National Behavioral Health Design Leader

DLR Group; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

DLR Group is seeking a National Behavioral Health Design Leader to advance planning and design of environments that support care, safety, dignity, and recovery. You will lead projects—from programming through delivery—working with clients and integrated design teams across the United States.

Ideal candidates have architecture/interior design credentials, extensive behavioral health experience, and a track record of leading design discussions, integrating clinical workflows, and coordinating

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in architecture, interior design, or related field.
• Significant experience planning or designing behavioral health environments.
• Experience leading design work and collaborating with clients and multidisciplinary project teams.
• Understanding of behavioral health care settings, clinical workflows, and safety considerations.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed and evidence-based design principles.
• Ability to communicate design ideas clearly through presentations and drawings.

Responsibilities

• Lead behavioral health planning and design from early programming to project delivery.
• Partner with clients, care providers, staff, and stakeholders to understand services and safety needs.
• Guide architectural and interior design solutions for crisis care, inpatient, outpatient, and residential settings.
• Translate clinical requirements into programs, layouts, and concepts.
• Apply trauma-informed design principles to support dignity and staff wellbeing.
• Collaborate with architects, engineers, and consultants across project teams.
• Lead client workshops, design presentations, and option evaluations.
• Provide guidance on materials, furnishings, and building systems for behavioral health spaces.
• Mentor colleagues and contribute to research and thought leadership.

Skills

Behavioral health design

Project leadership

Client collaboration

Trauma-informed design

Revit proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in architecture/interior design

Professional architecture license

NCIDQ certification

Tools

Revit

Job description

National Behavioral Health Design Leader

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

DLR Group is seeking a Behavioral Health Design Leader to advance the planning and design of environments that support care, safety, dignity, and recovery. As a leader in our behavioral health design specialty, you will bring deep expertise to projects ranging from community-based treatment and crisis care to healthcare and secure treatment environments. You will work with clients and integrated design teams to translate care models and operational needs into thoughtful architectural and interior design solutions.

This role is well suited to an architect or interior designer who can lead design conversations, guide complex projects, and help grow DLR Group’s behavioral health expertise. DLR Group operates within a hybrid work model and has a network of 30+ studios across the United States. We encourage qualified applicants from across our studio network.

About Behavioral Health Design at DLR Group

Behavioral health design calls for an understanding of how the built environment affects the experience of patients, staff, families, and communities. At DLR Group, our integrated teams design spaces that bring together therapeutic intent, clinical and operational function, and appropriate levels of safety. Our work includes settings for crisis response, treatment, recovery, and ongoing support. We draw on design research and trauma-informed principles to create environments that respond to the people and programs they serve.

What You Will Do

• Lead behavioral health planning and design from early programming and concept development through project delivery.
• Partner with clients, care providers, staff, and other stakeholders to understand services, workflows, safety needs, and goals for the patient experience.
• Guide architectural and interior design solutions for settings such as crisis care, inpatient and outpatient treatment, residential treatment, and community-based behavioral health programs.
• Translate clinical and operational requirements into clear programs, functional layouts, and design concepts.
• Apply trauma-informed and evidence-based design principles to support dignity, comfort, recovery, and staff wellbeing.
• Integrate safety, observation, privacy, and de-escalation considerations into therapeutic environments.
• Collaborate with architects, interior designers, engineers, planners, and specialty consultants across integrated project teams.
• Lead client workshops, design presentations, and discussions that help stakeholders evaluate options and make decisions.
• Provide guidance on behavioral health design requirements, materials, furnishings, and building systems in coordination with project specialists.
• Mentor colleagues, share expertise across teams, and contribute to research, thought leadership, and business development related to behavioral health design.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in architecture, interior design, or a related design field.
• Significant experience planning or designing behavioral health environments.
• Experience leading design work and collaborating with clients and multidisciplinary project teams.
• Understanding of behavioral health care settings, clinical workflows, and the relationship between therapeutic design and safety.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed and evidence-based design principles.
• Ability to communicate design ideas clearly through presentations, drawings, and written materials.
• Strong facilitation, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
• Preferred Qualifications
• Professional architecture license or NCIDQ certification.
• Experience across more than one behavioral health setting, such as crisis care, inpatient treatment, outpatient care, residential treatment, or secure treatment.
• Experience with healthcare facility design, including coordination of applicable codes and design requirements.
• Experience developing design guidelines, conducting facility assessments, or contributing to post-occupancy evaluations.
• Experience mentoring designers or contributing to design research and thought leadership.
• Proficiency in Revit and other tools used to develop and communicate design work.

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 20330 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 hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential 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 measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is 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.