Design Manager

Thank you for your interest in Charcoalblue! We are looking for a Design Manager to join our growing Charcoalblue Experience Design & Strategy (XDS) team. You will join the team as an Experience Consultant with a focus on Design Management, based in the Eastern Time Zone of the US. This is a permanent, full-time position.

To apply, please complete the online application form. A cover letter is also required to be considered for this role. In your letter, please share what excites you about this position and why you’d like to join the Charcoalblue team. In addition, please respond to the following prompts:

1. Describe your experience in design management or client representation related to the design of events or experiential spaces or how your experience in architecture or events could be applied to this field.

2. Share how your professional background aligns with the required experience in either event management and operations, or the design and construction of spaces related to the performing arts, events, executive briefing centers, experiential design, or hospitality and leisure.

Please also include links to any personal or professional work you would like us to review as part of your application.

Interviews will be conducted remotely (via Microsoft Teams), starting in August 2026. The time and date will be confirmed for shortlisted candidates.

Team Overview

Charcoalblue’s Experience Design & Strategy team is a dedicated business unit within the Charcoalblue group that applies our expertise gained from working with globally renowned cultural organizations to the workplace, sports, exhibition, and events markets. Working with world-leading companies, Charcoalblue works with any business looking to create spaces for collaboration and storytelling that want to deliver an enhanced experience for staff, visitors, guests, and spectators. Projects include hybrid workplaces, one-off event spaces, sports facilities, broadcast studios, conference centres, and ecosystems across entire buildings and campuses. Our Experience Design and Strategy team includes specialist Design Managers, Design Strategists, Experience Designers, Digital Design Consultants, Design Coordinators, Creative and Technical Designers. With an even vaster array of multidisciplinary design and management skillsets across the wider Charcoalblue team. We often work closely with single clients and are fully embedded into their workflow and teams. 

We’re seeking an Experience Consultant specializing in Design Management to guide design and delivery of events, executive briefings, and collaboration spaces across sectors, working embedded within a client team as part of Charcoalblue’s Design Management and Creative consultancy. This client-facing role involves translating client vision into actionable briefs, managing stakeholders, producing documentation and visuals covering user journeys, master planning, and guest experience, and acting as subject-matter expert within a self-directed, managed-services environment. This position is ideal for a communicative, self-motivated problem solver comfortable with ambiguity.

Candidates must be available for daily meetings during Eastern Time Zone business hours. While location flexibility exists within the time zone, a US East Coast based candidate is strongly preferred, within relatively easy travel distance (occasional as needed) to existing Charcoalblue offices in either New York or Chicago.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide subject matter expertise and design guidance for Events and Experiences spaces

• Ensure the architectural design of Event, Collaboration, and Executive Briefing Venues, Activations, and Support Spaces are optimized for the overall guest and user experience.

• Develop client requirements documentation for new event and experience spaces and produce briefs for the architectural design team, including architectural requirements, operational considerations and program constraints.

• Develop, document, analyze, and present user journey studies, and wider strategic visioning studies

• Deliver and maintain progress reports and presentations to key stakeholders and partners as required using written and drawn documentation to communicate stakeholder requirements, project aims, and design intent.

• Act as a key point of contact for client stakeholder teams, project managers, and the design teams to ensure accurate communication between all parties.

• Be a trusted, friendly,…