Exterior Design Lead

Read this part first

Every other opening on this site is a 3-month seasonal contract. This one isn't. It's an in-house position from the start, because you can't build a design team on a three-month horizon.

The other thing worth saying plainly: plenty of excellent designers are not good leads, and we'd rather be honest about which one we're hiring for. You need the design background — without it you can't review exterior work credibly. But the part of this job that decides whether it works is whether you can develop other designers, give feedback they can act on, and hold a standard without becoming a bottleneck.

What you'll be responsible for

• Mentoring, guiding, and developing the Exterior Design Team — the core of the job, not a side responsibility.
• Reviewing work and giving clear, actionable design direction. Not "make it better" — specific enough that a designer knows what to change and why.
• Maintaining standards and consistency across projects, so quality holds as volume climbs.
• Identifying problems early and helping designers work through them, rather than catching them at client review.
• Bringing a strong understanding of exterior design, spatial planning, functionality, and guest experience to every review.
• Collaborating closely with the Creative Lead, Interior Lead, and Managers so exteriors and interiors read as one property.
• Staying close enough to the work to keep your own judgment sharp — this isn't a role that stops designing entirely.

What we're looking for

• Proven experience leading and mentoring designers. This is the requirement we're least flexible on.
• The ability to review work and give clear, actionable design direction, in writing and on calls.
• A strong understanding of exterior design, spatial planning, functionality, and guest experience.
• The instinct to spot a problem early — a site condition, a concept fighting the budget, a designer stuck and not saying so.
• Strong SketchUp and design knowledge. You need to be able to open the file and see what's wrong.
• Fluent English and confidence communicating across teams, including with leads and managers outside your own.
• Hospitality, resort, or short-term rental experience is a real advantage.

The logistics

• In-house position, not a seasonal contract.
• Fully remote, with availability aligned to U.S. Central Time. Overlap matters more in this role than any other, since the team depends on your reviews.
• Fluent English required. Spanish is a plus — a large part of our Design Team is based in Latin America, and you'd be leading a good portion of it.
• Stable internet and a computer that comfortably runs SketchUp on large models.

See what applies to every role at Funkit — remote working, time zone, language, and how we collaborate.