Director of Design & Development
Company: Playbook
Location: Chicago
Posted on: February 17, 2026
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Job Description:
Job Description Job Description Salary: $120,000–$125,000. With
top performance, you are also eligible to become a shareholder in
our company and earn equity. Benefits: FREE employee-only medical
coverage under one of our plans. FREE short-term disability (STD)
and FREE life insurance coverage. Plus, a 4% employer match with
our 401(k). Location: We will be making one hire located in either
NYC, Chicago or in a major metropolitan area on the West Coast.
This role will work from home with travel as needed, but must
permnantly reside in one of these locations. Reports to: Our VP of
Design & Development Your Mission Your mission is to own the
delivery of multiple amenity-focused design projects across
Playbook’s national portfolio, from creative concepting to
technical execution. You’ll work closely with internal strategy and
operations teams to bring physical spaces to life that blend
hospitality, wellness, and workplace innovation. This role is ideal
for an ambitious designer or architect who has run projects before
and is ready to take a major step forward, building both leadership
and architectural coordination skills within a high-growth,
high-volume team. Your Legacy As a result of your time in this
role, Playbook delivered exceptional tenant experiences across a
growing portfolio of high-performance amenity spaces. You grew
quickly into a confident design leader, running workshops, managing
consultant coordination, and delivering some of the most exciting
projects in our pipeline. Your contributions helped scale one of
the most dynamic and design-forward areas of our business. What
You're Responsible For: Project Leadership: Run multiple concurrent
design projects from concept packages to construction
documentation. Lead internal design development, drawing reviews,
and consultant coordination. Act as the day-to-day point of contact
for architecture, engineering, and construction teams. Workshop
Execution: Support and eventually lead design-focused workshops
with ownership, leasing, and development partners. Translate
stakeholder feedback into spatial strategies, floor plans, and
conceptual frameworks. Collaborate across Playbook’s
cross-functional teams to align design with operational and
strategic goals. Design Development: Translate operational goals
into lookbooks, test fits, and peer review of other consultants.
Coordinate with AORs, GCs, and vendors to translate design intent
into reality. Attend site tours, milestone reviews, and launches to
ensure design quality meets operational needs. Internal
Collaboration: Work closely with the VP of Design & Development to
refine internal tools, templates, and playbooks standards.
Contribute to presentation decks and design deliverables across our
portfolio. Help shape and evolve our proprietary space-type
strategies for our partners. Baseline Expectations: 5–6 years of
experience in architecture or interior design, ideally in
hospitality, workplace, or mixed-use projects Bachelor’s or
Master’s degree in Architecture or Interior Design Highly
proficient in Adobe Creative Suite, AutoCAD, SketchUp (Revit is a
bonus) Strong communicator, especially with architects,
consultants, and internal teams Comfortable with a fast-paced,
ever-evolving workload- and excited by scale Core Competencies:
Execution-Oriented: You know what it takes to get a project built,
and you’re ready and excited to own that process. Architect-Facing:
You’re fluent in construction sets, code constraints, and technical
details. Upwardly Mobile: You’re not looking for a plateau or
steady-state, you want a mentor, a platform, and room to grow.
Strategic Communicator: You bring clarity and confidence to every
deck, diagram, or room layout. Resourceful & Reliable: You ask good
questions, solve problems, and follow through every time.
Brand-Driven: You understand the power of space to reinforce brand,
culture, and experience. Our Core Values: Playbook's culture is
based on a shared respect for our lived values HERE. Fit with our
values is a critical component of our hiring process, and you and
all of our colleagues are expected to live our core values in
interactions with team members, customers, and stakeholders. An
assessment of how you have exhibited our values is also an
important part of your performance review process. Our Commitment
To You: Playbook is committed to building a team that represents a
variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We know the more
inclusive we are, the greater our impact will be! A Quick Note
About Salaries: We list salaries based on market benchmarks,
project complexity, and team structure. This role has been scoped
specifically for our high-growth Design & Development team, and
we’re happy to discuss compensation openly during the process. We
may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the
hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes,
or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but
do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are
ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about
how your data is processed, please contact us.
Keywords: Playbook, Gary , Director of Design & Development, Design, Graphic Design & CAD , Chicago, Indiana
