Workplace Designer - Birmingham/Nottingham

Workplace Designer
Government Property Agency
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 15th October 2023

Reference number: 312508
Salary: £39,100 - £42,300
A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time

Location: Birmingham, Nottingham

About the job
The Government Property Agency is changing the way the Civil Service works and is at the forefront of Government's transformation agenda; reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their place of work. The Agency is central to the delivery of key Government policies including moving 22,000 Civil Service roles out of London by 2030 and tackling climate change by contributing to the Net Zero agenda. To do this we are delivering a major change programme across the UK and consolidating our portfolio in order to save £1.4 Bn over 10 years. 

Beyond the bricks and mortar, the GPA is about providing great workplaces for our people. Through programmes like Hubs, Whitehall Campus and Smart Working you will be in the vanguard of creating model working environments and promoting flexible working practices. 

This is an ambitious and exciting task, for which we need innovative people, with strong commercial acumen, who are passionate about visualising and implementing customer needs. Launched as an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office in 2018, we’re a relatively new department and we are growing fast so we also need people who thrive in ambiguity, can adapt quickly to change and are comfortable stepping outside of their remit to drive outcomes.

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.

To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Job description
The Workplace Designer (WD) is responsible for ensuring the Government Workplace Design Guide and supporting technical annexes are applied consistently across specific projects. They also provide day to day advice and guidance to the project team on design matters.

Supporting the Workplace Design Manager, and acting as the tactical Intelligent Client on specific projects, the WD interprets the Government Workplace Design Guide, GPA’s Employer Requirements and any client specialist requirements, informing design briefs for developers and GPA’s consulting design partners to produce designs for each RIBA stage.

The WD provides assurance that all designs support the GPA’s commitment to create workplaces that are safe, inclusive and accessible and as flexible as possible to support smarter and hybrid working practices.

Working as part of a wider team, the WD provides ad-hoc support on other projects as required, including the development and maintenance of our guides and standards to ensure our projects are at the forefront of sustainable and inclusive workplace design.

Reporting to a Workplace Design Manager, the Workplace Designer is responsible for:

• Advising the Workplace Design Manager on the status of the project’s design, ensuring they are aligned to the Government Workplace Design Guide and supporting technical annexes.
• Providing professional advice and guidance to the project team, escalating design related risks and issues as appropriate to the Workplace Design Manager.
• Technically assuring the designs produced by the GPA’s consulting design partners and developer’s architects, to ensure compliance with GPA standards, including inclusive and accessible design and the GPA look and feel.
• Supporting client engagement on all design matters.
• Implementing the Government Workplace Design Guide in full, as far as is reasonably practicable, and managing exceptions (client specialist requirements) into appropriate briefing material for designers to use during Cat A and Cat B RIBA stages, minimising the need for bespoke spaces.
• Work with the Stakeholder and Approval Manager(s) to review client specialist requirements to minimise costs and unnecessary derogation from the Government Workplace Design Guide and technical annexes.
• Providing information to inform detailed briefings, options analysis and information on design for senior leaders and stakeholders.
• Monitoring and reporting on the project specific design progress.
• Supporting the GPA Workplace Experience team to advocate smarter working.
• Supporting the GPA’s Technology and Data team to deliver interoperable AV/IT solutions.
• Supporting the GPA Workplace Solutions team to design customer focussed products and services.
• Working with subject matter experts in design-related areas across government, and private sector professionals including the property industry.
• Acting as a client design point of contact for designers, contractors, consultant partners and their supply chains on specific projects.

The Workplace Designer is directly accountable to the Workplace Design Manager for the status of their allocated project’s design.

Person specification
We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities and wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a sense of belonging in a workplace where everyone feels valued.

We are looking for an experienced design professional who can demonstrate knowledge, skills and experience in:
Essential:

• Knowledge and understanding of construction, technical specifications, workspace design and procurement. 
• Previous knowledge and practical experience of design management and delivery on large scale projects or programmes in ‘multi-disciplinary’ project teams.
• Managing effective governance controls in a complex business environment.
• Successful end-to-end delivery of large change projects through forming effective relationships with senior stakeholders, customer groups, policy makers, and creating engaged teams.
• Experience of effective client engagement and relationship management with senior leaders and stakeholders.
• Ability to make value based decisions and drive continuous improvement.
• Excellent IT skills including Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office and PDF mark-up software (e.g. Bluebeam Revu).
•  Experience of effective team working.
• Experience of communicating and influencing at a senior level.
• Understanding of project management methodologies.
• Understanding of Government or BSRIA Soft Landings process.
• Understanding of projects using BIM level 2.
• Experience using Common Data Environments (CDE) for document management.
• Experience gained in an architectural, design or construction based role.