Senior Manager Brand Design

We’re seeking a creative strategist and systems thinker to help shape the future of IHG’s lifestyle hotel brands, including Kimpton and Hotel Indigo. As Senior Manager, Brand Design, you’ll translate brand strategy into cohesive design systems that scale globally while staying locally relevant. Your remit spans spatial and experiential design, visual identity, and guest-facing expressions, ensuring every brand touchpoint feels intentional and aligned. You’ll bring clarity to complexity, guiding cross-functional teams and communicating design intent to stakeholders across design, development, and operations. Success requires creative credibility, strategic acumen, and an ability to operate fluidly between big-picture vision and fine-grain execution. 

Your day to day 

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  Define and evolve the brand design vision across IHG’s Lifestyle portfolio, in partnership with internal and external stakeholders. Translate brand positioning into design principles and standards for interiors, architecture, and visual identity. 
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  Develop and refine scalable tools, resources, and processes that guide the design of new-build hotels, conversions, and renovations, ensuring brand fidelity while allowing for localization, individuality and creative expression. 
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  Act as a strategic connector across teams (including Architecture & Design, Guest Experience, Marketing, Development, and Operations) to ensure the physical and experiential design supports overall brand and business goals. 
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  Represent the Brand Design function in key conversations with hotel owners, investors, and design partners—translating strategy into clear direction, and guiding stakeholders through the value of good design. 
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  Review and critique hotel-level design work to ensure alignment with brand standards and intent, and contribute to the development of new design assets including F&B concepts, signage, and branded collateral. 
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  Craft presentations, playbooks, and guidelines that communicate brand design intent clearly and persuasively across internal and external audiences. 
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  Provide creative leadership to a small team or individual contributors. Lead by example and contribute to a culture of design excellence and cross-disciplinary collaboration. 

What we need from you 

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  Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Brand Design, Industrial Design, Architecture, Interior Design, Brand Strategy, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience. 
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  7–10 years of progressive experience in brand design, hospitality design, brand strategy, or creative direction, ideally within a hotel brand, design agency, or developer/owner group. Prior experience working within a franchise or multi-stakeholder environment is strongly preferred. 
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  Deep understanding of design across disciplines - interior and environmental design, branding, etc. - with the ability to translate high-level brand strategy into actionable design frameworks. 
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  Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication skills. Comfortable presenting to senior executives, defending creative ideas, and influencing external stakeholders including owners and operators. 
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  Demonstrated ability to lead complex projects with cross-functional teams. Strong organizational and planning skills, with a proven ability to balance creativity, consistency, and commercial sensibility. 

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  Comfortable working with design tools and workflows (e.g., Adobe Creative Suite, visual documentation platforms). Experience developing or contributing to design guidelines, playbooks, or systems is a plus. 

Location - Our hybrid work structure is an expectation of three (3) days a week in office. This expectation may be adjusted to evolve with the changing needs of the business. 

The salary range for this role is $58,844 to $120,000. This role is also eligible for bonus pay. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance, 401K, and other benefits to employees. 

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