Project Architect, Education Practice Lead

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM); New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, disability, &

Life insurance

Retirement support

Employee assistance programs

Workplace flexibility

Paid holidays

Family leave

Paid time off

Licenses/certifications reimbursement

Mentorship & career development

Job summary

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) seeks a Project Architect and Practice Lead for Education to drive campus planning, programming, and stakeholder engagement across higher education and K-12. The role blends design leadership with strategic growth, mentoring teams, and strengthening client relationships.

You will lead design teams, coordinate with partnership and principals, and extend SOM's reputation for teaching and learning environments through evidence-based planning and innovative solutions.

Qualifications

• Minimum 12 years of experience or equivalent knowledge.
• Professional architecture license and LEED awareness.
• Strong leadership of interdisciplinary design teams.
• Experience in campus master planning and education environments.
• Proficiency with BIM, visualization tools, and project management software.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural project teams with SOM partners and leadership.
• Define design direction, schedules, and budgets across phases.
• Mentor staff, develop design judgment, and share knowledge.
• Drive cross-office collaboration and client engagement.
• Advance education practice with market growth and strategic plans.
• Represent SOM in client meetings, conferences, and events.

Skills

Campus master planning

Space programming

Stakeholder engagement

Community outreach

Leadership

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

Professional degree in Architecture

Licensed in state of practice

LEED accreditation (preferred)

Tools

Microsoft Office

Smartsheets

Adobe Suite

Google Workspace

Revit

Rhino

Deltek Vision

Salesforce

Job description

At SOM, we are a collective committed to shaping a better future for our clients, communities and planet. We aspire to create the most sustainable, impactful work through creative, interdisciplinary teams with all the resources and diversity of a global firm. We value those who are passionate about excellence, innovation, integrity, inclusivity, and collaboration. Together we can achieve great things.

Success at SOM Means Ideas: We believe in a meritocracy of ideas. We look to everyone to actively contribute to the discourse in the firm.

Knowledge: We believe that expertise is the result of lifelong learning. We are not expected to know everything, but rather to passionately pursue answers, develop new skills and deepen our knowledge.

Product: We strive for excellence in the concept, quality, and delivery of our work.

Individual: We value individuals who bring the highest standards of professionalism and personal integrity in the way they work. Each person can develop and contribute their wealth of attributes, skills and knowledge to support the overall health of the firm.

Team: We value the power of interdisciplinary integration. A positive team culture in which everyone collaborates openly towards common goals is essential.

Firm: We have a history of making transformative contributions to the profession and our communities. We are constantly innovating and attempting to bring new approaches, solutions and processes to our work.

Overview

The Project Architect and Practice Lead for the Education practice serves as both project leadership and strategic advisor to enhance SOM's education work, for higher education and K12. This role advances the firm's strategic growth through business development, market leadership, and professional engagement. This position works directly with Partnership, Principals, and other Practice Leaders to extend leadership across projects, elevate design quality, strengthen client relationships, and strengthen the practice through mentorship, innovation, operational excellence, and organizational leadership. This role requires active engagement in understanding and articulating the forces that shape education buildings and campuses- it requires understanding of the education market, development of relevant data, tools, and models to serve these clients, and contributes to design innovation to advance SOM's reputation of design excellence in this practice area. Knowledge and expertise in campus master planning, space programming, stakeholder engagement, and community outreach for Education institutions is required. Through oversight of design teams and close collaboration with project leadership, this role focuses on alignment of design objectives with client expectations ensuring projects are delivered with exceptional service, strategic value and meet the firm’s financial performance targets. A core requirement of this position is to build talent in the studio from both a design and management perspective by mentoring teams, strengthening design judgment and effective communication and creating pathways for staff development through project work.

Practice Lead Responsibilities

• Contributes to the creation and implementation of functional business plans by identifying growth areas, desired clients, strategic opportunities, and the most effective ways to position SOM in the market.
• Shapes and implements practice-level priorities, including positioning, messaging themes, and business development goals in alignment with Practice Leaders and functional market leadership and Marketing.
• Co-leads Practice Group Meetings with Practice Leaders to lead discussions about active pursuits, business development activity, and financials and collaborates with Practice Leaders and functional leadership to evaluate potential clients and new projects.
• Co-manages pipeline with Functional Practice Leaders and understands pipeline, win rates and ROI, and reports out regularly to the Global Marketing Directors and leadership on functional market progress.
• Identifies patterns, trends, client themes, and cross-market opportunities by conducting, synthesizing, and organizing market, client, competitor, and historical research to inform strategic planning, business positioning, functional market growth, pursuit strategy, and leadership decision-making.
• Contributes to the improvement of firmwide practice marketing assets and knowledge systems, including project data, imagery, reusable narratives, and content organization.
• Drives business development activity in collaboration with Practice Leaders, including evaluation of potential clients and new projects, pipeline management, Go/No Go decision-making, and active pursuit strategy.
• Represents SOM to clients, consultants, and industry organizations; develops and maintains a strong business network in relevant functional markets; identifies and strategizes participation in conferences and events; and advises and mentors staff on writing, storytelling, interview preparation, content strategy, and market positioning techniques.
• Facilitates integrated, participatory, and data-informed planning and design processes on Education projects.
• Advises teams and clients on best practices, trends, and strategies to implement best-in-class planning and design solutions for teaching and learning environments.
• Extends the reach of Education Practice leadership by representing the practice in project work, design reviews, client engagements, and internal collaboration across offices and teams.
• Guides project teams in early stakeholder engagement, programming, and scope definition for educational spaces and campus environments.

Project Responsibilities

• Leads Architectural Project Teams through close collaboration with SOM Partners and Project Leadership to achieve design excellence, technical rigor, and successful client outcomes.
• On select projects, serves as a day-to-day design and management leader across project phases, helping define design direction, decision-making frameworks, and integrated work plans aligned with project goals, scope, schedule, and budget.
• Leads the creation of strong conceptual design abilities within the project team, integrating interdisciplinary criteria to move projects forward in ways that reinforce design intent and project quality.
• Oversees key design and client deliverables such as diagrams, planning materials, presentations, 3D models, drawings, renderings, and other communication tools needed to advance project work.
• Effectively communicates internally with project teams and externally with consultants and clients through timely and appropriate written, oral, and visual means.
• Collaborates with Partners and Project leadership to prepare, issue, and manage compliance plans to align project goals including budget, deliverables and schedule.
• Gains agreement with the senior team for labor allocation.
• Chairs weekly team meetings to address variances from the project plan.
• Initiates, monitors and maintains project schedule and work plan including schedule of meetings and presentations including early stakeholder engagement for programming and scope definition of educational spaces.
• Establishes, communicates, and maintains standards of quality for design and documentation output, and proactively reviews work for alignment with project goals, design intent, technical requirements, and SOM standards.
• Participates actively in project discussions and decision making, helping teams resolve issues with clarity, consistency, and strong judgment.
• Builds trust with clients by translating design strategy into clear recommendations, leading presentations and workshops, and ensuring that the work reflects both client priorities and SOM's standards of excellence.
• Initiates and maintains SOM-Client Services Agreement, SOM Sub-Consultant Agreements and requests for additional services.
• Monitors scope for contract compliance, financial performance and potential additional services.
• Actively engages in project risk management through close collaboration with SOM Partners and legal group.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Actively leads multiple projects and teams.
• Is established as an office-wide resource in an area of expertise for market, discipline, or department.
• Inspires and leads others by example, participates in staff mentoring and training, clearly defines team member expectations and responsibilities, empowers others, and delegates where appropriate based on team members’ recognized abilities and potential.
• Directly supervises staff and is committed to direct reports’ professional development.
• Builds and develops teams through mentoring, feedback, staffing input, coaching, and the creation of meaningful growth opportunities.
• Engages in talent strategy to find specialists, leaders, and future professionals for the firm through resume review, interviews, and leveraging personal network.
• Actively engages in internal and external professional development opportunities.
• Demonstrates leadership in the implementation of sustainable strategies in all project assignments and the associated development of staff knowledge.
• Creates and drives new ways of working through contributing to the development of services, standards, and procedures based in an understanding of the business principles that protect SOM from financial and legal risk.

Minimum Qualifications

• Significant knowledge and expertise in campus master planning, space programming, stakeholder engagement, and community outreach for Education institutions is required.
• Professional degree in Architecture.
• Licensed in state of practice; LEED accreditation preferred.
• Minimum 12 years of experience or equivalent knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully lead interdisciplinary design teams and guide projects toward strong design, quality, schedule, budget, and program outcomes in collaboration with Project Leadership.
• Strong conceptual design ability and demonstrated judgment in planning and design decision making.
• Strong understanding of sustainable strategies and principles including familiarity with LEED or other green building rating systems.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Smartsheets, Adobe Suite, and Google Workspace.
• Proficiency in design and visualization tools relevant to architectural practice, including familiarity with Revit, Rhino, and related digital workflows.
• Proficiency with Deltek Vision and Salesforce.

Compensation for this role is based upon experience, qualifications, location, and education and typically ranges from $150,000 to $200,000.

For more about SOM: www.som.com

Portfolios must be submitted for all design and project management positions (Architecture, Interiors, City Design, Graphics, etc).

Applications without work samples will not be reviewed.

Portfolios should be one PDF attachment, 10-20 pages, maximum 5 MB.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is a global practice of architects, engineers, and planners renowned for designing buildings, interiors, and public spaces that push the boundaries of technical and environmental innovation. Our interdisciplinary teams collaborate across an international network of studios to deliver projects of lasting impact. Through our built work, research, and advocacy, we are advancing strategies to decarbonize the built environment. Learn more about our commitment to climate action.

Working at SOM

Our practice was built to champion inclusivity of expertise, people, and ideas. Together, we cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset that equips our teams to face new challenges. Our studio culture offers opportunities for mentorship, growth, and leadership across project teams, offices, and employee resource groups. SOM is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, and we have been recognized with the highest ranking awarded on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index. We publish an annual Impact Report as part of our ongoing commitment to advancing equity in our practice and the profession.

Our Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and accident insurance.
• Retirement support.
• Free access to employee assistance programs for employees and family members.
• Workplace flexibility.
• Paid holidays.
• Family leave.
• Paid time off.
• Reimbursement of costs for professional licenses, certifications, and exams.
• Specialized, in-house career development and mentorship programs designed to help you advance your knowledge and expertise.

Notice to Applicants

Portfolios must be submitted for all design positions (Architecture, Interiors, Planning, etc).

Applications without work samples will not be reviewed.

Portfolios should be one PDF attachment, 10-20 pages, maximum 5 MB.