Job Description
We are looking for a Head of Design & Systems for a Furniture Solutions company based in Dubai.
Location – Dubai, UAE
Salary – 45,000 – 55,000 AED/month
Qualifications:
- Proven senior leadership experience in design, product systems, or design transformation within large-scale furniture, kitchen, interiors, modular systems, or product-driven retail organizations.
- Strong expertise in design systems development, including standards, design libraries, modular frameworks, technical rules, and repeatable design processes.
- Demonstrated experience in product architecture and modular systems, with the ability to build scalable product platforms, component systems, and design families.
- Experience leading client-facing design operations, translating customer requirements into technical, manufacturable, and installable solutions.
- Strong background in product design and development, including collaboration with product architects, industrial designers, engineers, prototyping teams, and research functions.
- Solid understanding of design-to-manufacturing integration, including how design decisions affect production efficiency, cost, quality, lead time, and scalability.
- Experience in design-to-installation integration, ensuring solutions are practical for site execution and installation efficiency.
- Exposure to digital transformation initiatives, including design software, configurators, automation tools, computational design, or technology-enabled workflows.
- Track record in organizational transformation, including building or restructuring teams, governance models, operating standards, and scalable processes.
- Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to align design, sales, manufacturing, installation, operations, product development, and technology teams.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the company’s transition into a design-led systems organization, positioning design as a driver of scalability, customer experience, product development, and operational excellence.
- Define and implement the future design operating model, including structure, workflows, governance, standards, and decision-making processes.
- Oversee the client-facing design function, ensuring customer requirements are translated into accurate, manufacturable, installable, and commercially viable solutions.
- Lead the product design and development function, including scalable product architecture, modular systems, component libraries, and product standards.
- Build and manage the design systems and operations capability, including computational design, standards, design QA, automation systems, process optimization, and software integration.
- Establish design standards, technical libraries, templates, documentation frameworks, and rule-based design logic to reduce manual work and improve accuracy.
- Strengthen the connection between design, manufacturing, and installation to improve efficiency, reduce rework, and support scalability.
- Support the development and business integration of an in-house design and operational software platform connecting design, manufacturing, and installation.
- Work closely with internal stakeholders and technology partners to define business requirements, workflows, automation rules, and user needs for digital tools and platform development.
- Build structured feedback loops from customers, production, installation, and operations into design improvement and product development.
- Lead, develop, and align multi-disciplinary teams across client design, product design, technical design, product engineering, design systems, and design operations.
- Reduce dependence on individual knowledge by embedding expertise into systems, standards, documentation, and repeatable processes.
- Drive a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration, and execution discipline across the design organization.
About the Role:
The Head of Design & Systems will lead the transformation of the company from a product-led organization into a design-led systems organization.
This role is responsible for building a scalable design function that connects customer experience, product architecture, modular systems, manufacturing compatibility, installation efficiency, automation, digital configurators, and design standards.
The position will oversee three major divisions:
- Client Design Division
- Product Design & Development Division
- Design Systems & Operations Division
The role is critical in helping the business move away from repeated manual design work, excessive customization complexity, and dependence on individual experience toward a more structured, scalable, and systemized model.
The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping the future design organization, product architecture framework, operational model, and proprietary software ecosystem, while ensuring design becomes a core business engine for long-term growth.