Interior Design Project Manager

Interior Project Manager

The Interior Project Manager serves as BHC's Owner's Representative for all interior design decisions across assigned luxury hospitality projects. This role is responsible for managing external interior design consultants, championing BHC's design vision, and ensuring that every interior decision reflects the quality, guest experience, and long-term ownership values that define BHC properties.

This position emphasizes design integrity, lessons-learned thinking, cross-disciplinary coordination, and a deep understanding of how interior decisions affect guest experience and asset durability. The Interior Project Manager is the owner's voice on interior design matters, working in close partnership with the Director of Design and broader Design and Construction team.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Serve as BHC's owner's voice for all interior design decisions on assigned projects.
• Protect BHC's interests in design quality, material selection, guest experience, and long-term durability of interior finishes and furnishings.
• Direct and manage external interior design consultants, ensuring deliverables align with BHC's vision, budget, and schedule.
• Uphold BHC's standards for design excellence, integrity, and the guest experience in every project interaction.
• Review all interior design drawings, specifications, and submittals at every stage — schematic design through construction documents — providing thorough, actionable written feedback.
• Evaluate design proposals against BHC's brand standards, operational requirements, constructability, and budget — flagging conflicts and recommending solutions.
• Manage the drawing review and comment cycle, tracking open items and ensuring timely resolution by the design team.
• Ensure design intent is met during construction and provide proactive solutions during installs.
• Maintain and actively apply a library of lessons learned from prior BHC projects — including material performance, detailing failures, specification gaps, and vendor issues.
• Proactively brief external design teams on BHC's institutional knowledge and standards at project outset, and reinforce throughout the design process.
• Continuously document new lessons learned and contribute to BHC's evolving standards for interior design and specification.
• Collect, consolidate, and clearly communicate owner feedback to external design teams, ensuring comments are specific, prioritized, and actionable.
• Manage the owner review and approval process across design milestones, tracking outstanding decisions and keeping the design process on schedule.
• Facilitate alignment between internal stakeholders — including Operations, Asset Management, and Construction — and external design consultants on key design decisions.
• Champion interior design quality, material specification, and finish detailing that reflects BHC's standards for luxury, durability, and guest experience.
• Ensure interior design solutions meet BHC standards — not just minimum brand requirements or designer preference.
• Participate in sample and mock-up reviews, FF&E presentations, and material approvals — providing clear owner direction at each milestone.
• Partner closely with the Project Director, Director of Design, Operations, and Asset Management teams to ensure interior design decisions support buildability, operations, and asset performance.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for external interior design consultants throughout the project lifecycle.
• Coordinate interior design decisions with construction sequencing, procurement lead times, and FF&E delivery schedules.
• Prepare and deliver clear design status reports and decision logs to the Director of Design and Project Director.
• Oversee the FF&E design and specification process, coordinating with designers, procurement teams, and vendors to ensure selections align with BHC's standards and budget.
• Track owner-provided items (OPI) and owner-furnished, contractor-installed (OFCI) items through procurement, delivery, and installation.
• Manage interior design closeout activities, including as-built documentation, material submittals, warranty records, and attic stock coordination.
• Coordinate the interior punch list and installation review with the construction team to ensure a seamless transition to operations.
• Conduct post-opening design evaluations, capturing lessons learned for application on future BHC projects.
• Maintain a culture of accountability, respect, and design excellence across all internal and external team interactions.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Interior Design.
• 5–10 years of interior design project management experience, with exposure to owner's representative or client-side roles.
• Strong command of contracts, budgeting, scheduling, and risk management.
• Experience managing external design consultants and directing design from the owner's side.
• Demonstrated experience in luxury hospitality, resort, or high-end mixed-use interior projects.
• Familiarity with FF&E procurement, vendor management, and owner-furnished item coordination.
• Experience working with or alongside luxury-branded or independent hospitality operators.
• Working knowledge of construction documents and the ability to read drawings across architectural, interior, and MEP disciplines.
• NCIDQ certification or equivalent.
• Visually literate and design-fluent, with a genuine appreciation for craft, material quality, and spatial experience.
• Confident owner's voice — able to give clear, constructive direction to designers without overstepping into the creative process.
• Organized and detail-oriented, with strong judgment on when to decide independently and when to escalate.
• Respected collaborator to designers, operators, and construction teams — able to bridge the creative and the practical.
• Committed to design quality, long-term durability, and the guest experience as the ultimate measure of success.
• High integrity and a genuine sense of ownership over every design decision made on behalf of BHC.

Performance Expectations:

Within the first 3–6 months, success looks like:

• Design reviews are progressing with clear owner direction, timely feedback, and measurably fewer design coordination issues.
• Trusted relationships with external design consultants, with BHC's voice clearly felt in design outcomes.
• Owner feedback was consolidated and communicated effectively, with design teams responding with clarity and accountability.
• Interior design and FF&E decisions are made on schedule, with operations teams feeling well-prepared at turnover.

Ongoing success is measured by:

• Interior design quality that consistently reflects BHC's standards and reduces post-opening punch items.
• Durability and longevity of interior finishes, materials, and FF&E selections.
• A growing, well-documented body of lessons learned that benefits future BHC projects.
• Strong working relationships with external design consultants, with BHC direction consistently respected and reflected in deliverables.
• Confidence from the Director of Design, VP of Design and Construction, and BHC leadership that interior design decisions reflect ownership values and long-term intent.

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a colleague to successfully perform the essential functions of this job:

• Ability to work at a computer for extended periods.
• Occasionally lift up to 15 pounds.
• Communicate clearly in written and verbal formats.

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

BHC is an equal employment opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on merit and business needs, and are not based on race, color, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), citizenship status, national origin, ancestry, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, marital status, veteran status, uniformed service, political affiliation, genetic information, or any other factor or characteristic protected by applicable law. BHC participates in E-Verify.