Designer- Furniture

Specific Responsibilities General Position Summary:

Designer is responsible for creating on-trend home furnishings for Whalen Furniture.  Designs, develops, and tracks product from concept to production.

Must work with Sales, Marketing and PD teams to understand customer needs, meet satisfaction, and sales goals.

Must ensure complete, accurate and timely concept hand-offs of design detail-oriented information as needed between Sales/ Marketing, and the company’s office in China.  Responsible for managing the product throughout the product lifecycle; Includes gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision

Must be available for frequent travel across the United States, as well as internationally. Must be able to obtain a US passport and/or travel visa.

Essential Functions/Major Responsibilities:

Market Research

• Participate in market research for product enhancements and potential new products.

• Keep up to date with market trends and competitive landscape

Product Development

• Develop accurate and detailed design direction to Asia PD team
• In- person customer presentations (supervised by Sales)
• Able to direct any project given from concept to production
• Maintain day to day communication with China division  and maintain 24 hour turn around response time
• Able to review and approve work done by Asia PD team
• Perform other related duties as assigned

Project Management

• Understand, track, communicate, and report all details of each product that is developed
• Speak knowledgably on product details and advise other departments on these details.
• Be an expert with respect to the competition.
• Drive information dissemination to ensure timelines are met
• Able to read and interpret product specifications
• Strong technical skills
• Analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to interact with and contribute to cross-functional teams
• Excellent organizational and communication skills
• Extremely detail oriented
• Ability to handle multiple simultaneous projects or tasks
• Able to travel overseas and to customer sites.

Skills and Requirements Education/Training:

• Bachelor’s degree (B. A.) or equivalent from a four year college or university in Industrial Design or related degree, or five to seven years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Must have knowledge of MS Office Outlook, Word, and Excel,
• Solidworks or comparable 3D modeling software, and Adobe Creative Suite. Knowledge of other 3D or rendering software is a plus. 

Other Qualifications

• Must be detail oriented      
• Able to work under pressure and constant deadlines
• Knowledge of  product materials and processes

Language Skills

Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, technical procedures, professional journals, and procedure manuals.  Ability to write reports and business correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers, the public or employees of organization.

Work Environment

This position is performed in a typical office environment.  Occasional work is performed at the Company warehouse or in client offices.  The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. 

Frequent  travel required.