Recruitment
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Swindon, Wiltshire | Full time, permanent
£40,000 to £50,000 depending on experience + performance related bonus
Some people manage projects. Others take ownership of them.
We’re looking for the latter.
At Hobsons Choice, we design and deliver exceptional kitchens and interiors for private clients. Our projects bring together beautifully designed furniture, appliances, stone, specialist products and skilled installation, often alongside architects, interior designers, contractors and other professionals.
There are a lot of moving parts. Our job is to make sure it never feels that way to the client.
By the time a project reaches you, one of our designers may have spent many months developing the design and building a trusted relationship with the client. Your role is to become part of that relationship and help carry it all the way through to completion.
You’ll take ownership of the programme and procurement: making sure the right products are ordered, checked and available at the right time; coordinating suppliers and deliveries; anticipating what our installers will need; identifying problems before they become problems; and keeping everyone informed along the way.
The Role
You’ll manage a number of live projects simultaneously, taking responsibility from design handover through procurement, installation, completion and final sign off.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Programme & procurement: managing project programmes, placing and checking orders, coordinating supplier lead times, deliveries, site readiness and installation schedules.
- Project review: reviewing drawings, specifications and project information to identify requirements, dependencies and potential risks before they become problems.
- Collaboration & communication: working closely with designers, installers, suppliers, contractors and clients to keep projects coordinated and communication clear.
- Site readiness & compliance: carrying out or coordinating site readiness checks and ensuring relevant Health & Safety requirements, risk assessments, method statements and project documentation are in place.
- Commercial discipline: maintaining accurate records of decisions, approvals, variations, project changes and costs where relevant.
- Client care: providing clear, proactive communication to clients throughout their project and managing expectations when things change.
- Snagging & completion: managing remedial work and outstanding actions through to proper completion and final sign off.
- Process improvement: helping us strengthen and refine our project delivery processes, improving consistency and developing a repeatable way of working that can ultimately support a wider project management team.
Our designers remain responsible for design intent and specification. The Senior Project Manager provides the programme, procurement, coordination and structure around that design to ensure it is successfully delivered.
That distinction matters to us. This isn’t about taking a project away from the designer; it’s about working alongside them and adding another layer of confidence and expertise for the client.
The 1% matters to us
Lots of companies can design a good kitchen. Lots can install one.
What we’re interested in is the extra 1%.
The detail someone notices that others might miss.
The phone call made before the client needs to ask.
The potential problem spotted three weeks before it reaches site.
The installer having exactly what they need when they arrive.
The snag that gets followed through rather than forgotten.
The small improvement to a process that makes the next ten projects run better.
Individually, none of those things sounds revolutionary.
Collectively, we believe they’re what separates good from exceptional.
We’re therefore looking for someone who isn’t satisfied simply because a process works. You’ll naturally ask how it could work better. You’ll care about detail, take pride in getting things right and bring ideas that help us improve.
If you see something that could be better, we’d like you to say so. Better still, we’d like you to help us deliver it.
A small team with big standards
Hobsons Choice isn’t a large corporate business.
We’re a relatively small, experienced and close knit team, which means the contribution of each person genuinely matters. We care about the work we produce, but we also care about each other and about creating somewhere people enjoy coming to work.
We work hard. We have extremely high standards. We challenge ourselves and each other to keep improving.
But we also want to enjoy doing it.
For the right person, this isn’t simply an opportunity to inherit a portfolio of projects. It’s an opportunity to become an important part of the team, influence how we deliver our projects and help shape the project management function as Hobsons Choice grows.
What we’re looking for
We’re more interested in evidence of what you’ve delivered than simply the number of years you’ve spent doing it.
Your background could be in premium kitchens, interiors, bespoke joinery, residential fit out, specialist construction or another environment involving detailed, multi stage projects.
You don’t necessarily need to come from the kitchen industry. What matters is that you’re accustomed to coordinating people, products and deadlines in an environment where quality and the client’s experience genuinely matter.
We’d particularly like to hear from people who can demonstrate:
Strong organisation: the ability to manage multiple priorities, dependencies and deadlines without losing sight of the detail.
Programme & procurement: experience coordinating suppliers, trades, contractors or internal teams and keeping projects moving.
Technical confidence: the ability to interpret drawings, specifications and technical project information, or the aptitude to learn quickly.
CAD experience: proficiency in CAD software would be preferable, although it is not essential.
High standards, low ego: the confidence to challenge something when necessary, balanced with the judgement to listen to an experienced designer, installer or supplier who knows something you don’t.
Client care: clear, confident and empathetic communication, including when difficult conversations are required.
Commercial awareness: disciplined project documentation and an understanding of project costs, changes and variations.
Follow through: the judgement, attention to detail and determination required to take responsibility for something through to genuine completion.
Experience within kitchens or interiors would clearly be valuable, but it isn’t essential. We’re interested in people who can demonstrate the underlying ability to take ownership, organise complicated projects and learn quickly.
A full UK driving licence will be required.
About Hobsons Choice
For nearly 50 years, Hobsons Choice has designed and delivered kitchens and interiors for private homes.
Today we work from studios in Swindon, Bath and Winchester, combining considered design with experienced installation and project delivery.
Our work includes bulthaup kitchens, contemporary European furniture, British made cabinetry and wider interior projects. The quality of the finished work matters enormously to us. Just as important is the experience our clients have along the way.
The position will be based at our Swindon design studio, placing the Senior Project Manager alongside the teams most closely involved in the development and delivery of our projects.
The working hours are 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Occasional travel to client sites, and to our Bath and Winchester studios, will be required as projects demand. Business mileage will be reimbursed.
What we offer
£40,000 to £50,000 basic salary, depending on experience
Performance related annual bonus of up to 10%, linked to project delivery, client satisfaction and contribution to continuous improvement
25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
Company pension
Free on site parking at our Swindon studio
Optional company private health insurance following successful completion of the six month probationary period
Please send us your CV together with a short covering note.
Rather than simply telling us how long you’ve worked in project management, we’d particularly like to hear about one complex project for which you personally held responsibility, what made it challenging and what you did to keep its delivery under control.
We’re interested in the way you think, the way you work with people and the standards you set for yourself, not simply the job titles you’ve held.
Email: careers@hobsonschoice.co.uk
Senior Designer (Kitchens & Living Spaces) – Winchester
Senior Designer – Kitchens & Living Spaces
Winchester | Full Time | £35,000–£45,000 basic, depending on experience + uncapped performance-related commission. Realistic OTE £60,000–£75,000+
Some design roles begin when an enquiry arrives.
This one starts before that.
Hobsons Choice designs and delivers exceptional kitchens and interiors for private clients across the South of England.
We are looking for an experienced designer to join our Winchester studio. But this is not simply another design position.
We want someone who can help us build something.
The Role
Our Winchester design studio has enormous potential, and we are looking for somebody who wants to take a genuine interest in its success.
You will, of course, work with clients: understanding how they live, developing intelligent design solutions, presenting ideas, specifying products and ultimately creating beautiful, highly considered interiors.
But we are looking for someone who is interested in what happens before the client walks through the door too.
Someone who wants to develop relationships with architects, interior designers, developers and other professionals across Hampshire and the surrounding area.
Someone who will pick up the telephone, arrange a coffee, attend an event, visit a practice, reconnect with a past client or introduce Hobsons Choice to somebody we ought to know.
Someone who has ideas for events in the showroom and is enthusiastic about working with our marketing team to make them happen.
And, importantly, someone with enough design experience and product understanding that when those conversations create an opportunity, they can take the next step themselves.
You should be able to sit down with a client, architect or interior designer and have a proper design conversation. You will be able to listen, challenge where appropriate, contribute ideas and add genuine value.
More Than a Designer
This isn’t a conventional showroom position where the job is simply to respond to the enquiries that arrive.
We want someone with a degree of entrepreneurialism about them.
You will work closely with our Managing Director, marketing team and wider senior team, but we would like you to develop a real sense of ownership for Winchester: its reputation, its relationships, its pipeline and ultimately its success.
That doesn’t mean running the business.
It means caring whether the showroom is busy.
It means noticing when there are people or practices we should know but don’t.
It means wanting to create opportunities rather than simply waiting for them.
And it means becoming one of the people in the local design and property community that others genuinely enjoy dealing with.
Design Matters
The commercial side of the position is important, but this is first and foremost a senior design appointment.
We are looking for somebody with strong kitchen, interior or closely related design experience who understands proportion, materials, space, detail and the practical realities of delivering high-quality residential projects.
Our projects can involve kitchens, utility rooms, dressing rooms, living spaces and other fitted interiors, combining furniture, appliances, stone and specialist products.
You’ll be supported by an experienced team with considerable technical and product knowledge, but you need to bring your own design credibility.
You don’t need to have worked with every product we sell. We can teach products and systems. It is much harder to teach curiosity, judgement, commercial instinct and the desire to build relationships.
Who We’re Looking For
You are likely to be an experienced kitchen or interior designer, with a minimum of 5-year’s experience in the high-end residential sector, who has reached the point where you want a little more from your role.
You may already have a strong network of architects, interior designers, developers or clients, or perhaps you’re simply the person who naturally develops those relationships wherever you work.
You’ll probably enjoy meeting people and getting out from behind your desk. You’ll be comfortable representing the business at professional and social events and will understand that some of the best opportunities don’t start with a formal sales enquiry.
At the same time, you’ll be someone clients trust with a significant project.
You’ll be commercially aware, organised and interested in the detail required to turn good design into a successful finished installation.
Above all, you’ll take ownership.
What You’ll Need
You’ll need:
- A minimum of 5-years strong experience in kitchen, interior or closely related high-end residential residential design.
- The confidence and credibility to discuss design with private clients, architects and interior designers
- Excellent communication and relationship-building skills
- Strong organisation and attention to detail
- Commercial awareness and an understanding of the importance of converting opportunities into successful projects
- The confidence to represent Hobsons Choice externally and develop new professional relationships
- A proactive approach. Comfortable creating opportunities rather than simply responding to them
- A full UK driving licence, as the role will involve client, site and professional practice visits
- Confidence using design and presentation software. Experience with our particular systems is not essential and training can be provided
Experience within premium kitchens, interiors, fitted furniture or the wider high-end residential market would be particularly valuable.
About Hobsons Choice
Hobsons Choice has been designing and delivering premium kitchens and interiors for more than 45 years, with design studios in Bath, Swindon and Winchester.
We work with exceptional private clients as well as architects, interior designers, developers and other property professionals.
Our work combines design, furniture, appliances, stone, installation and project delivery, allowing us to take considerable responsibility for the finished result and for the experience our clients have getting there.
Our product portfolio includes some of the strongest names in contemporary European design alongside our own carefully developed furniture collections.
We are ambitious about the next stage of the business, and Winchester is an important part of that.
What Success Looks Like
Over time, we want you to become one of the faces of Hobsons Choice in Winchester and the wider Hampshire design community.
We want architects and interior designers to know you.
We want past clients to remember you.
We want new clients to recommend you.
We want our marketing team to have someone in Winchester saying, “I’ve got an idea — can we do something with this?”
And we want the opportunities you help create to turn into beautifully designed, commercially successful projects.
What We Offer
- 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
- Company pension
- Salary & Package: £35,000–£45,000 basic, depending on experience + uncapped performance-related commission. Realistic OTE £60,000–£75,000+
- Parking permit included
Location
The position will be based at our Winchester studio.
The working hours are 8.30am to 5.30pm, five days per week. Design staff work on a rota including alternate Saturdays, with a weekday off in lieu.
Occasional travel to client sites, professional practices, supplier locations and our other studios will be required. Business mileage will be reimbursed. There will also occasionally be professional, networking or showroom events outside normal working hours.
If you are an accomplished designer who enjoys people as much as design, and the idea of helping to build the reputation and success of a showroom appeals to you, we’d be very interested in talking.
To apply, please send us your CV together with a short covering note.
