Design Development Manager (Maternity Cover)

This is a rare opportunity to own the design language of one of the UK's largest gym businesses - shaping how hundreds of thousands of members experience our spaces every day. As Design Development Manager on a fixed-term contract, you will lead the development and communication of our design and format principles, provide hands-on design leadership across new openings, refits, and enhancements, and use real data and member insight to keep our gym proposition evolving. If you are a commercially sharp, hands-on design professional who thrives in a fast-paced, multi-site environment and wants genuine ownership of a programme that matters, this is the role for you. What you'll be doing...

• Own and develop The Gym Group's design and format principles, creating clear standards, guidance, and specifications that enable consistent delivery across the estate.
• Lead design across new gym openings, refits, and enhancement projects - reviewing layouts, challenging drawings, and ensuring quality and buildability at every stage.
• Get hands-on in CAD when needed, developing and amending early-stage layouts to test options and keep design development moving at pace.
• Use member insight, utilisation data, operational feedback, and commercial performance to continuously improve our gym format and member experience.
• Coordinate internal design resource and manage external architects, designers, and consultants to deliver quality, programme, and value for money.
• Build strong relationships across Property, Operations, and the wider business, presenting design thinking clearly and challenging constructively to protect agreed principles.
• Support trials and pilots, translating successful concepts into repeatable, scalable design standards.
• Ensure all designs meet statutory, Health and Safety, and CDM requirements, maintaining robust governance and approval processes.
  
  Substantial experience in interior design, architecture, or spatial design within a multi-site, fast-paced environment such as retail fit-out, leisure, hospitality, or food and beverage.
• Proven experience creating and maintaining design standards, guides, specifications, or format documentation used by delivery teams.
• Strong practical CAD capability with the ability to develop and amend layouts independently.
• Experience using data, customer insight, or operational performance to inform design decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to manage external architects, designers, and consultants with strong commercial awareness.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge and influence at all levels.
• A proactive, self-sufficient approach with the ability to manage multiple priorities and make pragmatic decisions in a delivery-focused environment.
  
  Hi, we're The Gym Group...
We're one of the UK's leading fitness businesses. With more than one million members, 265+ gyms and ambitious plans to keep growing, we're the UK's second-largest gym operator by membership and the fourth largest in Europe. Our mission is simple: to break down barriers to fitness for all. We're large enough to make a meaningful difference, but agile enough for individuals to influence how we grow. Technology, data and new ideas play a central role - and you'll have the opportunity to take ownership, challenge how things are done and see the impact of your work. Just as importantly, we're a people-first business where everyone is encouraged to be themselves. We've been named one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work and awarded Investors in People Gold, alongside a host of other awards recognising our culture and our people.