Senior Design Leader

CannonDesign has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Design Leader for our Texas region.   This position can be filled in our Dallas or Houston offices.   We’re a firm motivated by our Living-Centered Design ethos to push boundaries and invent new ways to best achieve our clients’ goals. If you think your skills and experience, make you a good match for this position, we’d love to hear from you.

ABOUT OUR FIRM

In 2019, Fast Company named us as a world changing company and one of the most innovative design firms in the world. We continue to be recognized each year for design innovation and world-changing ideas. We embrace innovation as our regular way of working, pushing our people to take risks, explore unexpected ideas, challenge precedents, and forge bold connections. We are an integrated firm, more than 1200 people strong, bringing together a spectrum of services united around a drive to make this a better place through Living-Centered Design, no matter who we serve.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are a seeking senior level creative leader who has the skills, experience and reputation that reflects the importance of this role in our design practice. You will be responsible for the successful implementation of our goal to be one of the most innovative, creative, and highly regarded design firms in the world. You will be an integral part of the office leadership team. You will help nurture and develop the people and culture of the office and be a leading voice for design excellence firm wide and to the outside world.

As Senior Design Leader, you will report to the Executive Director of Design and the Office Practice Leader in your physical location. Your primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Accountable for design excellence and the overall design quality of our work. Perform in a lead design role, communicating and representing design goals to the client and the team for the life of the project, with particular emphasis on early phase development. Partner with our most strategic thinkers, co-leading visioning, and setting conceptual direction. Collaborate with teams throughout all phases of development to ensure design quality.
• Create innovative design concepts that synthesize our clients’ culture, goals, and aspirations with the needs of people, community, society and the environment. Deliver solutions uniquely responsive to this expanded view of design impact.
• Prepare and direct the preparation of client presentation materials to convey the design in a compelling and sophisticated manner. Lead design presentations, with an emphasis on storytelling and aiding client understanding of the design. Capture and communicate key client goals and metrics and how our design solutions add value to our clients’ success. Collaborate with marketing and communications team to build strong narratives of our work.
• Work within our culture of being an integrated practice by collaborating with technical leaders, subject matter experts and others, creating holistic design solutions that fulfill the complex array of demands our projects require.
• Integrate performance-based and sustainable design strategies into design solutions. Further our goals to decarbonize the built environment and meet the AIA 2030 Commitment.
• Contribute to the firm’s portfolio with externally recognized design work. Publish projects in design and market-specific media outlets, as well as other potential opportunities for publication such as articles on research and innovation. You will be expected to regularly submit and successfully win design awards.
• Engage in activities that strengthen, differentiate, and promote our brand locally, regionally, and nationally. This includes cultivating your personal reputation as a creative leader in the profession. Presentation at and contribution to conferences and other speaking engagements is encouraged for our top design leaders.

Culture, Growth and Mentorship

Partner with us to create a strong design culture in your office and the firm. You will be responsible for:

• Mentoring and growing emerging and mid-career design professionals toward current and future creative leadership. You will set the standard for an environment that exemplifies collaboration, experimentation, innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship.
• Recruit, retain and grow entering through mid-career design talent.
• Creating a stimulating and rewarding environment that sets the tone for design excellence in the office and demonstrates it across the firm.
• Empowering staff and delegating effectively; building high-performance teams by encouraging innovation and continuous improvement.
• Provoking critical thinking and critique of our work.

Client and Business Development

You will have a close working relationship with