How To Become An Interior Design Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is an interior design director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Bill Darcy

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an interior design director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.53 an hour? That's $88,458 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an interior design director?

Bill Darcy

CEO, National Kitchen & Bath Association

This year has thrown curveballs at us like never before, and the job market is just one of the areas that has been upended," said Bill Darcy, NKBA CEO. "One thing the pandemic has proven is that our homes are multitasking more than ever - like home office, home school, gym, spa - and our kitchens are getting quite a workout, as the family's central hub and gathering space. People are anxious to remodel, so they may customize their spaces to accommodate these new needs. This is one sector where business is robust, and many of our NKBA designer and remodeler members can't keep up with the volume of work. So, entering the workforce in a design or remodeling capacity holds a great deal of promise. Work and jobs are plentiful - and our research shows that design, construction and remodeling activity is likely to continue well into next year and beyond. Of course, no one can predict the course the pandemic might take or other factors might affect the economy, but I would suggest that this is an excellent time to explore internships and apprenticeships in the skilled trades, because these professional pathways, as well as kitchen, bath and interior design, are likely to yield solid opportunities for the foreseeable future.

ScoreInterior Design DirectorUS Average

Salary

6.9

Avg. Salary $88,458

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate 1%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.14%

Asian 4.57%

Black or African American 1.48%

Hispanic or Latino 7.59%

Unknown 4.08%

White 82.14%

Gender

female 69.79%

male 30.21%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an interior design director

Explore interior design director education requirements

Most common interior design director degrees

Bachelor's

70.9 %

Associate

14.5 %

Master's

9.7 %

Start to develop specific interior design director skills

Skills	Percentages
Design Concepts	19.69%
Photoshop	16.94%
Business Development	10.14%
Design Process	9.28%
Leed	8.34%

Complete relevant interior design director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New interior design directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an interior design director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real interior design director resumes.

Research interior design director duties and responsibilities

Manage the schematic phase and generate all the necessary documents to be submit to the structural and MEP consultants.
Work include a broad portfolio of corporate, healthcare, institutional and educational projects.
Establish architecture process allowing architecture evolution through contributions
Design and draft compression and transfer rubber molds and steel rule dies in SolidWorks.

Get interior design director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become an interior design director. The most common roles before becoming an interior design director include interior designer, interior designer/project manager team lead and designer.

Prepare your interior design director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your interior design director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an interior design director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable interior design director resume templates

Build a professional interior design director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your interior design director resume.