Interior Design Project Manager

Premier Project Management · United States

Project Leadership & Management

• Own and manage assigned interior design projects from project kickoff through construction, installation, and closeout.
• Establish project scope, deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, and expectations at project kickoff.
• Develop, maintain, and actively manage project schedules, identifying critical path items, dependencies, and potential impacts to project delivery.
• Manage multiple projects and competing priorities while maintaining quality and meeting established deadlines.
• Monitor project progress and proactively identify, communicate, and resolve issues that may impact scope, schedule, budget, or quality.
• Maintain clear and organized project documentation, including schedules, meeting notes, action items, decisions, revisions, and approvals.
• Lead regular internal project reviews to ensure project teams remain aligned with scope, schedule, budget, and design objectives.
• Take accountability for project deliverables and ensure commitments made to clients and internal stakeholders are met.
• Coordinate with Premier Project Management and Purchasing teams to ensure the ID scope and deliverables align with overall project requirements and schedules.

Client & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary day-to-day interior design point of contact for assigned clients and projects.
• Establish and maintain strong, professional relationships with ownership groups, hotel operators, brand representatives, and other project stakeholders.
• Lead client meetings, design presentations, project updates, and design review sessions.
• Communicate project status, decisions, risks, schedule impacts, and next steps clearly and proactively.
• Anticipate client needs and communicate potential issues before they become problems.
• Build client confidence through responsiveness, accountability, organization, and consistent follow-through.
• Serve as a trusted design advisor by providing informed recommendations and solutions while appropriately challenging decisions when necessary.
• Coordinate and track brand design reviews and approvals throughout the project lifecycle.

Design Leadership

• Lead the interior design process from concept development through construction and installation.
• Establish and maintain the design vision in alignment with client objectives, brand standards, project scope, budget, schedule, and operational requirements.
• Direct the development of space plans, concepts, material palettes, FF&E selections, presentations, and design documentation.
• Review design work produced by the project team for quality, accuracy, completeness, and consistency with the approved design direction.
• Ensure design decisions are appropriately documented and communicated to all relevant project stakeholders.
• Research, evaluate, and select furniture, fabrics, finishes, and architectural materials while maintaining familiarity with local and national vendors.
• Consider durability, performance standards, brand requirements, operational requirements, and lifecycle considerations when developing design solutions.
• Maintain a working understanding of hospitality design principles across varying project types and levels of complexity.

Drawing & Documentation Management

• Own the interior design drawing production process and ensure all ID documentation is complete, coordinated, accurate, and issued in accordance with the project schedule.
• Establish drawing production responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations for the project team.
• Review drawings and documentation at each project milestone to ensure design intent, dimensions, materials, FF&E, and architectural elements are accurately represented.
• Coordinate interior design drawings with architectural drawings and other consultant documentation.
• Identify and resolve drawing conflicts, inconsistencies, omissions, and coordination issues before documents are issued.
• Oversee preparation of plans, elevations, reflected ceiling plans, millwork drawings, details, finish plans, furniture plans, and other interior design documentation as required.
• Ensure drawing revisions and consultant comments are properly incorporated and tracked.
• Coordinate document issuance and maintain organized, accurate project files throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure construction documentation supports successful project execution and minimizes ambiguity, rework, and RFIs.

Consultant Coordination

• Lead and manage coordination between the Interior Design team and all applicable project consultants.
• Serve as the primary ID point of contact for MEP, lighting, kitchen, technology, landscape, specialty consultants, and other project consultants as applicable.
• Establish consultant coordination requirements, deadlines, deliverables, and responsibilities.
• Coordinate consultant information with the ID design and documentation process to ensure alignment with the overall project.
• Review consultant documentation for impacts to interior design intent, space planning, FF&E, finishes, ceilings, lighting, millwork, and other ID elements.
• Identify conflicts between consultant documentation and interior design requirements and lead the resolution process.
• Conduct or participate in regular consultant coordination meetings and ensure action items are documented and resolved.
• Ensure consultant information is incorporated into the appropriate ID documentation before project milestones and issuances.
• Coordinate with Architecture to ensure seamless integration between architectural and interior design documentation.
• Escalate unresolved coordination issues when necessary and drive issues toward resolution.

Budget & Scope Management

• Review and understand project scope, budget, and contractual requirements at the beginning of each project.
• Monitor design decisions and deliverables against established project budgets and scope.
• Coordinate with Purchasing and Project Management to ensure FF&E and design selections remain aligned with approved budgets.
• Identify potential scope changes, additional services, or budget impacts and communicate them proactively.
• Assist in developing FF&E budgets, quantity take-offs, and other project cost information as required.
• Evaluate design alternatives and provide recommendations that balance design intent, cost, durability, and project requirements.

FF&E & Specifications

• Oversee development of FF&E selections, specifications, schedules, and documentation.
• Ensure FF&E specifications are complete, accurate, coordinated, and aligned with approved design direction and brand requirements.
• Develop and maintain FF&E specifications
• Coordinate FF&E information with Purchasing and other project stakeholders.
• Review specifications for completeness, accuracy, and consistency with drawings and approved selections.
• Support the implementation of Premier's standard specifications, brand standards, and emerging technology tools to improve project efficiency and quality.

Construction Administration & Installation

• Lead or oversee interior design construction administration activities throughout the construction phase.
• Review submittals, shop drawings, samples, and RFIs for compliance with design intent and project requirements.
• Respond to RFIs and coordinate responses with Architecture, consultants, Project Management, and other stakeholders as required.
• Participate in site visits, construction meetings, pre-bid meetings, and project inspections.
• Identify field conditions or construction issues that may impact design intent and coordinate appropriate solutions.
• Participate in FF&E installation and styling activities as required.
• Assist with punch list development, resolution, and project closeout.
• Ensure design intent is maintained through construction and installation.

Team Leadership & Development

• Direct and coordinate the Interior Design team assigned to each project.
• Clearly communicate project priorities, responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations to team members.
• Review team workload and proactively identify resource or scheduling concerns.
• Provide guidance, mentorship, and constructive feedback to designers and junior team members.
• Promote accountability and ownership within the project team.
• Foster a collaborative environment between Interior Design, Architecture, Purchasing, and Project Management.
• Contribute to department initiatives, process improvements, design discussions, and professional development activities.

• Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, or Architecture.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional interior design experience, preferably with hospitality or multifamily projects, with demonstrated experience leading projects.
• Experience managing projects through multiple phases from concept through construction and installation.
• Experience leading consultant coordination and interior design documentation.
• NCIDQ certification strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage project scope, schedules, budgets, deliverables, and multiple deadlines.
• Strong client management and communication skills with the ability to establish credibility and trust with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Demonstrated accountability, personal responsibility, and a proactive approach to project leadership.
• Strong understanding of hospitality design principles, brand standards, and project delivery processes.
• Strong knowledge of interior construction methods, building systems, accessibility requirements, and applicable building codes.
• Strong understanding of drawing production and coordination between Interior Design, Architecture, and project consultants.
• Advanced proficiency in AutoCAD and Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign), as well as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Experience preparing design presentations and visual materials using PowerPoint, Photoshop, and InDesign.
• Experience with FF&E specification platforms such as SPEXX or similar.
• Experience working with hospitality brand standards and approval processes.
• Ability to review and analyze project budgets and make design recommendations within established financial parameters.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to lead meetings, facilitate decisions, resolve conflicts, and drive projects toward completion.
• Strong verbal, written, and visual communication skills.