding, environmental branding and branded environments, manage budgets and schedules, and mentor high-performing teams to exceed client expectations.

The role emphasizes consultative B2B sales, thought leadership in key markets, and cross-functional leadership across design, operations and fabrication partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 10 years’ experience in wayfinding, environmental branding, and architectural signage.
• Proven thought leadership in one or more key markets.
• Experience in consultative B2B sales models is preferred but not required.
• Strong consultative selling skills and ability to uncover client needs.
• Strong sense of design and good concepting skills.
• Organized with excellent problem solving and time management skills.
• Proactive, flexible team player with integrity and trust-building abilities.
• Excellent presentation, verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• New Business: target $1.5MM in annual sales and lead qualification and bid proposals.
• Thought Leadership: develop market content and lead staff training.
• Wayfinding Strategy & Planning: design comprehensive wayfinding programs and assess user behavior.
• Project Planning and Execution: manage scope, milestones, budgets, and client communications.
• Project Team Communication and Management: mentor and align teams for project success.
• Financial Management: maintain positive project financials and adhere to budgets.

Skills

New business development

Sales leadership

Wayfinding strategy

Project planning

Financial management

CRM (HubSpot)

Microsoft Office suite

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Tools

HubSpot CRM

Microsoft Office

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

ZoomInfo

Job description

The Principal plays a key role in growing new business and managing projects from start to finish, ensuring project budgets and schedules are met, and collaborating with clients, team members, and vendors to deliver exceptional results. You’ll be responsible for leading the strategic direction for and development of wayfinding solutions, architectural signage and branded environments. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in experiential design, and a proven track record sales and leading high-performing teams

Compensation: $125K–$170K (Depending on Experience) with bonus.

Key Responsibilities

• New Business: Responsible for $1.5MM in annual sales. Responsible for focused Go/No Go decisions based on our ability to win, deliver project excellence to the client while generating the profit assumptions established with our initial work plans. Identify and develop qualification and bid proposals, lead client presentations and interviews. Identify markets or strategic pursuits that have the potential to be game changers because it opens a new or expanding market.
• Thought Leadership: Provide ongoing thought leadership in one of more key markets that we work in. Develop thought leadership content on an ongoing basis for marketing and business development. Share knowledge and lead training sessions for staff development.
• Wayfinding Strategy & Planning: Develop comprehensive wayfinding strategies and designing user-friendly wayfinding sign programs. Conduct wayfinding assessments, research user group behavior and concerns, identify circulation patterns, organize destinations, establish hierarchy of information, determine wayfinding language, and meet with stakeholders. Identify functional and aesthetic factors that define design criteria, set operational and compliance parameters and provide fabrication and installation scenarios and budgets.
• Project Planning and Execution: Review and approve the work plan during the proposal phase and upon contract execution including: Scope & approach, milestones and resourcing schedule, budget, and establishing primary responsibilities for client and team communication, change management, financials – (Billing, collections and budget), and project closeout – lessons learned.
• Project Team Communication and Management Responsible to mentor, grow and engage with the team in furtherance of their professional development. Foster positive project team collaboration and a team culture where creative ideas are encouraged and implemented as appropriate. Communicate with clarity and purpose. Lead by example.
• Financial Management: Maintain a positive financial position for GNU Group and projects; constantly understanding and resolving material variances. Accountable for delivering projects at or above our work plan estimates.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• 10 years’ experience in wayfinding, environmental branding, and architectural signage
• Proven thought leadership on one or more key markets
• Experience in consultative B2B sales models is preferred but not required
• Strong consultative selling skills, with the ability to uncover both spoken and unspoken client needs.
• Strong sense of design and good concepting skills
• Organized, with excellent problem solving, time management and risk management skills
• Proactive, flexible, team player with the confidence and integrity to earn client and internal team trust quickly.
• Excellent presentation, verbal, written and leadership skills
• Ability to plan, document and execute project plans, including scope definition, timelines and budgets.
• Proficiency with CRM systems (HubSpot), Microsoft Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, ZoomInfo

About GNU Group:

The GNU Group (www.gnugroup.com) — a division of Impec Group—has a 50-year-plus history of elevating the experience of people and places through experiential design. Our multi-discipline studio employs a creative staff of professionals who provide planning, design and turnkey management for branding, environmental graphics, architectural signage, and wayfinding strategy. Our areas of project expertise span the healthcare, retail, corporate, hospitality and mixed-use sectors.

About Impec Group:

Since its founding in 1991, Impec Group’s mission is to elevate the experience of people and places through integrated facilities management. Impec Group started servicing the critical needs of the cleanrooms and electronic assemblies in the hi-tech and life science sectors in Silicon Valley. Since then, our services have expanded to operations & maintenance, IFM, program management, move management, staffing, environmental branding and operations, and site services with the capability to deliver end-to-end solutions—nationally and globally.

• Choice of select medical plans
• Dental Plan
• Vision Plan
• Paid time off
• Bereavement Leave
• IRA
• Life Insurance