Senior Design Manager / Associate
Location: Oxford (or flexible across regional offices + project sites)
Type: Permanent, Full-time
Your Opportunity
Are you a confident communicator with deep technical design and project leadership experience? This role offers the chance to take charge of multi-disciplinary projects in sectors including life sciences, education, and automotive. You will guide and elevate design management practices across the business, and play a central role in shaping design delivery excellence.
The Role
As Senior Design Manager / Associate, you will:
Lead professional design management across a diverse project portfolio.
Bring energy and ambition to drive design teams toward successful delivery on complex programmes.
Operate flexibly across regional offices and project sites.
Uphold and improve quality and technical standards influence systems and processes.
Apply deep understanding of the RIBA Plan of Work through all project stages, from pre-contract to post-contract.
Key Responsibilities
Define design programmes, deliverables, and communications across multiple complex projects.
Review and advise on project administration and reporting from lead consultants.
Chair design team meetings with internal consultants, external partners, and Tier-1 contractors.
Establish client technical approval processes and maintain internal quality assurance protocols.
Ensure that design teams are structured, enabled, and supported to deliver from the start.
Skills & Experience Required
Demonstrable experience managing design teams, acting as Lead Consultant or Design Manager on large-scale projects.
Strong background in architecture, engineering, or related discipline ideally with chartered status and senior leadership experience.
Proficiency in digital tools such as MS Excel, MS Project, and document management platforms.
Experience defining BIM deliverables and managing design programming across stages.
Exceptional stakeholder skills and the ability to lead confidently, even under pressure.
Personal Attributes
Proactive leadership style with excellent attention to detail.
Comfortable working autonomously and leading multi-disciplinary, distributed teams.
Resilient, adaptable, and capable in fast-paced, dynamic environments, including out-of-sequence or fast-track programmes.
What You Can Expect
A competitive salary and benefits package.
Hybrid/flexible working arrangements.
A strong emphasis on career development and mentoring.
Exposure to technically challenging, high-impact projects across multiple sectors.
A values-driven organisation focused on quality, ingenuity, and partnership.
Eden Brown is committed to equality in the workplace and is an equal opportunity employer