Design Manager
£65,000 - £80,000+ Benefits
Wakefield
Full-Time / Permanent
Are you someone who can manage complexity, hold teams accountable, and deliver design outputs that actually help projects succeed. If you're process-driven, commercially switched-on, and can translate between designers, site teams and clients without losing your mind, then we need to talk.
We need someone to run our clients' Design office and make sure design actually gets delivered on time, within budget, and without drama. You'll be managing the team, coordinating with external consultants, keeping projects on track, and making sure everything that leaves the office is buildable and compliant.
This isn't a design engineer role, you won't be sitting doing calculations or drawings. It's about managing the operation: planning resources, setting up processes that actually work, chairing reviews, challenging designs when they need it, and being the go-to person when projects need design support.
YOUR NEW ROLE
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Own day-to-day running of the design office across UK and international teams
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Manage internal resources and external supply chain partners
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Balance workload, handle recruitment, set up procedures and approval routes
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Plan programmes, hold people to milestones, manage document control
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Lead design kick-offs, scope meetings, reviews and technical audits
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Coordinate teams and consultants to deliver practical, integrated solutions
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Manage RFIs, change control, queries – keep decisions documented
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Ensure designs meet contract requirements, standards, CDM compliance
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Drive right-first-time culture, manage non-conformances
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Set and track design budgets, monitor progress, flag risks early
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Line manage the team – objectives, coaching, performance
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Champion CDE use and model-based coordination
ABOUT YOU
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Must have project/business management background, ideally with design management experience in civils/infrastructure or contracting
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Experience running multi-disciplinary teams across projects, coordinating suppliers
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Technical literacy to challenge designs (don't need to produce them, just spot issues)
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Strong planning, communication skills, comfortable chairing reviews
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Commercial awareness: budgets, forecasting, NEC contracts, change control
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CDM 2015 and design risk management knowledge
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Familiar with CDEs and tools like ProjectWise, Aconex, 365, MS Project
SALARY AND BENEFITS
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£65,000 - £80,000 depending upon experience
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Bonus (discretionary)
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31 days annual leave
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Generous Pension
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Life insurance (4X salary)
Reference Number: T10
To be considered for this position or other opportunities, contact Tash Johnson at Equal Resourcing Ltd or click "Apply Now."
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