Design Direction RoleThis is a design direction role, not a drawing-board role. You'll set the brand-right aesthetic and product vision for indoor furniture categories — home office, bedroom, living room, kids, and bath — across multiple Walmart private label home brands, then partner closely with suppliers to bring that vision to life. The majority of your time (roughly 75%) will be spent guiding, reviewing, and refining supplier development work: providing clear design direction, evaluating samples and renderings, and ensuring every piece lands on-brand, on-trend, and on-cost. Original design work is part of the job, but it's the smaller part — and it's always in service of commercial, manufacturable product. You'll partner with the Product Development team to understand category needs and execute against design briefs, and you'll be expected to know your market: monitoring the competitive landscape, understanding sales data, and proposing forward-thinking but brand-appropriate innovation within your categories. As workload ebbs and flows, this designer may also support the broader team across outdoor soft categories such as pillows and rugs, as well as hardlines. This role reports to the Design Director.
What You'll Do:
Set and communicate design direction for indoor furniture categories, translating brand guidelines and trend insights into clear, actionable guidance for suppliers.
Review and redline supplier submissions — concepts, CADs, renderings, and physical samples — providing specific, constructive feedback on aesthetics, proportions, materials, finishes, and construction.
Collaborate with the Design Director, Product Development counterparts, and sourcing partners to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve product and design issues, balancing design intent against cost targets, manufacturing constraints, and packaging requirements.
Create original designs and concept direction when needed, always grounded in commercial viability and brand fit.
Partner with peers across the team to ensure brand continuity across multiple Walmart private label home brands.
Monitor the competitive landscape, analyze sales data, and research new materials, technologies, and innovations in indoor furniture. Apply findings to inform design decisions and proactive design proposals.
Present clearly and confidently in reviews with upper management, retail partners, and suppliers.
Support the broader team across outdoor, soft home, and hardlines categories as needed.
Who You Are:
A furniture person first: you understand how furniture is built, what it costs, and what makes it sell at mass-market price points.
A strong communicator who can articulate design intent precisely — in a deck, in a markup, or in a conversation with a factory halfway around the world.
Passionate about design and style, with a sharp eye for what's brand-right versus merely trendy.
Proactive and innovation-minded; you bring workable ideas to the table without being asked.
Highly organized, detail-obsessed, and diligent about follow-up with internal and external teams.
Adaptable and open to change; you analyze both successes and failures for clues to improvement.
Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, Furniture Design, or a related field.3+ years of professional experience designing furniture that has been manufactured and sold at retail — your portfolio should show produced product, not just concepts.
Working knowledge of furniture construction, materials, finishes, and hardware, including ready-to-assemble (RTA/flat-pack) construction and the cost and packaging realities of mass-market retail.
Experience collaborating with suppliers or manufacturers through the development process; direct experience with overseas factories is a plus.
Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for design communication, and PowerPoint for presentations. Planogramming in InDesign is a plus.
Solidworks and Keyshot experience is a strong plus.
Salary Range: $75,000–$95,000 base- bonus eligibility based on brand and product performance
