Assistant Vice President Store Design
Hybrid (Onsite 3 days/wk)
Description:
Diversified Systems is searching for an Assistant Vice President Store Design, who will be responsible for driving the creative vision and conceptual evolution of the retail environment across different segments of the company. This role serves as the custodian of each brand's design language, ensuring consistency, innovation, and excellence across all customer touchpoints.
The AVP will lead the development and governance of the Design Standards Bible, translating brand strategy into scalable retail design guidelines while continuously evolving the customer experience. The role also leads the conceptual design of flagship stores, temporary retail formats, and strategic retail initiatives, working closely with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver commercially impactful and aesthetically compelling spaces.
Responsibilities:
- Brand Concept Development:
- Lead the conceptual evolution of retail design across the 3 brands, ensuring each maintains a distinctive yet commercially relevant identity.
- Develop innovative retail concepts that align with evolving customer expectations, brand positioning, and business strategy.
- Research global retail, hospitality, architecture, and lifestyle trends to continually elevate the design direction.
- Working closely with the procurement team on sourcing materials and delivery of concepts within the budget category.
- Design Standards & Governance:
- Own, develop, and continuously update the Design Standards Bible for all 3 brands.
- Ensure design consistency across all retail formats and markets through robust governance and review processes.
- Establish design principles, material palettes, fixture standards, spatial planning guidelines, lighting standards, graphics integration, and customer experience touchpoints.
- Concept Design Leadership:
- Lead the localized element of flagship stores from initial vision through design development.
- Develop innovative concepts for temporary stores and pop-ups
- Collaborate with Roll out SD team, real estate, procurement, project delivery, construction, VM, marketing, and brand teams to ensure concept integrity throughout execution.
- Team Leadership
- Lead and mentor a Designer and 3D Visualizer, fostering creativity, collaboration, and technical excellence.
- Review and guide design outputs including layouts, mood boards, presentations, renderings, and concept packages.
- Build a high-performing creative team that delivers best-in-class retail environments.
- Stakeholder Collaboration:
- Partner closely with Real Estate and Construction, VM, Operations and external consultants.
- Present design concepts and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
- Manage external architects, consultants, and creative agencies where required.
- Innovation & Best Practice:
- Champion innovation in retail architecture, materials, sustainability, customer journey, and experiential design.
- Benchmark against leading international retailers and luxury brands to ensure concepts remain contemporary and competitive.
- Identify opportunities to improve design processes, standards, and efficiencies.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Architecture required.
- 10-15 years of experience in architecture, retail design, or store concept development required.
- Proven experience developing retail concepts for premium or multi-brand retail environments required.
- Strong portfolio demonstrating flagship retail projects, concept design, and brand evolution required.
- Experience developing and maintaining retail design standards and brand guidelines required.
- Proficiency in AutoCAD, Vectorworks, Revit, SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Suite required.
- Strategic and conceptual thinking required.
- Retail architecture and spatial design expertise required.
- Strong visual storytelling and presentation skills required.
Desired Skills:
- Registered Architect preferred.
- Experience reviewing or directing high-quality 3D visualization preferred.
About Diversified Systems
Founded in 1990, Diversified Systems is an award-winning Technology Services corporation providing all levels of IT project consulting services nationwide. DSI is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with regional offices in the American Midwest and East Coast. We offer our consultants a number of flexible and competitive compensation benefit packages.
Diversified Systems is committed to the principles of equal employment. We are committed to complying with all federal, state, and local laws providing equal employment opportunities, and all other employment laws and regulations.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
DSI values authenticity and is committed to making sure our employees and partners are valued and respected. At DSI, we believe building a diverse culture is important because we know when people work together, we can achieve better results as a team. DSI realizes that everyone comes from various backgrounds. We celebrate these differences because our employees are our greatest asset as we strive to best meet the needs of those we serve. As part of our ongoing efforts, DSI is focused on advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion by setting high standards to continually evolve our culture. This includes but is not limited to recruiting, community involvement, client delivery, and career development.
