Interior Design Director

Role purpose

Design leadership and management

• Own the portfolio design vision and quality benchmark while supporting a distinctive identity for each project.
• Lead concurrent projects through all design stages and establish design briefs, standards, deliverables, and stage-gate reviews.
• Manage consultants, specialist consultants, operators, contractors, suppliers, and internal stakeholders; review and challenge their work.
• Lead coordination, value engineering, risk and change management, and design reviews; maintain trackers, registers, decision logs, and standards.
• Protect design intent during tender, procurement, construction, and handover through review of submittals, mock-ups, site queries, and close-out.

Interior design direction

• Direct concepts, spatial strategies, planning, material palettes, lighting character, design narratives, and FF&E/OS&E strategy.
• Translate brand positioning, operator standards, customer insight, sales strategy, and market benchmarking into briefs and design direction.
• Review drawings, details, schedules, specifications, renders, samples, and mock-ups; approve materials and finishes for quality, durability, cost, availability, and compliance.
• Direct customer-facing deliverables such as show apartments, sales centres, visualisations, material boards, and handover packs.
• Benchmark quality and keep standards current with global trends, emerging materials, sector innovations, and new technologies.

Stakeholder and commercial leadership

• Lead consultant scopes, RFPs, prequalification, technical evaluations, fee negotiations, appointment recommendations, and performance reviews.
• Lead interior tender input, contractor and specialist evaluations, clarifications, post-tender negotiation, and award recommendations.
• Work with cost management on budgets and cost plans; assess the design, cost, programme, and risk impact of changes and claims.
• Support long-lead procurement and ensure design delivery supports sales, show-unit, snagging, and customer handover milestones.
• Report design status, risks, decisions, and cost and programme implications to senior management.

Experience

• Minimum 15 years of professional interior design or interior architecture experience.
• Minimum 5 years in developer-side, client-side, or design management work, managing consultants and client delivery.
• At least 8 years in senior design leadership with responsibility for teams, concurrent projects, consultants, and executive stakeholders.
• Track record delivering built projects from brief and concept through tender, IFC, construction, and handover.
• Experience in technical reviews, coordination, value engineering, RFIs, variations, and construction-stage design support.
• Exceptional portfolio with personal contributions clearly identified; GCC or UAE delivery and authority approval experience required.
• Experience across residential, hospitality, retail, amenity, workplace, and mixed-use projects; international experience preferred.

Education and language

• Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, Architecture, or a related field required; a master’s degree is advantageous.
• Design management, project management, or contract administration training, such as PMP, RICS, or FIDIC-based qualifications, is advantageous.
• Fluent English is essential; Arabic is an advantage.

Technical and professional competencies

• Expert command of interior design from briefing through construction-stage review, including space planning, FF&E, materials, finishes, lighting, joinery, sanitary and kitchen design, schedules, specifications, and detailing.
• Working knowledge of UAE authority requirements, building codes, accessibility, fire and life safety, and sustainability frameworks such as Al Sa’fat, Estidama, or LEED.
• Design management processes include programmes, deliverable trackers, comment and risk registers, stage-gate reviews, and document control platforms such as Aconex.
• Commercial knowledge includes consultant scopes and fees, cost plans, tender evaluation, value engineering, variations, procurement, and contract awareness including FIDIC.
• Proficiency in AutoCAD, Revit and BIM coordination, Bluebeam, Adobe Creative Suite, and MS Office and Project; familiarity with 3ds Max, V-Ray, or equivalent is sufficient to evaluate visual output.
• Strong presentation, communication, negotiation, design storytelling, decision-making, and consultant direction; awareness of AI-driven and emerging design technologies.

Desirable experience

• Branded residences, operator-led developments, luxury residential, waterfront and resort projects, and large master communities are desirable.
• Hospitality, F&B, spa and wellness, amenity, clubhouse, show apartment, sales gallery, customer experience, cultural, or museum interiors are desirable.
• Experience with recognised international design consultancies, operator technical services teams, or a comparable UAE/GCC developer is desirable.

About Arada

Application process

• The employer asks candidates to complete assessments and interviews independently without generative AI assistance.