Senior Interior Designer / Design Manager

About Paul Kelly Design

Paul Kelly Design is a specialist hospitality design company, which has an in-depth understanding of the local and international F&B landscape. With 29 years of experience, Paul Kelly Design has successfully completed over 600 venues throughout Australia . The wide variety of these offers and the fact that they are positioned across the full market spectrum, highlights the fact that Paul Kelly Design is a strategic partner. Paul Kelly Design delivers the unique requirements of the client and each project, providing much more than an isolated aesthetic interior design response.

About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Interior Designer / Design Manager with a strong portfolio in the food and beverage sector to lead design on a pipeline of Pubs, Gaming and bar projects across Australia. You'll take concepts from brand strategy through to construction documentation and site delivery, working directly with clients, operators, franchise groups, and consultants to create spaces that perform commercially as well as they look.

This is a senior, client-facing role suited to someone who understands both the creative and operational sides of hospitality design — hotel/pub operation, compliance, and the realities of fit-out budgets and tight programs.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design for F&B projects — concept development, schematic design, DA/CDC documentation, construction drawings, and contract administration

• Translate brand identity and operator requirements into functional, commercially viable spatial concepts

• Coordinate with commercial kitchen consultants, services engineers, and specialist F&B contractors on kitchen exhaust, grease traps, cool rooms, and equipment layouts

• Oversee multiple concurrent projects and junior designers, ensuring quality control and delivery to program and budget

• Present concepts and design development directly to clients, franchisors, and landlords

• Liaise with clients, builders and shopfitters through tender, construction, and practical completion

• Stay current on hospitality trends, materials, and sustainable fit-out practices relevant to the Australian market.

Essential Experience & Skills - Pub and Gaming Experience is Essential

• 10+ years post-qualification experience in architecture or interior design, with a substantial portion in food and beverage / hospitality fit-out. Pub and gaming experience is essential.

• Demonstrated portfolio of delivered pub, gaming, restaurant, café, bar, or retail F&B projects in Australia.

• Working knowledge of the National Construction Code, food premises standards (AS4674), and state/council DA and health approval processes

• Proficiency in AutoCAD; SketchUp, Adobe Creative Suite for concept presentation

• Strong understanding of commercial kitchen layout and BOH operational flow

• Experience managing consultant teams (structural, services, kitchen, acoustic) and shopfitting contractors

• Confident client-facing communicator, comfortable presenting to franchise groups and hospitality operators

• Tertiary qualification in Architecture or Interior Architecture (Bachelor's or Master's); registration with the Architects Board (or working towards) highly regarded.