Designer

Designer

Nando’s is on a journey to Create Lasting Happiness, making a difference to the lives of our People, our Customers and the Communities we work in. The Property team play a pivotal role in designing, delivering and maintaining beautiful restaurant spaces to host this happiness. We place huge value in getting the look and feel of our restaurants just right in order that our customers and Nandocas get the most out of their time there. We work very closely with a number of industry leading Architects and Interior Designers to deliver these beautiful restaurant spaces.

About the role:

The Designer’s primary role will be to work daily with our architects and designers to manage the design process of projects from inception to completion. The number of projects will vary through the year, but they will focus on small to medium sized refurbishment schemes within the national existing estate. These schemes will be managed day to day by our project managers, however the Design Lead will remain close for the full duration providing continued support as and when required.

You will find yourself making daily creative decisions with our design experts to build on and enhance our beautiful spaces. You will have some responsibility to protect our African heritage and help us build on our special brand as it evolves and moves forward.

Key Responsibilities & Expectations:

• With direction from the Head of Design you will brief the project to designers and PMs on site and be responsible for agreeing revised layouts, presenting a concept design, inputting into the drawing package, checking in on the onsite developments and assisting with the dressing of the space at the end.
• Direct engagement with Nando’s fixtures and fittings suppliers in South Africa, the African art procurement process and restaurant photography.
• Attend design presentations with the Designers to sign off the concepts with key Nando’s design stakeholders.
• Document, track and circulate the design progress of all live design projects within the property function and wider stakeholders.
• Maintain a tight collaborative relationship with all project stakeholders. Day to day this will be with architects, designers, project managers, Head of Design and our operations team.
• Manage and maintain design guidance and standards documents for all PMs and external consultants to work to.
• In time this role could include internal design for small schemes. This would involve sketch development, the production of visuals for sign off and even cad plans for procurement.
• Support wider stakeholders such as Brand and Procurement to implement changes within restaurants with a design lens, while protecting the unique individuality of each interior.
• Adhoc assistance to the Head of Design as and when required.

Key Stakeholders:

• Head of Design
• Property & Sustainability Director
• Head of Construction
• Head of the Existing Estate
• Operations Team
• External Designers & Architects

The candidate should possess / be:

• MUST have a relevant design degree (or equivalent) and have at least 3 years experience in industry
• Cad & visualizing software skills for prestation & drawing packs
• Have a good eye for design detailing
• Passionate about design and getting the best from a space
• The unique skill of being able to guide a designer without actually designing for them
• Have a quest for perfection, but have a practical approach to achieving it
• Able to flex a design to achieve an agreed brief and budget
• Motivated and have a positive energy and outlook
• The drive to see things through to completion
• Open-minded & collaborative
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to control, plan and organise
• Interpersonal warmth and adaptability when working in project teams
• Able to manage own time and operate without close supervision
• Ideally be based in the South of England within easy reach of London, regular travel will be required to our restaurants and some time in our Putney office

Our candidate should be looking for:

• Lots of variety in a working week, no two days will be the same
• Opportunities to solve problems and work with creative people
• Opportunities to travel around the UK working on different projects
• An environment which is relaxed and informal, whilst highly driven and ambitious
• A business that seeks to support every employee to be at their best, and encourage individuality