Team Lead - Jewellery Designer

Job Specifications - Lead Jewellery Designer

Experienced: 7+ years

Focus Areas: Team Leadership | Collection Ownership | Assortment Planning | Gap Analysis | Planning | Timeline Management

A lead designer should be experienced and highly organised, who combines strong creative capabilities with strategic thinking, assortment planning, and team management skills. He/she should be responsible for managing senior designers, independently leading their own jewellery collections, doing assortment planning, product gap analysis, and design development timelines.

A lead designer should be able to balance creative direction with commercial objectives, ensure collections are developed as per planned calendars, identify assortment opportunities, and drive accountability across the design team. He/she should be developing original jewellery concepts, analyzing product categories, planning future collections, and guiding designers to deliver high-quality work within deadlines.

Key Responsibilities

1. Design Team Management & Leadership

• Manage, guide, and review the work of senior and jewellery designers, ensuring alignment with brand aesthetics, collection briefs, and business priorities.
• Allocate collections and design projects based on team capabilities, workloads, and delivery timelines.
• Conduct regular design reviews, provide constructive feedback, and ensure quality and consistency across design outputs.
• Monitor team productivity, project progress, and adherence to deadlines.
• Mentor designers in creative thinking, product development, assortment understanding, and commercial design decisions.
• Establish clear responsibilities, deliverables, and accountability within the design team.

2. Independent Collection Ownership

• Conceptualize, develop, and manage assigned jewellery collections from initial research and mood boards to final design approval and production handover.
• Create compelling design stories, themes, and product concepts aligned with brand positioning, target customers, and market trends.
• Develop collections with the right balance of innovation, trend relevance, commercial viability, and brand identity.
• Coordinate with CAD, sampling, merchandising, sourcing, and production teams to ensure smooth execution.
• Ensure that all collection milestones, design approvals, sampling, and final handovers are completed within planned timelines.
• Take ownership of collection quality, design consistency, and timely delivery.

3. Assortment Planning & Product Architecture

• Develop structured assortment plans across jewellery categories, collections, price points, styles, materials, and customer segments.
• Ensure the assortment offers the right balance of core products, new designs, trend-led pieces, bestsellers, and experimental concepts.
• Work closely with merchandising and business teams to align design output with category targets, customer demand, and commercial priorities.
• Define design quantities, category mix, product variations, and collection depth based on business requirements.
• Identify opportunities for category expansion, design extensions, coordinated sets, and new product introductions.
• Ensure the assortment is cohesive, differentiated, and commercially relevant across the complete product portfolio.

4. Product Gap Analysis & Market Research

• Conduct regular assortment gap analyses to identify missing categories, styles, price points, design aesthetics, and customer needs.
• Analyse existing product ranges, sales trends, customer preferences, competitor offerings, and market developments to identify opportunities.
• Identify overrepresented categories, repetitive designs, underdeveloped segments, and potential white spaces.
• Translate findings into actionable design briefs, collection plans, and new product development priorities.
• Collaborate with merchandising and sales teams to incorporate sell-through data, bestseller insights, and customer feedback into future assortments.
• Track the effectiveness of new designs and assortment additions to inform future planning.

5. Planning, Review & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Participate in seasonal and annual design planning, range planning, collection prioritisation, calendars, and milestone trackers.
• Convert business requirements and assortment gaps into clear design roadmaps and actionable project plans.
• Conduct periodic reviews of collection progress, assortment completeness, and team deliverables.
• Work closely with merchandising, marketing, sourcing, production, and sales teams to ensure alignment between design intent and business requirements.
• Ensure design resources are allocated effectively to meet business priorities without compromising creativity or quality.
• Proactively identify delays, resolve bottlenecks, and reprioritise tasks where required.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure timely approvals, sample readiness, and collection launches.
• Maintain clear visibility of project status, pending decisions, dependencies, and delivery risks.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant jewellery design experience, including experience in leading designers or managing design projects.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating collection development, design sensibility, and product diversity.
• Proven experience in assortment planning, product gap analysis, range development, and collection management.
• Demonstrated ability to manage senior and mid-level designers, delegate work, review output, and drive accountability.
• Strong project management skills, with experience managing multiple collections and deadlines simultaneously.
• Good understanding of jewellery trends, customer behaviour, materials, manufacturing processes, and product costing.
• Proficiency in relevant design software such as CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Rhino, or MatrixGold, as applicable.
• Strong analytical, organisational, communication, and presentation skills.
• Ability to interpret sales and market insights and translate them into actionable product strategies.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Timely completion of collections and design milestones.
• Quality, creativity, and commercial relevance of assigned collections.
• Accuracy and effectiveness of assortment plans and product gap identification.
• Completion of identified assortment gaps through relevant new product development.
• Productivity, output quality, and timely delivery by the design team.
• Adherence to design briefs, category plans, and target price points.
• Reduction in design revisions, sampling delays, and execution errors.
• Effectiveness of cross-functional coordination and collection handovers.