Assistant Retail Interior Designer - Industry Placement Year

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Street & Premium Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with over 60,000 colleagues and over 3,400 stores across several retail fascias in over 30 markets around the world.

JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally.

We want to be the leading global omni-channel retailer in the sports, fashion, and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

OVERVIEW OF THE STORE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

The Store Development Team is responsible for driving innovation and design excellence across all of the JD Group brands on a global scale. The department delivers inspiring, commercial retail environments for our consumers in order to maximise their shopping experience, whilst maximising profitability for the Group.

ABOUT THE PLACEMENT YEAR

This is a fantastic opportunity to get hands on experience giving you the training and industry skills to understand how a design function works within a successful, global retail business. You have the potential to collaborate across group functions to understand how we design and build a commercial store, whilst honing your professional skills to become an attractive candidate should a permanent position becomes available within the JD store development team.

As an assistant retail design intern you will be supporting our in house design team to deliver our global expansion program, working on various projects across the many group fascias. You will need a good level of design understanding working closely to support the retail design team to deliver to high standards on the delivery of each store design on a project-by-project basis using the agreed store grading guidelines. A good understanding of retail will be beneficial coupled with technical skills and a positive attitude, a willingness to listen and learn is essential. This position will give you the experience, tools and understanding to prepare you for industry.

The successful candidate would ideally commence this role in July/August 2023.

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assist the lead designer to support in drawing and detail work at varying stages of design lifecycle
• Support in the communication of project information to key project stakeholders. Collaborating with internal departments including: Acquisitions teams, Project managers,
  Quantity surveyors, Retail, Merchandising teams, Marketing, Multichannel, IT, Security, Health and Safety etc..
• Coordinate meeting material to present store designs and obtain feedback, learning to process feedback and update drawings accordingly. On occasion, you may be asked to attend site meetings alongside the retail designer supporting the processing of information, from checking and recording site surveys and documentation and ensuring data is up to date and correct
• Working to the department standards, set up drawings in AutoCAD using landlords or survey information ensuring all work is accurate.
• Complete space planning exercises and produce merchandising layouts using a design brief and option targets
• Production of detailed plans, shop fronts, sections and elevations for proposed store designs and site-specific details
• You may be asked to support in the communication with external professional third parties including agencies such as architects, MEP and structural engineers
• Partner with the graphics team to deliver project specific designs
• Support design communication through 3D modelling to demonstrate design proposals and spacial challenges

SKILLS/EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE NEEDED

• Some experience or knowledge of various stages of the design process, from concept development through to design implementation
• An understanding of working creatively
• Interpret briefs accurately with the ability to work to set deliverables
• A basic understanding of construction or shopfitting
• Self-motivated and driven, with the ability to manage own deadlines whilst working as part of a wider teams deadlines and workload capacity
• Good written and verbal skills, able to communicate at all levels with both internal and external stakeholders
• Strong presentation skills, through CAD and hand sketches
• Retail experience, specifically within the sports fashion industry is a bonus
• Be open to national travel holding a full driving licence and a valid passport

SKILLS

• Good knowledge and understanding of AutoCAD
• Proficient in the use of Adobe Creative Cloud suite
• Experience of Revit is desirable
• Good knowledge in visual rendering and 3D modelling
• An interest in the use and specification of sustainable materials and construction methods
• A strong interest in retail design and retail trends

QUALIFICATIONS

• Undergraduate in Architecture, Architectural Technology, Interior Design or other relevant qualification

BENEFITS

We know our employees work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits:

• Free parking
• Incremental Holiday Allowance
• Discretionary Bonus Scheme
• Staff Discount On JD Group and other brands within the organisation
• Pension Scheme
• Flexible Working Hours
• Personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work

NEXT STEPS

Due to the high volumes of applications our opportunities attract, it takes time to review them all. If you don't hear back within two weeks of you applying, please consider your application to have been unsuccessful on this occasion

Applications that meet the skills criteria will be contacted for a 1st stage meeting with the talent team. Shortlisted candidates will then be invited to interview with the hiring manager.

Thank you again for your time.