Manager | Place & Design

SONDA Recruitment; City of Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SONDA Recruitment is offering an exciting opportunity for a Principal-level position in a well-regarded engineering consultancy in Melbourne. This role is highly strategic and hands-on, demanding strong leadership across disciplines of town planning, urban design, landscape architecture, and building design.

The ideal candidate will possess a remarkable ability to manage multidisciplinary teams while nurturing client relationships and fostering a collaborative environment.

This role offers a steady workload and the chance to influence the company’s design identity significantly.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing multidisciplinary design teams.
• Client relationship skills developed through successful project delivery.
• Ability to communicate place-making strategies clearly.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Place & Design function in a Principal position.
• Foster a shared design philosophy across disciplines.
• Nurture and grow trusted client relationships.

Skills

Managing multidisciplinary design teams

Client relationship skills

Place-making instincts

Strong communication skills

Education

Background in town planning, urban design, landscape architecture, or building design

Job description

Join a deeply committed engineering consulting firm

- one with a super steady workload and a commitment to 'people first'.

Recognition

for the unique skills you bring as a people person, someone who energises others and who challenges individuals to be their best.

Office based role, perhaps a day from home, maybe. Office culture sees most people at home 2 days a week, yet the nature of this role would suggest you need to be present in office.

The practice

This well-regarded Melbourne engineering consultancy has been transforming land into thriving communities for decades. Grounded in a multidisciplinary model and a deeply collaborative culture, they work across residential and industrial development; from greenfield subdivisions to brownfield regeneration; with a reputation built on intelligent, integrated delivery.

The role

This is a new role, a Principal level position, created to bring cohesion and senior leadership to the Place & Design function.

Your remit is both strategic and hands-on. You will be the connective tissue between disciplines, fostering a shared design philosophy and lifting the quality and consistency of output across the group. You will nurture and grow a portfolio of trusted client relationships, and step in technically when projects demand it. This is not a purely managerial role but you'll lean on this skillset a lot, especially at the start.

What you will bring

A background in one or more of the group's core disciplines of town planning, urban design, landscape architecture and building design, with the breadth of understanding to lead across all four.

• Proven experience managing multidisciplinary design teams.
• Client relationship skills that come from years of delivering well and being trusted.
• An instinct for good place-making and the communication skills to articulate this clearly; internally and externally.
• You will be someone who leads by example, brings people together rather than managing from a distance.

Why this role

The practice has a strong pipeline, a stable team, and a culture that takes its people seriously. This is an opportunity to shape something; to build a unified design identity across disciplines that have historically operated more independently; and to do so within a business that has the track record and client base to make it meaningful.