Lead Designer

Verve Partners; Newcastle City Council; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Verve Partners is seeking an experienced Architect or Senior Building Designer to own the design function for a NSW residential portfolio. You will lead and mentor the in-house design team while remaining hands-on with ArchiCAD and complex documentation.

Reporting to leadership, you will balance creativity with buildability and commercial needs, oversee workflow, and collaborate with estimating, construction and sales across a broad project portfolio.

Qualifications

• Degree in Architecture or related discipline.
• 5+ years in residential architecture or building design.
• Proven leadership or design management experience.
• Advanced ArchiCAD capability.
• Strong NCC/BCA knowledge and detailing skills.
• Ability to balance design with commercial and construction considerations.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and support the internal design team.
• Remain hands-on with architectural documentation using ArchiCAD.
• Oversee design workflow, priorities and delivery across the team.
• Maintain high standards of documentation, detailing and design quality.
• Identify opportunities to reduce rework and improve design processes.
• Review and enhance an extensive portfolio of residential designs.
• Partner with estimating, construction and sales throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure compliance with NCC requirements, NSW Planning requirements and relevant Development Control Plans.
• Oversee design risks, approvals, variations and project changes.

Skills

Mentoring

Leadership

Communication

Detailing

Education

Bachelor degree in Architecture

Tools

ArchiCAD

Job description

The Opportunity

Are you an experienced Architect or Senior Building Designer ready to take greater ownership of a design function and step into a role where you can genuinely influence both people and projects?

Our client is an established residential design and construction business delivering quality, functional homes across NSW. With approximately 200 projects moving through the business each year, they offer the stability of an established operation alongside continued investment in their people, systems and future growth.

This opportunity combines design leadership with hands-on technical involvement. You'll remain connected to the work while providing the direction, mentoring and oversight needed to support a high-performing design team.

About the Role

Reporting to the Pre-Construction & Estimating Manager, you'll take a lead role across the design function, overseeing projects from initial concept through to approval-ready documentation.

As a senior technical resource and key point of contact for design matters, you'll support the team with complex requirements, manage workflow and priorities, and identify opportunities to strengthen design quality and efficiency.

You'll also work closely with estimating, construction and sales, ensuring design outcomes balance creativity, compliance, buildability and commercial requirements.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead, mentor and support the internal design team
• Remain hands-on with architectural documentation using ArchiCAD
• Oversee design workflow, priorities and delivery across the team
• Maintain high standards of documentation, detailing and design quality
• Identify opportunities to reduce rework and improve design processes
• Review and enhance an extensive portfolio of residential designs
• Partner with estimating, construction and sales throughout the project lifecycle
• Ensure compliance with NCC requirements, NSW Planning requirements and relevant Development Control Plans
• Oversee design risks, approvals, variations and project changes
• Contribute to new design capabilities as the business continues to evolve

About You

You'll be an experienced residential design professional who enjoys being technically involved but is equally motivated by helping others perform at their best.

Ideally, you'll bring:

• A degree qualification in Architecture or a related discipline
• 5+ years' experience within residential architecture or building design
• Previous leadership, mentoring or design management experience
• Advanced ArchiCAD capability
• Strong knowledge of the NCC/BCA and residential construction
• High-level documentation and detailing skills
• Confidence communicating across different teams and stakeholders
• The ability to balance design outcomes with commercial and construction considerations
• A genuine interest in mentoring and developing others

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to move beyond simply producing designs and take greater ownership of how a design function operates and develops.

You'll join a collaborative, established business where you can influence design standards, support an experienced team and remain hands-on with a diverse portfolio of approximately 200 residential projects each year.

With continued growth ahead, there is also genuine scope to build your career alongside the business and play an important part in shaping what comes next.

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to the First Peoples of this country, their culture and Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise that this land was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.