Senior Design Director - Specialized Environments

**NYC strongly preferred / ability to work hybrid in a Jack US office preferred**

The Senior Design Director (Specialized Environments) will play a key leadership role within the Specialized Environments practice, helping lead the creative development, design direction, and execution of high-profile environments across broadcast, branded experiences, workplace, sports, entertainment, cultural, and permanent spatial experiences.

This role requires more than strong design talent. We are looking for a senior creative leader who can guide complex projects, build client confidence, mentor design teams, and help shape the future growth of the Specialized Environments group. The ideal candidate brings a strong point of view, a deep understanding of environmental and spatial design, and the ability to translate brand, content, audience, and business objectives into compelling physical experiences. They should be comfortable moving from early strategy and concept development through design detailing, presentation, and execution.

This person should be able to lead in the room, inspire the team, partner across disciplines, and help elevate the quality, clarity, and ambition of the work.

Key Responsibilities

Creative Leadership

• Lead the design vision for complex environmental and broadcast design projects from concept through design development.
• Create and guide strong design concepts that connect brand, storytelling, audience experience, and physical space.
• Bring a high level of taste, design judgment, and spatial thinking to the work.
• Push creative ideas beyond expected solutions while staying grounded in client goals, schedule, budget, and execution realities.
• Help establish and maintain the creative bar for the Specialized Environments practice.

Project Leadership

• Lead design workstreams across multiple projects, from initial brief through presentation and production handoff.
• Partner with strategy, creative, account, project management, production, fabrication, technical, and vendor teams.
• Guide the development of mood boards, concept narratives, plans, sketches, elevations, material direction, renderings, presentations, and design documentation.
• Ensure design intent is clearly communicated and protected throughout the process.
• Identify challenges early and help drive solutions with the internal team and external partners.

Client Leadership

• Present work clearly and confidently to clients and senior stakeholders.
• Translate complex design thinking into clear, compelling narratives.
• Build trust with clients through strong communication, creative confidence, and thoughtful problem-solving.
• Receive and respond to client feedback while maintaining the integrity of the design idea.
• Support new business opportunities, pitches, and capabilities presentations as needed.

Team Leadership and Mentorship

• Mentor designers and help grow the creative capabilities of the team.
• Provide clear, constructive feedback that improves the work and supports individual growth.
• Help organize design reviews, internal critiques, and creative development sessions.
• Support a collaborative studio culture built around curiosity, accountability, craft, and shared learning.
• Serve as a senior creative partner to the Head of Specialized Environments and other design leaders.

Practice Growth

• Help expand the Specialized Environments offering across broadcast, sports, entertainment, brand experience, workplace, cultural, retail, hospitality, and immersive environments.
• Bring fresh thinking, industry awareness, and a point of view on where the practice can grow.
• Contribute to thought leadership, case studies, capabilities decks, and internal initiatives.
• Help identify new creative opportunities with existing and future clients.

Ideal Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in environmental design, experiential design, architecture, interior design, scenic design, broadcast design, branded environments, or a related field.
• Experience leading complex spatial design projects from concept through execution.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating environmental storytelling, spatial design, materiality, lighting, graphics, and brand integration.
• Experience presenting to clients and senior stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or leading designers.
• Ability to work across multiple project types and scales.
• Strong understanding of design process, production realities, fabrication, and buildability.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, collaborative agency environment.

Qualifications / Key Skills:

• Excellent spatial design ability.
• Strong presentation, storytelling, and client-facing skills.
• Experience leading both people and projects while guiding creative direction.
• Strong interest in helping build a growing practice.
• Strong collaboration across strategy, creative, account, production, and technical teams.
• Comfort with ambiguity and complex project dynamics.
• Strong communication, organization, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to explain the “why” behind the work.
• Curiosity across different types of environments.
• Ability to push creative ideas while understanding execution.
• Strong eye for detail, proportion, materiality, lighting, and finish.
• Ability to balance creative ambition with practical execution.
• Nice to haves: Drafting in Vectorworks or AutoCAD. Rendering skills in Cinema 4D or 3D.

What Success Looks Like

The Senior Design Director will help strengthen the Specialized Environments practice by elevating the design work, improving team leadership, and increasing client confidence. Success in this role means:

• Clients trust this person as a senior creative lead.
• The team feels supported, challenged, and clear on direction.
• The work becomes stronger, more thoughtful, and more ownable.
• Projects move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
• The practice becomes better positioned for growth across multiple categories.
• This person helps reduce pressure on senior leadership by owning creative direction, client conversations, and team development at a high level.

The Senior Design Director should help move Specialized Environments forward. The right person should not only be able to design, but also lead, mentor, present, collaborate, and help grow the practice. We need someone who can strengthen the current team, support high-profile client work, and help expand the group into broader categories of environmental design.

Last but not least, we believe in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Jack Morton is an equal opportunity employer; we strongly value diversity at our companies. We do not discriminate on race, religion, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by law. 

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Requisition #: 2221 (this position may be posted more than once under different tiles for SEO, but there's only one position open)