Senior Urban Designer

Lead Careers; Tyseley; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Career progression

Professional development support

Accreditation assistance

Job summary

Lead Careers is seeking a Senior Urban Designer with a focus on residential layout and placemaking. The role is based in Birmingham or London with hybrid working.

You will take ownership of layouts, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, and ensure designs meet planning and commercial requirements. Applicants should have extensive residential design experience, a strong portfolio, and the ability to deliver from feasibility to detailed design.

Qualifications

• Strong residential urban design expertise across masterplanning and detailed layouts.
• Portfolio demonstrating viable, deliverable residential layouts for various site sizes.
• Experience from early feasibility through concept masterplanning to detailed design.
• Good understanding of housebuilder, developer and land promoter priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead residential projects from brief to key planning stages.
• Present and defend design proposals with clients and authorities.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams and manage competing requirements.
• Review junior team work and manage multiple projects and deadlines.
• Ensure layouts balance design quality with commercial viability.

Skills

Residential Design

Masterplanning

Layout Design

Client Presentations

Team Leadership

Education

Urban Design / Architecture degree

Professional accreditation desirable

Tools

AutoCAD

Job description

Role - Senior Urban Designer - Residential Layout Specialist

Location - Birmingham or London

Salary - £50K

Our client, a well-established landscape architecture and urban design practice is looking to add a Senior Urban Designer to its team. They work across a varied range of projects throughout the UK and offer a friendly, collaborative environment with good opportunities for career development and progression.

The ideal Senior Urban Designer will have strong design skills, but just as importantly, know how to make residential layouts actually work. This means being able to balance development numbers and commercial requirements with good placemaking, streets, parking, landscape, drainage and the various technical constraints that come with a site. At Senior level, the role needs someone comfortable taking ownership of a layout, spotting what isn't working and finding practical solutions, while still making sure the end result is well designed and deliverable.

Senior Urban Designer Essential Requirements

• Residential Design Experience
• Strong professional experience in residential urban design, masterplanning and detailed layout design, ideally gained within a consultancy, housebuilder, developer or multidisciplinary practice
• A portfolio demonstrating commercially viable, technically considered and deliverable residential layouts across a range of development sizes
• Experience taking projects from early feasibility and capacity testing through concept masterplanning, layout development and detailed residential design
• Good understanding of the priorities and commercial requirements of housebuilders, developers and land promoters

Residential Layout & Placemaking

• Strong understanding of residential layout principles including street hierarchy, blocks, plots, frontage, building lines, density, enclosure and movement
• Ability to maximise development potential while maintaining strong placemaking, landscape and urban design principles
• Good understanding of how housing mix, density, development capacity and design quality work together
• Confidence resolving detailed layout issues including parking, servicing, refuse, cycle storage, amenity space, gardens, overlooking and separation distances
• Ability to interpret site constraints and opportunities and turn them into practical, coherent and deliverable layouts

Technical & Planning Knowledge

• Good working knowledge of the UK residential planning and design process, including experience supporting planning applications.
• Practical understanding of highways, street design, parking standards, drainage, utilities and other technical considerations affecting residential layouts
• Experience coordinating input from highways, drainage, landscape, ecology, arboriculture, BNG, utilities and other technical disciplines
• Ability to identify design and technical conflicts early and work with the wider team to resolve them
• Experience producing or contributing to framework plans, parameter plans, Design and Access Statements, design codes and other planning material

Design & Software Skills

• Strong AutoCAD skills with the ability to produce accurate and well-resolved residential layouts efficiently
• Good graphical and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate ideas clearly through plans, diagrams, sketches and written material

Senior-Level Experience

• Ability to lead residential projects and take ownership of layouts from the initial brief through key planning stages
• Confident presenting and discussing design proposals with clients, local authorities, consultants and other stakeholders
• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams and balancing competing design, planning and technical requirements
• Ability to review junior team members' work, provide guidance and manage multiple projects, deadlines and priorities
• Good commercial awareness, including an understanding of project scope, programmes, resources and client requirements

Desirable Experience

• Degree or postgraduate qualification in Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning or a related discipline, with professional accreditation or progress towards it desirable
• Experience working with housebuilders, land promoters or residential developers, ideally including large residential developments, urban extensions or new settlements
• Experience with outline, reserved matters and full planning applications, design codes, BNG, SuDS, green infrastructure and landscape-led masterplanning

On Offer

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working
• Strong opportunities for career progression
• Ongoing training and professional development
• Support towards professional accreditation and chartership
• Opportunity to work on large-scale and high-profile projects
• Collaborative working alongside landscape, ecology and other specialist teams
• Regular team socials, events, field trips and study visits
• Supportive and friendly studio environment
• A genuine focus on work-life balance and employee wellbeing

The Next Step

All applications for this Senior Urban Designer role will remain completely confidential between yourself and Adam Johnston. You will not be added to any mailing lists and rest assured your details would NOT be passed on to anyone without your prior authorisation.