University Florist

Lead Floral Designer

Lexington, VA | Full-Time, Hourly | Relocation Considered

About Us

University Florist has been Lexington's premier flower shop for 45 years. We're a full-service community florist in the Shenandoah Valley, serving an area anchored by historic universities (Washington & Lee University, the Virginia Military Institute, and Southern Virginia University) and destination weddings. We fulfill daily orders, sympathy arrangements, standing corporate accounts, and have a growing wedding business.

The shop changed hands in 2026, and we're building something with real ambition: national recognition for our design work while remaining the local shop that the community depends on.

We are a close-knit team that’s growing quickly, and the person we hire will help shape the future of the business.

The Role

Our business is growing quicker than expected, so we're hiring a Lead Designer to take ownership of our design function.

This is a design job. Not a sales job. You handle flowers, which means you spend your time on the craft rather than the logistical minutia of invoicing.

Responsibilities include:

• Build floral proposals and recipes for weddings, working directly with brides to translate their vision into executable design

• Lead design and installation on wedding day

• Build and refine recipes for daily order work, balancing beauty with cost

• Design daily arrangements: sympathy, celebration, everyday, seasonal

• Help with wholesale ordering and product selection

• Set design standards and mentor our designers

• Help develop our seasonal and signature collections

Who We’re Looking For

We are genuinely open on experience level, and are willing to shape the role and pay around the right person.

Required:

• Formal floral design training: a certificate program, horticulture coursework, AIFD/CFD credential, or equivalent structured education

• Demonstrated command of design fundamentals: color theory, mechanics, proportion, seasonal material knowledge

• Portfolio showing range beyond a single style

• Comfort working directly with clients regarding their event

• Physical capacity for the real work — lifting buckets, long installation days, early mornings and late nights as needed

• Valid driver's license

Strongly Preferred:

• 2+ years in a retail flower shop or event studio

• Wedding and large-event experience, including on-site installation

• Recipe building and floral costing experience

• POS/order management systems

What Matters Most (more than anything above):

• Judgment about flowers: knowing what will open, what will hold, and what will photograph

• Wanting to build something rather than execute someone else's list

• Reliability, especially during the weeks that matter

For a designer early in their career, we're open to structuring this as a Lead Track position with a defined path to the full role. If you have the training and the eye but not yet the years, apply anyway and tell us that.

Compensation

• Starting at $20/hour, based on experience

• Annual continuing education budget

• Employee discount

Why Lexington

Lexington is a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains with a great food scene, three colleges, and some of the best hiking in the mid-Atlantic. The cost of living is a fraction of what it is in Charlottesville or DC. If you're a designer who wants creative authority and a life outside of work (rather than a fifth-chair position at a big studio) this is a rare combination.

To Apply

Send a résumé and portfolio (PDF, link, or Instagram - format is less important than the showcased designs) to info@universityfloristva.com. Tell us in a few sentences about a design you're proud of and one you'd redo.

University Florist is an equal opportunity employer.