Job Description

Location: Sherburn, North Yorkshire (3 days min on site)
Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent
Salary: 30,000 - 40,000
Join one of the UK's leading outdoor play space design companies!
They create inspiring, imaginative, and inclusive outdoor play environments for parks, schools, campsites, and commercial spaces across the UK and Europe. With over 490 employees EMEA-wide (100 in the UK), they're proud to design, install, and maintain play spaces that bring joy and creativity to communities.
They are now looking for a hands-on Design Team Leader to join the growing UK design team of 40 based in Sherburn -- someone who's ready to design, lead, and make a real impact.
About the Role
As a Design Team Leader, you'll be both a creative designer and an inspiring leader.
You'll manage a small team of talented designers (3-4 direct reports), guiding them to deliver exceptional designs while staying deeply involved in the creative process yourself.
This is not a "sit back and supervise" kind of role -- it's about rolling up your sleeves, getting stuck into concept creation, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in outdoor play design.
Working closely with the UK Design Manager and Sales Team, you'll ensure the design department delivers outstanding proposals that are both visually inspiring and commercially successful.
Key Responsibilities

• Lead and motivate your design team to produce best-in-class play area proposals that exceed client expectations.

• Design and deliver creative, engaging, and functional play spaces -- from concept sketches to polished 2D plans and immersive 3D visuals.

• Work hands-on with 3D design software (3ds Max preferred but will also consider, Maya, Blender, SketchUp, Unreal Engine 5, etc.) to bring concepts to life with realism and flair.

• Support and develop your team through coaching, mentoring, and skill-building, ensuring high design standards and consistent growth.

• Oversee daily operations, including workload planning, quality checking, and deadline management.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with the sales and project teams to ensure proposals are accurately costed, visually aligned with the client brief, and fully achievable.

• Maintain design systems and tools -- CRM, Costing, and PDM -- ensuring seamless workflow and project tracking.

What You'll Bring

• Proven experience in a hands-on design role, ideally within play space, landscape, or outdoor environment design.

• Strong portfolio demonstrating 2D and 3D design capability, creative problem-solving, and ability to design to client briefs.

• Experience using 3D Studio Max (preferred) or similar software such as Maya, Houdini, Rhino, Blender, Cinema 4D, SketchUp, Unreal Engine 5, or Unity.

• Confident in 2D design tools (AutoCAD ideal, but not essential).

• Background in creating fully costed schemes, including Bill of Materials (BOMs), groundwork details, and supplier coordination.

• Excellent leadership, communication, and organisational skills -- able to motivate and manage while delivering your own design workload.

• A passion for creativity, innovation, and designing spaces that make people smile.

Who You Are
You're a designer at heart -- someone who loves turning ideas into immersive, real-world environments. You take pride in seeing your designs come to life, and you're just as passionate about helping others grow their creative skills.
You're a natural leader, confident communicator, and strategic thinker -- equally comfortable presenting a new concept as you are fine-tuning a design render.

Skills Required