Lead Designer

• Maintain commercial awareness of how design packages are being developed in coordination with Commercial Department.
• Drive efficiency in model/drawing outputs to streamline procurement and reduce errors.
• Maintain regular communication with the commercial team to ensure alignment with budgets.
• Provide solutions to design challenges, compile and respond to RFIs, and maintain compliance with building regulations and industry standards.
• Liaise regularly with the planning, buying, operations, and commercial teams to ensure alignment on scope, procurement, and budgets.
• Peer review junior team members’ work and promote quality excellence across deliverables.
• Attend pre-construction handover meetings.
• Monitor design progress against programme and procurement schedules, highlighting risks or delays.
• Lead internal design reviews and ensure quality assurance before submission to clients or upload to CDE.
• Chair internal design team meetings and attend external client design coordination meetings.
• Ensure design deliverables are live, up-to-date, and revised as scope or client requirements change.
• Extract procurement dates and package requirements from design programmes.
• Lead the design set-up process at the start of each project, including drafting the TIDP (Task Information Delivery Plan) and design deliverables.
• Work closely with the buying team to ensure material schedules are accurate and user-friendly.
• Maintain clear, consistent communication with site teams and provide design support during installation stages.
• Monitor project spend and time allocation.
• Direct and support the design team and external consultants, setting weekly tasks and targets.
• Actively manage design changes, ensuring registers and commercial leads are kept updated.
• Ensure design deliverables, procurement schedules, and variation trackers are updated weekly.
• Organise purposeful site visits for yourself and junior designers to strengthen design-to-site integration.

We are seeking a Lead Designer within our growing Design Team. This role will be central to the success of our projects, leading design activities from tender submission through to project close-out. The Design Lead will act as the main point of coordination between design, commercial, procurement, and operations teams to ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring strong technical knowledge, commercial awareness, and the ability to manage both people and processes effectively.

• Experience managing multidisciplinary design teams and coordinating with external consultants.
• Strong understanding of design management processes, building regulations, and technical standards.
• Excellent organisational, leadership, and communication skills.
• Proven experience as a Design Lead / Senior Designer within the construction industry.
• Proficiency in project management tools.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to support procurement and cost control.
• Familiarise with project scope, available drawings, design intent, and construction programmes.