Design Manager – Edinburgh

Black & White Engineering; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch & Learn

Professional course support

Job summary

Black & White Engineering is seeking an experienced Design Manager to lead the design coordination and governance across high-profile Edinburgh projects. You will drive multidisciplinary teams, manage design programmes, and ensure delivery aligns with quality, risk, and cost targets.

You will work with internal teams and clients to optimise workflows, lead project meetings, and maintain strong relationships while upholding the company values including accountability and quality.

Qualifications

• Experience leading design management on complex engineering projects.
• Strong understanding of governance, design coordination and delivery processes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; ability to manage multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead design coordination across multidisciplinary teams from concept to construction.
• Manage design programmes, workflows and deliverables.
• Monitor risk, change control, quality and cost across projects.

Skills

Design coordination

Project governance

Stakeholder management

Communication

Chartered engineer

Multidisciplinary teams

Risk management

Schedule management

Education

Engineering degree

Chartered engineer status

Job description

Are you an experienced Design Manager looking to play a key role in delivering complex, high-profile engineering projects in our Edinburgh team? Then this role is for you.

We have an exciting opportunity to join our growing Design Management team, working alongside multidisciplinary engineering colleagues. You’ll be responsible for leading the design process, coordinating project teams and ensuring the successful delivery of high-quality engineering solutions throughout the project lifecycle, managing design delivery, stakeholder coordination, quality, risk and programme performance.

Your ability to organise, communicate and collaborate will be essential in driving projects forward. You’ll work closely with internal teams and clients to ensure designs are delivered efficiently, risks are managed proactively and project objectives are achieved.

What’s in it for you?

Project ownership

You’ll take a leading role in shaping and delivering complex engineering projects from concept through to detailed design and construction support, coordinating multidisciplinary design teams and managing design programmes, workflows and deliverables across your allocated projects.

You’ll join a growing Design Management team where you’ll be supported in developing your technical, commercial and leadership capabilities, with governance, quality assurance and project controls consistently applied to help you build your expertise.

Variety and challenge

You’ll work across multiple projects, collaborating with engineering specialists and global clients in the data centre sector, and supporting health and safety risk management in line with client requirements and company policies.

You’ll become a trusted point of contact for clients, building strong relationships and helping deliver outstanding project outcomes, while supporting project reporting and commercial tracking.

Collaborative culture

You’ll work alongside highly skilled multidisciplinary teams, leading collaboration between internal engineering teams, external consultants and design partners, and leading project meetings to ensure actions are communicated and managed effectively.

Autonomy and responsibility

You’ll take ownership of design coordination, programme management and project performance, managing risks, change control, quality and cost, and monitoring the performance of external consultants and design partners.

Strong values and culture

You’ll join a business built on our five values: accountability, integrity, simplicity, supportiveness and quality.

• Previous experience in a Design Manager or similar project delivery role.
• Degree qualified in Engineering, Architecture or a related technical discipline.
• Experience working within multidisciplinary design teams on complex engineering projects.
• Strong understanding of project governance, design coordination and delivery processes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively within project deadlines.
• Commercial awareness with an understanding of risk, programme and change management.
• Experience coordinating internal teams and external consultants.
• Understanding of RIBA preconstruction stages 0-5 or equivalent project delivery frameworks.
• Strong organisational skills with a proactive and solutions-focused approach.
• Working towards or holding a relevant professional accreditation or chartership.
• Experience within the data centre, mission critical or large-scale infrastructure sectors.

In addition, you will be joining a community that focuses on learning and development, through regular lunch and learn sessions and investment in accredited professional courses. You can set the pace for your own professional development, and whatever path you choose, you will receive relevant support.

About Black & White Engineering

Black & White Engineering is a multi-award-winning engineering consultancy with more than 1,300 employees across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America.

We specialise in the full spectrum of engineering design consultancy for the data centre sector, including Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing (MEP), Civil & Structural, Design Management, Sustainability, BIM, Power Systems and other infrastructure-related services.

Our engineering approach is grounded in practicality, technical excellence and operational efficiency. With rapid growth across regions, many colleagues have progressed from engineering roles into leadership positions - your future development is supported and recognised.