Client Leader

DLR Group; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan

Employee stock ownership

Bonus opportunities

Job summary

DLR Group is seeking a Client Leader in San Diego to drive business development, manage client relationships, and lead contract negotiations. You will guide the design process with project managers to ensure financial success and maintain strong client contact throughout project lifecycles.

Ideal candidates bring a architecture/AEC background, licensure, and 20 years of experience, including 5 years in client-facing leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Engineering, or Interior Design is required.
• Professional licensure is required or strongly preferred.
• Strong business, leadership, and client-relations skills are essential.

Responsibilities

• Manage project execution within budget, schedule, and scope while meeting client expectations.
• Collaborate with Project Manager on staffing, responsibilities, and performance feedback.
• Track milestones, ensure quality, and prepare status reports for stakeholders.
• Facilitate meetings with staff and clients, coordinating personnel, vendors, and consultants.
• Participate in client contract negotiations and approve plan modifications.
• Support business development through RFP responses and client interviews.
• Oversee invoicing and account receivables to ensure alignment with deliverables.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Engineering, or Interior Design

Professional Licensure

Job description

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

Position Summary

As a Client Leader, you will play a key role in business development, managing client relationships and leading contract negotiations. You will educate clients on our design process while collaborating with the project manager to ensure the financial success of each project. Throughout the project lifecycle, you will maintain consistent client contact, foster a collaborative and innovative work environment, and ensure that both client and DLR Group goals are met.

What you will do:

• Manage project execution, ensuring alignment with budget, schedule, and scope while maintaining client expectations
• Collaborate with the Project Manager on staffing, responsibilities, and performance feedback for project team members
• Track project milestones and deliverables, ensuring adherence to quality standards and preparing regular status reports
• Facilitate and document meetings with staff and clients, coordinating project personnel, vendors, and consultants
• Participate in client contract negotiations, manage change requests, and approve project plan modifications
• Support business development initiatives by contributing to RFP responses and participating in client interviews
• Oversee project invoicing, ensuring accuracy and alignment with work deliverables, and manage account receivables

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Engineering, or Interior Design
• 20 years of professional experience in the AEC industry, with at least 5 years in a client-facing leadership role
• Professional Licensure
• Strong understanding of business management principles, including strategic planning, resource allocation, and leadership
• Knowledge of customer service principles, including needs assessment, quality standards, and customer satisfaction
• Expertise in design techniques and tools for producing technical plans, drawings, and models
• Familiarity with building methods, materials, and systems for construction and renovation projects
• Strong critical thinking, time management, and communication skills, both verbal and written
• Ability to actively listen, understand others' perspectives, and respond thoughtfully in conversations

Our comprehensive Benefits at DLR Group include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer a 401(k) plan, employee stock ownership, and bonus opportunities. Compensation considerations are based on location, experience, and skills. The suggested pay range for this position is:

Pay Range

$160,000 - $200,000 USD

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.

We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together. DLR Group follows a four-day in-office work model, with employees having the flexibility to work somewhere other than the office on Fridays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in DLR Group’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.