Design Lead in Reading

At Neptune, our spaces are designed to bring beauty, comfort and a sense of home to everyday living. From timeless furniture pieces to thoughtful design advice, we’re here to help our customers create their dream homes - and it all begins with exceptional service.

We’re looking for an experienced Design Lead to work across two of our stunning Showrooms in Guildford and Reading on a permanent, full time basis, working 40 hours per week over 7 days on a rota basis. Great design is at the heart of our business. As Design Lead, you will be the senior design authority within our store, taking responsibility for leading the store from a design-led perspective while delivering an exceptional, commercially successful customer experience.

What you’ll be doing

• You’ll lead the design journey from the first conversation through to final sign-off, ensuring every project reflects Neptune’s design principles, technical standards and brand values.
• Inspiring and developing the in-store design team, you’ll also remain hands-on with complex and high-value projects.
• Blending design leadership, customer relationships, technical expertise and commercial awareness, you will help turn our customers’ ideas into beautifully considered kitchens and whole-home spaces, thoughtfully designed and expertly delivered.

Day to day, you’ll:

• Lead the creative direction across two store design locations, acting as the senior design voice in-store and setting the standard for inspiring concepts, exceptional customer experience and thoughtful brand execution.
• Guide the entire design journey from first conversation through to final sign-off, personally leading complex and high-value kitchen and whole-home projects while building trusted, lasting customer relationships.
• Oversee the store’s design pipeline and performance, ensuring creative ideas translate into well-considered, deliverable projects that achieve both design and sales goals.
• Support and develop designers and design advisors, nurturing their creativity, strengthening technical expertise and building confidence in presenting considered design solutions.
• Ensure every design reflects Neptune’s technical, safety and brand standards, providing guidance, quality assurance and close collaboration with regional and central teams.

A little about you

You’ll bring experience within a kitchen or interior design environment, along with the confidence to guide customers through a thoughtful and well-considered design journey. Comfortable using CAD software, you’ll be able to create and present detailed designs with accuracy and care. Naturally warm and personable, you build trust easily and communicate with clarity, whether you’re working with customers in their homes or collaborating with colleagues in-store. You’ll be organised and calm under pressure, able to manage several projects at once while keeping a solutions-focused mindset. Above all, you take pride in your work and care deeply about delivering an exceptional customer experience from first conversation to final design. Our store is open 7 days of the week, so it’s important that you have the flexibility to work during the week and weekends too.

What Benefits we can offer you

• Competitive salary
• Generous holiday allowance
• Purchased additional annual leave scheme
• Life assurance
• Company sick pay
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Cycle to work scheme
• Gym membership
• Generous Neptune new item and outlet discounts
• Perkbox: Wellbeing Hub and Retail Discounts Portal
• Your birthday day off
• Two paid volunteer days a year
• Day off if you become a Grandparent
• A week off to celebrate a life event
• Refer a friend scheme
• Long service holiday allowance increase
• Training Workshops

Across all locations, we stay united by our company values: Do The Right Thing, Do It Together, Aim High and Keep It Real. We’re an equal opportunities employer; our mission is to welcome everyone and create inclusive teams, with all colleagues and applicants afforded the same opportunities. We encourage everyone to join us and be themselves at work, in an environment that actively promotes equality, diversity and inclusion and where everyone’s voices are heard.

Founded in 1996 by friends John Sims-Hilditch and Giles Redman, Neptune design and make pieces for your whole home. Recognised for our exacting standards, design-led aesthetic and expert craftsmanship, we’re perhaps most known for kitchens - with heirloom-worthy dressers not far behind. Neptune’s trademark ‘look’ is British: refined, simple, sturdy, and with an almost obsessive attention to detail. We’re also respected for our commitment to craft and quality. Put simply, we make things we’re proud of, and that are designed to last a lifetime.