Design Associate Jobs in Texas (NOW HIRING)

Are you a strategic visual merchandiser with a passion for home furnishings and an eye for aesthetic detail? Do you work best in a vibrant environment where visual creativity meets customer interaction?

Join our Austin retail team as a Store Visual Merchandising & Design Associate, a highly influential role for an experienced visual professional with strong leadership, project management capabilities, and proven business acumen. This position plays a critical role in setting the visual standard, operational rhythm, and performance expectations for the showroom and team.

We are seeking a confident, strategic, and handson leader who brings a strong visual point of view and understands how design drives business results. You will serve as a role model for execution, ownership, and consistency-directly shaping the customer experience while influencing team performance, showroom standards, and sales outcomes. In this role, you will balance creative leadership with operational accountability. You will own the showroom's visual experience endtoend, from planning through execution, while ensuring inventory processes are accurate, efficient, and aligned with broader business priorities. You will lead all aspects of visual merchandising, including floor planning, resets, assortment introductions, and presentation standards, managing projects from concept to completion with a clear focus on timelines, resources, and results.

Working closely with the Store Leader, you will align visual strategy with sales trends, customer behavior, and business goals. You'll model best practices daily, maintain a consistently high standard across the showroom, and recognize how strong inventory management and operational excellence support both the customer experience and sales performance. You will also educate, coach, and inspire Design Associates on showroom presentation, product storytelling, and brand standards, leading through influence and example.

This hybrid role requires balancing visual responsibilities and engaging customers on the showroom floor using a consultative, solution-oriented approach throughout the week. You'll partner with customers to create functional, inspiring spaces, applying your design expertise and product knowledge to meet their needs. Through these interactions, you will reinforce visual stories, support a collaborative, noncommissioned selling environment, and ensure alignment between design vision, execution, and the overall customer experience.

Showroom location: 3200 Palm Way, Suite 170, Austin, TX 78758

Store hours:

Monday - Friday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sunday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Schedule:

Tuesday & Thursday: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

Wednesday & Friday: 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Saturday: 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Hours may shift throughout the year, so flexibility with your schedule is necessary. To allow you to easily balance your other life priorities, we build out schedules for an entire month and release them a few weeks prior to the start of each month. 

What you bring to be successful as a Store Visual Merchandising & Design Associate: 

• A customerfirst, consultative mindset, with the ability to understand individual needs while maintaining professionalism and confidence on the sales floor.
• A collaborative approach to selling in a noncommissioned environment, focused on delivering the right solution through the creative design process.
• Strong business acumen, with natural curiosity to understand sales trends, customer behavior, and operational needs-and apply that insight to drive results through visual and inventory decisions.
• Proven ability to lead by example, setting the pace for showroom standards, execution, and accountability as a key holder and visual role model.
• Confidence developing and executing initiatives independently while partnering effectively with the Store Leader and broader team.
• Clear, thoughtful communication skills that enable you to listen actively, share visual and operational insights, and influence others.
• Exceptional attention to detail, organization, and followthrough, with comfort managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• A passion for educating and inspiring colleagues on showroom presentation, product storytelling, and inventory flow, fostering design confidence and excitement.
• An understanding of how showroom execution, visual merchandising, and operational discipline directly impact sales performance and brand perception.

Additional position requirements and qualifications as a Store Visual Merchandising & Design Associate: 

• Visual leadership experience: 5+ years of related experience in visual merchandising, inventory management, customer experience, and furniture or designdriven retail. You bring a strong visual eye, grounded in color theory and presentation standards, with a focus on impact over perfection.
• Design expertise: A deep passion for design and the Room & Board brand. You understand how to work with color, texture, scale, and material mix to create spaces that are functional, inspiring, and commercially effective.
• Sales experience: Background in a customercentric, designsavvy retail environment, with confidence engaging customers and delivering consultative solutions on the showroom floor.
• Strategic and projectoriented mindset: Demonstrated ability to plan from the ground up, manage complex visual projects, and take concepts from ideation through execution while aligning with business goals.
• Leadership and relationshipbuilding skills: Comfortable partnering across teams, influencing without authority, and serving as a trusted collaborator with both store and homeoffice partners.
• Strong planning and organizational skills: Able to balance longterm visual strategy with daytoday execution, adapting as business and customer needs evolve.
• Technology proficiency: Comfortable using digital tools and resources to manage projects and execution; working knowledge of floor planning software (e.g., Floorplanner) preferred.
• Demonstrated project management skills: Experience leading assortment introductions and showroom changes, including coordination of elements such as painting, lighting, and layout.
• Ability to safely perform the work: This role requires physical stamina; final candidates must successfully complete a preemployment physical to ensure safety and wellbeing.

If you have a design portfolio, please include a URL to your portfolio on your resume or cover letter, as part of your resume document, or submit it as a separate attachment during the online application process.

What you'll find as a Store Visual Merchandising & Design Associate: 

• Salary: $75,000 - $85,000 depending on experience.
• Benefits that focus on holistic well-being. The whole person matters, not just the one who shows up for work. That's why we invest in holistic well-being that supports and encourages you to live a full life. Besides a competitive paycheck, we offer several awesome perks to help you thrive in every aspect of life. Picture this: three weeks of paid vacation, a generous 401(k) match, profit-sharing, and a whole bunch of cool extras. We're talking about benefits that cover you from head to toe - physically, emotionally, and financially. To view all benefits offered by Room & Board, please visit: https://www.roomandboard.com/careers.
• Meaningful work. We create a meaningful work experience by empowering everyone to contribute, taking pride in everything we do, and making the world sustainable, inclusive and beautiful.
• A culture of respect. We sustain a culture of respect by relying on our shared values, building supportive and kind teams, and ensuring all voices are heard and celebrated.

To view our benefits in detail and to learn more about our culture, please visit our career site at https://www.roomandboard.com/careers.

Application Deadline: The position will remain open until filled; there is no specified deadline.

Room & Board is an equal employment opportunity employer. Our policy is not to unlawfully discriminate against any applicant or staff member on the basis of age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, disability, or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state, or local laws. We also prohibit harassment of applicants and staff members based on any protected category, characteristic or status. It is also our policy to comply with all applicable state, federal and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.

As an applicant, you have rights under Federal Employment Laws, and your state may offer additional protections. To view applicable laws, visit our partner site.

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