Overview
Job Title: Design Manager : Education Projects
Location: Bristol
Salary: Competitive
Job Type: This is a full time, permanent role 40 hours over 5 days per week
Bowmer + Kirkland has grown to become one of the most successful privately owned and family run construction groups in the UK. We are Investors in People accredited and Scheme Partners of the Considerate Constructors Scheme, reflecting our commitment to staff and high performance.
We are now looking to strengthen our team with an experienced Design Manager with a background in the education sector to lead the coordination and delivery of design across pre-construction and live project phases of our work rebuilding schools.
Role: As Design Manager, you will be responsible for managing the design intent through detailed interrogation, coordination, and leadership of the design process across the full project lifecycle, ensuring compliance with the Building Safety Act, CDM Regulations, statutory approvals, and Bowmer + Kirkland internal governance. You will work with clients, consultants, specialist subcontractors, and internal teams to ensure design excellence, programme certainty, and buildability, embedding health and safety and digital innovation throughout.
Responsibilities
* Lead the management of the design process across one or more projects.
* Coordinate the full design team including consultants and design-and-build subcontractors.
* Manage the design programme, RFIs, change control and document control processes.
* Ensure designs are compliant with Building Regulations, planning conditions, CDM, and other statutory requirements.
* Drive Safety in Design (SiD) and embed buildability and health and safety risk mitigation.
* Oversee BIM coordination, clash detection reviews, and digital model audits.
* Support tendering, value engineering and pre-construction activities.
* Maintain a high level of technical and commercial awareness in all design decision-making.
* Engage in client meetings and lead proactive design-based communication.
* Participate in lessons learned and best practice forums to enhance our delivery model.
* Mentor junior design team members and actively support CPD development.
Qualifications
* Proven experience in a design management role, ideally within a main contracting environment.
* Strong technical design background with a degree (or equivalent) in a construction-related discipline.
* Solid understanding of current regulations (Building Safety Act, CDM, Building Regulations, etc.).
* Experience in coordinating multidisciplinary teams and managing specialist subcontractors.
* Skilled in BIM processes and using platforms such as Viewpoint 4P.
* Proactive, organised, and a confident communicator.
* Capable of managing a range of project types, tight deadlines, and complex design scopes.
Benefits
* 25 days holiday per year, plus 8 bank holidays and Christmas Eve.
* Entry into the Group Personal Pension Scheme
* Private Health Insurance (subject to a qualifying period)
* Enhanced family friendly policies (subject to qualifying period)
* Eye care voucher scheme
* Training and Development Opportunities
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