Design Manager - Brand Experience

Your Role

Gensler’s Brand Experience Design Studio brings together strategy, storytelling, design, and technology to create immersive, inhabitable experiences that build lasting emotional connections. Our work spans innovation centers, experience centers, exhibitions, branded environments, and digital-physical ecosystems, delivered through highly collaborative, multidisciplinary teams.

We are seeking a Design Manager and client relationship leader to help drive experiential projects from vision through delivery. This role is ideal for a proactive, organized professional with experience managing complex programs—someone who thrives at the intersection of creative ambition, client partnership, and operational excellence.

What You Will Do

• Lead client relationships to deliver strategic, experiential, and design excellence while maintaining trust, clarity, and momentum.

• Own overall project responsibility, including client satisfaction, scope, quality, schedule, and financial performance.

• Manage and coordinate multidisciplinary teams across multiple concurrent projects, including designers, strategists, technologists, architects, and external partners.

• Develop and oversee project scopes, work plans, staffing plans, and budgets; actively manage risk and change.

• Track and report on project financials, resourcing, and performance against goals.

• Serve as a key liaison between studios, disciplines, and external vendors to ensure seamless integration and delivery.

• Contribute to proposal development, project pursuits, and the strategic growth of client relationships.

• Support new business development through clear communication of vision, value, and approach.

Your Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in a design consultancy, agency, architecture/interiors, or related field, with 5+ years managing multidisciplinary creative teams and complex client engagements.

• Demonstrated experience delivering large-scale, multidisciplinary experiential projects, such as innovation centers, experience centers, exhibitions, or brand-led environments.

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant discipline.

• Strong client-facing presence with excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills.

• Highly organized and detail-oriented; able to balance creative ambition with budgets, schedules, and resources.

• Proven ability to lead teams, manage stakeholders, and navigate competing priorities with confidence and diplomacy.

• Experience developing proposals, defining scopes, and supporting business development efforts.

• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Word and Excel; familiarity with project management tools and processes.

• Comfortable reading architectural drawings and collaborating within architectural workflows (a plus).

**The base salary will be estimated between $120-150k plus bonuses and benefits and contingent on relevant experience.

Life at Gensler

At Gensler, we are as committed to enjoying life as we are to delivering best-in-class design. From curated art exhibits to internal design competitions to “Well-being Week,” our offices reflect our people’s diverse interests.

We encourage every person at Gensler to lead a healthy and balanced life. Our comprehensive benefits include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer a 401k, profit sharing, employee stock ownership, and twice annual bonus opportunities. Our annual base salary range has been established based on local markets.

As part of the firm’s commitment to licensure and professional development, Gensler offers reimbursement for certain professional licenses and associated renewals and exam fees. In addition, we reimburse tuition for certain eligible programs or classes. We view our professional development programs as strategic investments in our future.