Job Description

JONATHAN ADLER

DESIGN DIRECTOR

Location: New York, NY

Reports to: President

Works closely with: Founder, Creative Director, Product Development, Merchandising, Sales, Planning, Marketing, and Production

About This Opportunity

Jonathan Adler is seeking a highly creative and organized Design Director to lead our product design team and oversee the development of our product portfolio.

Reporting to the President and working closely with the Founder and Creative Director, the Design Director will translate the Jonathan Adler creative vision into compelling, commercially successful collections across furniture, lighting, accessories, textiles, and other product categories.

A key responsibility of this role is to bring greater structure, clarity, and discipline to the design and product development process. The Design Director will establish clear priorities and milestones, manage the team's workflow against the product development calendar, and ensure that collections move efficiently from concept through production.

The ideal candidate combines exceptional design talent and product knowledge with strong leadership, organization, and commercial instincts.

Key Responsibilities

Creative & Product Direction

• Partner closely with the Founder and Creative Director to interpret and execute the creative vision for Jonathan Adler's product portfolio.
• Lead the conceptual development of new collections and products across furniture, lighting, accessories, textiles, and other categories.
• Translate creative direction into clear and actionable design briefs that balance brand vision, customer needs, commercial objectives, budgets, and timelines.
• Guide the design team throughout the development process, maintaining a consistently high standard of design quality and ensuring that products remain true to the Jonathan Adler point of view.
• Partner with Merchandising and Product Development to identify new opportunities and evolve existing categories and collections.

Design Process & Product Development

• Establish and actively manage a clear product design and development calendar, bringing greater structure and accountability to how the design team works.
• Set clear priorities, milestones, deliverables, and review points, ensuring projects stay on track and key stakeholders have visibility throughout the development process.
• Create a consistent process for design briefs, creative reviews, presentations, approvals, and communication with internal teams and manufacturing partners.
• Partner closely with Product Development, Merchandising, Sourcing, and Production to balance design intent with cost, manufacturing, quality, and timing.
• Review prototypes, samples, materials, and construction throughout the development process, identifying opportunities to improve product execution.
• Build strong relationships with domestic and international manufacturing partners and, where appropriate, identify new suppliers or production resources.

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Jonathan Adler product design team.
• Create clear expectations, priorities, and accountability across the department.
• Conduct regular creative and development reviews, providing clear direction and ensuring work progresses at the appropriate pace.
• Foster an organized, collaborative, and high-performing creative culture.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Industrial Design, Furniture Design, or a related discipline.
• 5–10 years of relevant product or industrial design experience, including experience leading or managing designers.
• Demonstrated experience designing and bringing furniture, lighting, home accessories, or other premium consumer products to market.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional design ability, creative judgment, and product thinking.
• Strong understanding of materials, manufacturing processes, construction techniques, and product development.
• Experience working directly with factories and suppliers.
• Strong leadership, communication, presentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to balance creative ambition with practical considerations including cost, manufacturing, quality, and timing.

Preferred

• Experience working with a premium furniture, interiors, home, or lifestyle brand.
• Experience across multiple product categories, particularly furniture, lighting, and home accessories.
• Existing relationships with domestic or international manufacturers and suppliers.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Design Director will bring greater clarity, organization, and momentum to Jonathan Adler's design department. They will build and lead a strong design team, establish a disciplined product development process, and ensure that the right projects are moving forward at the right time.

Working closely with the Founder and Creative Director, they will help turn creative ideas into beautifully designed, commercially successful products—while creating the structure and accountability necessary to consistently bring those products to market.

Salary: The anticipated base salary is $175k-$225k annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, internal equity, and location.

This position description is not intended to be and should not be construed as an all-inclusive list of responsibilities, skills or working conditions associated with this position. While this description is intended to accurately reflect the position's activities and requirements, management reserves the right to modify, add or remove duties as necessary. The compensation package is dependent on a number of factors, including, for example, experience, education, market data, and business needs.