Interior Design Project Manager

Design Project Manager Hartford Home Design is seeking an experienced Design Project Manager to lead residential interior design projects from kickoff through design completion, procurement, and construction handoff. This role sits at the intersection of interior design, project management, client management, and procurement. You do not need to be the primary creative visionary, but you do need strong design knowledge and judgment. You should be able to look at a project, understand where it stands, recognize what is missing, determine what needs to happen next, and keep the team and client moving toward completion. The Design Project Manager owns the process, timeline, accountability, and quality of design project delivery, working closely with our Principal Designer/Creative Director and Technical Designer. Key Responsibilities Project & Timeline Management Own schedules, milestones, deliverables, and priorities across multiple residential design projects. Move projects consistently through established design phases and approval gates. Anticipate dependencies, bottlenecks, missing information, and potential delays. Establish weekly priorities and coordinate the Technical Designer's production workload. Keep projects within contracted scope and design-hour budgets. Identify scope creep, schedule risk, and budget concerns early and recommend solutions. Maintain accurate project status and ensure commitments don't fall through the cracks. Design Development & Quality Assurance Translate the Principal Designer's creative direction into an organized design-development process. Guide development of furnishings, fixtures, finishes, materials, and other project selections. Review design work for completeness, appropriateness, scale, proportion, functionality, budget, and alignment with approved design direction. Review presentations, specifications, drawings, and trade documentation before they move forward. Provide feedback and direction to the Technical Designer. Know when work is ready to advance—and when it isn't. Identify the decisions that genuinely require Principal Designer input rather than escalating routine issues. Client Management Proactively manage client decisions, approvals, expectations, and deadlines. Ensure meetings have a clear purpose, agenda, required preparation, and desired outcome. Lead appropriate client meetings and project-management discussions. Document decisions and ensure they are communicated throughout the project. Communicate the schedule, budget, or scope implications of delayed decisions and requested changes. Create an organized, proactive client experience throughout the design process. Procurement & Vendor Management Oversee procurement from approved selection through delivery and installation. Coordinate specifications, pricing, quantities, lead times, ordering, and vendor information. Maintain visibility into order status, backorders, damages, replacements, receiving, and delivery. Develop strong working knowledge of HHD's preferred vendors and resources. Identify appropriate alternatives when products are unavailable, delayed, inappropriate, or over budget. Ensure procurement remains aligned with the overall project schedule. Design-to-Construction Coordination Ensure projects are sufficiently resolved and documented before construction handoff. Coordinate completion of drawings, trade documents, specifications, selections, and outstanding decisions. Participate in preconstruction reviews and communicate design intent to the construction team. Coordinate resolution of design questions that arise during construction. What Success Looks Like You can look across a portfolio of active projects and quickly explain where each project stands, what needs to happen next, who owns it, when it is due, and what could prevent it from moving forward. You bring structure to a creative process without unnecessarily slowing it down. You have enough design experience to recognize when a selection, drawing, presentation, or proposed solution doesn't make sense—and enough judgment to ask the right questions rather than simply moving a task along. You bring the Principal Designer well-prepared decisions and recommendations rather than problems to untangle. Most importantly, projects move predictably through design while maintaining the quality and client experience expected from Hartford Home Design. Qualifications Professional experience in residential interior design, architecture, design-build, or a closely related field. Strong understanding of interior design principles, furnishings, materials, finishes, fixtures, specifications, and residential construction. Demonstrated experience managing multiple projects, timelines, and competing priorities. Strong design judgment with the ability to review and provide feedback on another designer's work. Experience working directly with residential clients. Experience with procurement, sourcing, and vendor management. Ability to understand drawings, specifications, and technical design documentation. Strong organizational, planning, and follow-through skills. Ability to balance design quality with schedule, budget, and scope. Strong written and verbal communication. Comfortable providing direction, holding others accountable, and making independent decisions. Who We're Looking For You are proactive, organized, curious, and comfortable taking ownership. You naturally think several steps ahead. When someone tells you something is delayed, your instinct is to understand why, what it affects, and what needs to happen to resolve it. You care about getting things done—but not at the expense of getting them done correctly. You know the difference between managing a checklist and managing a project. Team Structure The Design Project Manager reports to the Principal Designer / Creative Director and works closely with the Technical Designer, Operations/Executive Coordinator, construction team, vendors, and trade partners. The Principal Designer owns overall creative direction and key design decisions. The Design Project Manager owns turning that direction into an organized, well-managed project that moves from concept to completion. Pay: $50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year Experience: Project management: 4 years (Preferred) Interior Design: 3 years (Preferred) Work Location: In person