Lead Architecture & Interior Design Manager

Lead Architecture & Interior Design Manager, Vice President
London
JR033385

We're seeking someone to join our team as a professional with relevant experience to lead workplace architecture and interior design for our EMEA real estate workplace portfolio. 

In the Corporate Services division, we empower our businesses by creating collaborative workplace solutions and commercial services that enhance the employee and client experience, while optimizing the value of our sourcing and third-party lifecycle to enable the Firm to do-and-win business. This is a Vice President level position within the Corporate Real Estate, which is responsible for overseeing the management, workplace design and acquisition/disposition activities of the Firm's properties (lease or purchase). 

Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.

What you’ll do in the role:
• Lead Architecture & Interior Design Manager as the senior regional design authority for Europe and Middle East, accountable for the strategic direction, governance, and delivery quality of workplace architecture and interior design across a complex, multi-country commercial real estate portfolio.
Regional Design Leadership & Governance
• Serve as the EMEA design authority for workplace architecture and interior design across major projects, refurbishments, and strategic initiatives.
• Translate global workplace strategy and standards into regionally appropriate design solutions across United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East.
• Establish and enforce design governance, review protocols, and approval frameworks from test fit through construction and handover.
• Consult with global Workplace Strategy and Occupancy Planning leaders to align space planning, occupancy models, and experience principles with local business needs.
• Lead and oversee external architects, interior designers, and workplace consultants, including global principal firms and regional partners.
• Define scope, performance expectations, and success metrics for outsourced design resources.
• Provide senior-level challenge to consultant proposals to ensure buildability, cost control, and technical compliance.
• Act as senior architectural design interface with landlords, developers, and asset managers across EMEA.
• Lead evaluation of green building and ESG performance to be reported for building selection and project interventions, partner with corporate services sustainability 
• Partner with Capital Projects and Construction teams to resolve design, documentation, and site issues that impact cost, schedule, or quality.
• Lead design input into value engineering, procurement strategy, and supply-chain risk mitigation, particularly in emerging markets.
• Sponsor post-occupancy evaluations, lessons-learned reviews, and design performance reporting across the region.
• Feed regional insights back into global workplace standards and strategy evolution.

What you’ll bring to the role:
• At least 6 years' relevant experience would generally be expected to find the skills required for this role
• 8+ years' experience in workplace architecture and/or interior design within commercial real estate environments.
• Demonstrated leadership on large-scale, multi-country office portfolios in EMEA.
• Extensive experience in financial services, professional services, or similarly complex corporate occupier environments.
• Proven track record managing landlord approvals, base-building interfaces, and high-density office fit-outs.
• Professional degree in Architecture or Interior Architecture / Design.
• Expert understanding of workplace planning, interior architecture, and corporate design standards.
• Strong technical literacy across MEP coordination, life safety, and construction documentation.
• Strong design acumen of interiors and ability to make design decisions to uphold design quality, consistency and high performance.
• Ability to operate at Director level, influencing senior stakeholders across regions and partner with other functional leaders within Corporate Services.
• Strategic, commercially astute, and outcomes-driven.
• Comfortable making decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Culturally fluent, with experience navigating EMEA regulatory and business contexts.
• Detail-oriented while maintaining portfolio-level oversight.
• Effective communication skills and comfortable operating within a global organization where major decisions are made in New York.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

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Certified Persons Regulatory Requirements:
If this role is deemed a Certified role and may require the role holder to hold mandatory regulatory qualifications or the minimum qualifications to meet internal company benchmarks.

Flexible work statement
Interested in flexible working opportunities? Morgan Stanley empowers employees to have greater freedom of choice through flexible working arrangements. Speak to our recruitment team to find out more.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background. Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

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