Associate Manager, Retail Design

Majid Al Futtaim Properties invites you to join us in our quest to create great moments for everyone, everyday We are the leading shopping mall, residential communities, and Hospitality pioneer across the Middle East, serving over 560 million visitors a year. For the past two decades, we have shaped the consumer landscape across the region, transforming the way people shop, live and play, while maintaining a strong sustainability track record and the largest mall in the world to attain LEED Gold EBOM Certification. We have over 40,000 team members in 15 international markets representing over 100 nationalities - all keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do. If you enjoy being BOLD, PASSIONATE and TOGETHER, then Majid Al Futtaim is the destination for you.

**Role Purpose**:
The position is responsible for managing the tenant design briefing, design approvals (concept and detail design) and site support in line with AMBU (Asset Management Business Unit) Retail Design Criteria. The goal is to deliver stores to the highest standard with aim of creating and maintaining engaging and high-performing retail destinations.

**Role Details - Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities**:
1. Continually support the evolution of Retail Design criteria and related collateral to ensure the retail environments are market relevant, customer focused and in line with the Asset positioning.
2. Brief MAF’s Retail Partners on Retail Design criteria and processes, provide continued support throughout the concept & detail design approval stages, follow the fit-out phase, whilst adhering to strict Retail Design milestones, ensuring no loss of rent (or impact on income stream) for scheduled openings.
3. Provide retail partners with relevant, viable, practical, cost-effective, and creative solutions to support or improve trade performance if their proposals don’t meet MAF standards. Ensuring a high impact outcome, commercially, operationally, and experientially benefiting all parties, putting the end customer at the centre of the experience.
4. Attend and participate in weekly forums with peers (or other key stakeholders within AMBU / AMDBU) to share and provide feedback on design concepts, support colleagues, learn, coordinate joint approvals, and help each-other in achieving stand-out concepts for MAF malls.
5. Carry out Green Star assessments for relevant projects in accordance with the established guidelines and assessment criteria.
6. Minimise the design review cycle by adopting a clear, constructive, detailed, consistent, fair feedback system.
7. Monitor, track, and accurately record project progress via an online system (CRM), and attend weekly progress update meetings ensuring stakeholders are continually informed.
8. Build and maintain strong relationships with:

- Retail Partners, their Project Managers, Design team, Contractors, Builders and/or Shop Fitters,
- Mall Management team, Mall Operations team, Mall Leasing team, Key Accounts team, Lease Contract Management team, Marketing team, STR team, Mall Security, PMBU counterparts, AMDBU counterparts.
- Local Authorities, Suppliers, Manufacturers
- RDD portfolios and RDD COE divisions

9. Maintain continuous contact with the Asset’s Leasing and other commercial teams to fully understand the agreed deal, (line shops/ kiosks/ marketing activations) and to allow timely coordination on T&C’s, TVRs, tracking related critical activities, ensuring the unit is ready for hand-over to the retail partner on the agreed deadline.
10. Ensure compliance with Majid Al Futtaim’s (MAF) Code of Conduct, Departmental policies and Human Capital Policies and Procedures at all times.
11. Be the advocate and ambassador of aligning and cascading the Majid Al Futtaim Properties values across the Business Unit and ensure that it is adhered to and exhibit the same all the time.
12. Lead by example - thrive to create an honest and open work environment where individuals collaborate /support each other as a team and are passionate to achieve a common business objective.

Disclaimer: This role description reflects the general details considered necessary to describe the principal responsibilities of the role identified and shall not be construed as an exhaustive description of all the work requirements inherent to success in the role.

**Functional/Technical Competencies**:

- Retail, F&B, L&E literate
- Creative problem solving and innovative thinker
- Strong Sketching skills
- Technical design knowledge (design development and manufacture detailing)
- Basic understanding of structural design
- Language: English
- business and technical fluency essential; Arabic - highly desirable

**Personal Characteristics and Required Background**:
**Personal characteristics**:

- Strong Communication & Negotiation skills (verbal, written and presentation)
- Organized, structured and accurate (concisely managing a broad and varied workload)
- Strong time management (adhering to milestones)
- Ca