Design Head - Retail Fixtures

Job Description: Lead Design & Engineering Position: Lead Design & Engineering Location: Bengaluru (Bommasandra factory; travel as required) Direct Reports: All members of the Design & Engineering team CTC Range: 18 LPA (commensurate with experience) Experience: 1015 years Employment Type: Full-time About AGX AGX Retail Solutions is a 38-year-old, end-to-end retail environment company serving 135+ brands across India including Samsung, LG, Adidas, Royal Enfield, and Nykaa. With 200,000+ sq. ft. of ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001:2018-certified manufacturing space across Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR, AGX delivers fixtures, furniture, signage, graphics, and digital displays at scale. AGX is at a decisive inflexion point. The Design & Engineering function is the nucleus of this transformation, the team that turns client briefs into manufacturable designs, prototypes into approved reference samples, and documentation into audit-ready compliance records. The Lead Design & Engineering is the person who makes this function work as one coherent unit. Role Purpose This person owns the day-to-day leadership of the entire Design & Engineering team, coordinating workstreams, resolving technical blockers, maintaining output quality, and ensuring that every deliverable from a client render to a prototype submission to a compliance document meets the standards expected by AGX's most demanding clients. This is not a purely managerial role and not a purely technical role. It requires an engineer with strong design sensibility who can lead people, speak to clients with authority, and simultaneously hold the quality bar across physical prototypes, technical drawings, and documentation. Key Responsibilities Team Leadership & Coordination Lead, manage, and develop all members of the Design & Engineering team. Own the team's weekly work plan, allocate resources across concurrent projects, manage priorities, and ensure no workstream is blocked or unowned. Conduct regular 1:1s and team reviews; identify skill gaps and development needs; and support in building the team's capability over time. Act as the first point of escalation for all technical, quality, and coordination issues within the team, and resolve them at the team level before escalating. Represent the Design & Engineering function in reviews with the stakeholders. Design & Engineering Oversight Own the Design Review Protocol end-to-end: ensure every project passes through the full gate sequence (brief concept 3D model production drawing BOM prototype ARS) before entering bulk production. Review and approve all production drawings, shop drawings, and assembly drawings before issue to the factory floor. No drawing proceeds to production without the Lead's sign-off. Drive SWood/SolidWorks adoption across the Design Engineer's workflow; ensure the design-to-BOM-to-CNC pipeline is fully automated and error-free. Maintain the Design Library: modular fixture families, standard hardware details (Hafele and equivalents), approved finish specifications, and tolerance standards across product categories. Ensure technical drawings and specifications for export programmes meet international standards, dimensional tolerances, material callouts, finish specs, and packaging data. Prototype & Quality Gate Work alongside the Senior Prototype Engineer to govern the Proto Cell: ensure the Prototype Checklist is applied rigorously, ARS records are maintained, and no sample is submitted to a client without the Lead's technical sign-off. For Premium client programmes, personally review prototype submissions before they leave the factory, confirm conformance to specified targets, dimensional tolerances, finish quality, and assembly standards. Maintain a direct working relationship with the QA & Compliance team, ensuring that in-process inspection findings are fed back into design and production drawings to prevent recurrence. Own Design for Manufacturability (DFM). Identify features in incoming designs that cannot be produced at scale or within cost, and drive resolution before tooling or production commitment Premium Client Technical Leadership Serve as AGX's senior technical authority responsible for the engineering integrity of all prototype and production submissions. Oversee all technical exhibit preparation for RFQ and RFP submissions: factory capability descriptions, shop drawings, technical notes, material specifications, and process documentation. Work with the team to ensure that the client's technical queries, drawing review comments, and engineering change requests are responded to accurately, promptly, and in the correct format. Support the supply chain team in resolving technical questions from key material and component suppliers, particularly on specification conformance and substitution risk. Standards, Process & Continuous Improvement Own the Tolerance & Finish Standards Document for all product categories, update it as new product types are introduced or as client requirements evolve. Drive continuous improvement in the design-to-delivery cycle time by identifying bottlenecks, implementing process changes, and tracking improvements with measurable KPIs (drawing error rate, prototype first-pass approval rate, cycle time). Support the team in maintaining the engineering drawing register and controlling the distribution of drawings to production; obsolete revisions must never reach the factory floor. Contribute to AGX's sustainability and certification roadmap: support LCA documentation development, FSC supply chain alignment, and product-level compliance exhibit responses as required. Required Skills & Competencies CategoryRequirement Engineering Domain Deep working knowledge of retail fixture and furniture manufacturing: metal (MS, SS, aluminium), wood (MDF, plywood, veneer), acrylic, composites; LED-based illuminated display systems including driver integration. Design Tools SolidWorks (mandatory); SWood plugin for woodworking/furniture (strong advantage); AutoCAD; ability to review and approve 3D models and 2D production drawings to tolerance. Prototype & QC Hands-on understanding of prototype build processes across multiple materials; ability to interpret dimensional inspection reports and surface finish assessments. Technical Communication Ability to produce and review engineering documentation with drawing notes, material callouts, and specification language. People Leadership Demonstrated experience leading a multi-discipline technical team; ability to manage workloads, resolve conflicts, and develop people. Client-Facing Confidence Comfortable presenting technical content to senior client teams; ability to defend engineering decisions clearly and professionally. Systems Thinking Ability to see the design-to-production pipeline as a system; identify where it breaks and fix it structurally, not just reactively. Qualifications B.E. / B.Tech in Mechanical, Production, or Industrial Engineering (mandatory); M.Tech or MBA is an advantage but not required. 1015 years of experience spanning design engineering, product development, and team leadership in a retail fixture, furniture, display manufacturing, or precision fabrication environment. Minimum 3 years in a role with direct reports across design and/or engineering functions. Demonstrated experience working on a global brand programme, technology, automotive, FMCG, or luxury retail, where engineering documentation standards were defined by the client, not the supplier. Proficiency in SolidWorks; SWood experience is a material advantage. Experience in an ISO 9001-certified manufacturing environment is mandatory. What Success Looks Like at 6 Months All Design & Engineering team members have clear work plans, weekly check-ins, and development goals. Design Review Protocol enforced on 100% of new projects, with zero production drawing errors reaching the factory floor. SWood-integrated design-to-BOM workflow running end-to-end with no manual workarounds. Proto Cell Approved Reference Sample library is complete for all active product lines. What Success Looks Like at 12 Months The Design & Engineering function operates independently for all day-to-day decisions. Prototype first-pass approval rate at 80%+ across all client accounts. Team capability gap identified, and at least one new hire or development plan initiated.