Associate Director (Design Manager)

What's the opportunity? 

Our Project Design Management team are currently looking for an Associate Director to play a critical project leadership role on a range of flagship projects within our UK portfolio (both domestic and international).

The projects will be of significant scale and value and will vary in nature, including commercial, residential, cultural, and sport. The position will be based in our London office but will potentially involve travel overseas for site visits and meetings.

This is an opportunity to drive outstanding project delivery outcomes and make a significant contribution to some of our most iconic commissions -  the PDM team have previously supported on the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium, and the Battersea Powerstation redevelopment. The role will also see you partnering with signature external collaborators and clients, and working amongst multidisciplinary teams in the UK and further afield to shape positive collaboration between engineering disciplines and architecture. 

Be Challenged

With us, your preconceptions will be tested, your resilience built, and your career enriched.

This is an extremely varied role and will see you working amongst a broad range of stakeholders (both external and internal). Your typical responsibilities can be expected to comprise...

• Providing sound and effective leadership to the team, providing direction and technical advice, leading by example to achieve company goals and championing a quality culture
• Communicating with team members to ensure that they understand, and become engaged with, the project strategy, brief and client requirements
• Continually looking to enhance productivity through improved processes, procedures and systems
• Maintaining an overview of the commercial aspects of the project
• Communicating effectively with all stakeholders to ensure that all parties are kept informed on all relevant matters impacting and influencing projects
• Driving project performance, service delivery and technical and commercial outcomes and undertaking reviews, ensuring client delivery is above expectation
• Ensuring risks are proactively identified, assessed and managed to avoid adverse impacts on the project
• Working to ensure maximum client satisfaction, championing client care and proactively working with the client
• Reviewing the performance of team members and developing them to their full potential. 

What will success look like?

• Managing the delivery of projects to meet the brief, time, quality, budgetary and health and safety targets
• Establishing a strong network of internal and external clients in order to win new and repeat business
• Proactively managing all aspects of the client relationship so that delivery meets or exceeds client expectations with ideal outcomes including positive feedback and future business
• Taking a leadership role with the project team, providing both direction and technical advice and leading by example where appropriate
• Achieving or exceeding financial targets
• Finishing each project with a motivated team, a satisfied client and a profitable project.

Be Respected

We’ll help you meet your goals, respecting your ideas and fostering your creativity, collaboration and innovation.

As a talented Design Management professional with PD experience, it is expected that you can demonstrate the following...

• Experience as a lead designer and/or project manager, and a proven track record of coordinating design processes and delivering complex, large-scale projects through RIBA Stages 0-5
• Comfortable leading on client meetings within a multi-disciplinary context, and playing a lead role in negotiating outcomes and mentoring more junior members on how best to do this.
• You'll demonstrate proven capability in delivering and winning complex multi-workstream bid opportunities. You will have experience in bid management from opportunity identification through to project delivery, and be able to provide valuable input into opportunity qualification, win strategies, commercial discussions and bid delivery.
• You'll possess sound pastoral capabilities in terms of line managing, nurturing and developing a high performing team
• Familiarity with contractual conditions and procedures on a global scale is essential. 
• Degree or Masters qualification in a relevant discipline (e.g. Architecture, Engineering etc)
• Professionally registered with a relevant body, e.g. RIBA, IStructE, ICE, et al. 

Why Buro Happold?

From helping shape entire cities to adapting infrastructure to deal with the climate emergency, a career at Buro Happold presents the chance to make a difference. With a world-class reputation, our creativity and our people have delivered positive change to clients, the environment, and communities. If you want to be part of something bigger, this is your chance. 

Interested?  

Intrigued?  

Inspired?