Managing Director, luxury homewares brand

An iconic, well-loved British home and interiors brand is looking for a talented Managing Director to join their leadership team. Founded by creative entrepreneurs, this respected design business has spent over twenty years building a strong international name for quality, craftsmanship and design. With a loyal customer base and operations across the UK, USA and beyond, the business is now moving into an exciting new phase of thoughtful, sustainable growth.

Role Overview

This is a key hire. As Managing Director, you’ll be the main point of leadership – turning the founders’ vision into clear, joined-up execution across the business. Covering commercial performance, people, operations and culture, this is a role for someone who’s equally comfortable with big-picture thinking and rolling up their sleeves.

About You

You’re a confident, commercially sharp senior leader with a strong track record in a founder‑led, growing consumer product business; ideally having helped scale a company to £20m+. You bring maturity, warmth and good values, and you know how to balance creative ambition with operational rigour while keeping culture at the heart of everything.

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day leadership across the business, acting as the central point of executive coordination; keeping strategic priorities, projects and operational activity moving forward in a coherent, joined-up way.
• Bring clarity and momentum to complex, evolving priorities, making sure decisions translate into effective delivery and measurable progress across teams and initiatives.
• Oversee key governance and planning tools – including Executive and SLT trackers and the NPD Critical Path, maintaining visibility, accountability and momentum across the business.
• Work closely with the Creative Director, founders and Executive Chair to ensure operational, commercial and organisational decisions support the creative vision, design integrity and long-term direction of the brand; and to maintain strong decision-making, alignment and leadership rhythm across the executive team.
• Partner with Finance & Operations to keep priorities and decisions aligned with commercial goals, financial performance and long-term sustainability, ensuring that direction set at executive level is understood and acted on consistently across the wider business.
• Spot and manage organisational risks, tensions, dependencies and delivery challenges – escalating and resolving issues where needed.
• Coordinate strategic and cross-functional projects that sit outside day-to-day business activity.
• Support the ongoing development of team structures, ways of working and leadership capability as the business grows.
• Foster clarity, accountability and genuine collaboration across the business, while giving Pillar Heads and their teams the space and confidence to lead with increasing autonomy.
• Lead recruitment, onboarding and performance management across the business.

Key Skills

• Proven MD or senior leadership experience in a founder‑led, growth‑stage business – ideally having helped scale from a few million to £20m+; a background in homewares, interiors, luxury lifestyle or premium design is a real plus.
• Skilled at executive coordination and governance – able to bring together multiple teams and workstreams, own planning tools like leadership trackers and NPD critical paths, and keep complex priorities moving without losing sight of the detail.
• Able to work effectively at the intersection of creative and commercial – someone who genuinely respects both and can translate strategy into clear, consistent action across the wider business.
• Good instincts for risk and organisational dynamics; able to spot tensions, dependencies and delivery challenges early and handle them with maturity.
• Experienced in supporting organisational development, whether that’s team design, ways of working or building the structures a growing business needs.
• A collaborative, values‑led leader with strong commercial acumen, high emotional intelligence, and the ability to create clarity and accountability while giving teams the trust to do their best work.

Diversity & Inclusion: ILMJ values diversity, equality and inclusion and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and identities.