Senior Design Manager

Kier Group; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Kier Group is recruiting a Senior Design Manager for the South West construction team. The role involves leading design across pre-construction and delivery, coordinating with project teams and consultants to ensure design excellence on education, healthcare, science, and commercial projects.

You will manage design processes, support junior colleagues, and ensure compliance with CDM, Building Safety Act, and ISO 19650 standards throughout project lifecycles.

Qualifications

• Experience leading design across pre-construction and delivery stages.
• Strong knowledge of CDM Regulations and building safety standards.
• Proven ability to manage design teams and consultants.

Responsibilities

• Lead all design aspects including CDP and MEP design with specialists.
• Supervise design team and monitor consultant performance.
• Review drawings to ensure compliance, buildability and gaps.
• Develop design strategies aligned with bid and pre-construction goals.

Skills

Design management

Leadership

Regulatory compliance

CDM Regulations

Stakeholder management

Education

HND/HNC/TA level or equivalent

CIOB/ARB/ICE membership

Job description

We're looking for a Senior Design Manager to join our Construction team based in South West.

Location: South West

Hours: 37.5 per week - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us.

We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.

As a Senior Design Manager, you'll play a key role in leading design throughout both pre-construction and delivery stages. You'll work collaboratively with project teams, supporting junior colleagues whilst ensuring design excellence across education, healthcare, science, and commercial projects. This is an opportunity to make a real impact, managing design processes and building strong relationships with consultants and stakeholders.

What will you be responsible for?

As a Senior Design Manager, You'll Be Working Within The Construction Team, Supporting Them In Delivering Major Projects By Leading All Aspects Of Design Management. Your Day To Day Will Include

• Leading the delivery of all design aspects including CDP and MEP design, working closely with technical specialists
• Supervising design management team members and managing consultant performance using design programmes and quality plans
• Reviewing design drawings and documents to ensure regulatory compliance, buildability, and identification of any design gaps
• Developing design strategies aligned with commercial objectives during bid and pre-construction phases
• Ensuring compliance with CDM Regulations, Building Safety Act, and ISO 19650 standards throughout project lifecycles

What are we looking for?

This role of Senior Design Manager is great for you if:

• You have construction qualifications (HND/HNC/T level or equivalent) and membership of a professional institute such as CIOB, ARB, or ICE
• You have demonstrable experience working on educational, healthcare, science, commercial, or civic projects
• You possess strong technical knowledge including sustainability and fire safety
• You have proven people management skills with the ability to motivate teams and achieve high performance standards
• You have excellent knowledge of building regulations, statutory legislation, building contracts, and consultant appointments

We're all about finding potential here at Kier, and transferrable skills are always welcome!

Rewards And Benefits

We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.

Diversity and inclusion

Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here. As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.