Senior Design Manager - #682374

About the opportunity

We’re pleased to invite applications for the newly created specialist technical leadership position of Senior Design Manager as part of the Group Product & Brand team, based in Brompton, SA.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on a large portfolio of high-profile local and global food service and Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) customers in a fast paced and creative environment.

You’ll manage and grow the graphic and industrial product design capability of the Group improving the flow of design requests and being highly responsive to stakeholders, ensuring business success.

Reporting to the Group General Manager, Product & Brand, you’ll provide leadership and technical management of the Product and Graphic Design team and LaunchPad design service to deliver innovative, creative, and commercial product and graphic designs and prototypes/samples.

To ensure design function alignment with business strategy, you’ll be accountable for the function’s development and performance to drive optimum value from existing resources and recommend new capabilities.

You’ll lead the development and commercialisation of new packaging design solutions within current capabilities to meet functional, sustainable, cost competitiveness and legislative requirements.

Being highly collaborative and willing to work with diverse stakeholders across many functions in the broader business is important in this role.

As part of your specific responsibilities, you will:

• Develop and manage the strategic direction and operational effectiveness of the LaunchPad Design function, including annual planning and monthly reporting.
• Drive optimum Group value and Sales growth by enabling product and graphic design activities for the Group in line with Group strategy.
• Oversee customer opportunity/sample requests, prioritising demand, and resources to support timely commercial and operational delivery.
• Develop and manage the strategic direction, annual planning and ongoing operational effectiveness of the Design functions and teams.
• Develop relationships with strategic accounts, liaising directly with the customer, including leading LaunchPad design innovation days/customer visits.
• Drive and support the development of the Design function, improving capability, productivity, speed to market and easy to deal with strategies.
• Manage decisions around materials and solutions to achieve commercial outcomes delivering growth targets, legislative compliance, and customer needs in the short term.

About you

What you’ll need:

• Extensive management experience in a senior graphic or product design role, preferably in the packaging industry
• Deep mechanical, printing, and technology knowledge.
• Extensive knowledge of matching materials and production capabilities.
• Proven experience in providing positive and effective leadership.
• The abilities to develop strategic and operational plans, making sound commercial decisions and manage risk.
• The ability to run multiple design projects/project streams in parallel to expedite delivery.
• The ability to build strong relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Highly developed influencing and negotiation skills.
• An excellent commercial understanding of manufacturing processes, including product costing.
• A tertiary qualification in a relevant engineering or graphic/industrial/product design discipline.

What we’ll offer you:

• A commitment to your ongoing professional development.
• A commitment to corporate social responsibility – we support local communities and charities and are committed to sustainable and ethical sourcing.
• A health and wellbeing program so you feel supported to be at your best.
• Access to an active social club.

If you are looking to own a function and drive growth, we’d love to hear to from you.

Please note, applicants must be Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia

While applications must be made online, confidential questions are welcome by calling Donna Dittmar, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner on 0402 180 625.

If you would like to provide a cover letter as part of your application, please attach it to your resume and upload as one document.

We are a 2023 Circle Back Initiative Employer – we commit to respond to every applicant.

About us

The Detmold Group is a family-owned and operated global business, partnering with some of the world’s largest and most iconic food and retail brands to create world-class packaging for a better tomorrow.

Our business is focused on making a positive impact for our people, our partners and our planet whilst keeping our customers at the core of everything we do. Relentlessly looking for ways to improve quality, service, and efficiency, we are driven to improve the way the world experiences packaging.

Employee safety is our priority, and we want our people to be 100% SAFE & WELL.