Residential Architect

AIA Seattle; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO, medical, dental, and vision

Close collaboration with Valor Builds

Award-winning workplace

Hybrid - Seattle

Job summary

AIA Seattle is seeking an experienced Residential Architect to lead high-end residential projects, from design through construction, in Seattle. You’ll collaborate with clients, architects, and builders to create buildable, beautiful homes within a tightly integrated design-build team.

You’ll work in a hybrid setup with the construction partners, bringing strong detailing and code knowledge to every phase, and guiding teams through budgets, schedules, and field challenges.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional architecture experience.
• Significant high-end residential experience.
• Experience leading projects from design through construction.
• Strong understanding of residential construction, detailing, and building codes.
• Strong project management and communication skills.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Architecture.
• Licensed Architect in Washington State preferred, but not required.
• Strong proficiency in Revit.
• Experience with AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Monograph experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead residential projects from concept through construction completion.
• Work directly with clients throughout the project.
• Develop thoughtful, beautiful, and buildable designs.
• Produce and coordinate complete construction documents; coordinate consultants.
• Collaborate closely with our construction team throughout design and construction.
• Participate in budgeting, estimating, value engineering, and scope decisions.
• Attend client meetings and construction site visits.
• Provide construction administration and help resolve real-world field issues.
• Review submittals, RFIs, and shop drawings.
• Manage project schedules and deliverables.
• Help create a seamless connection between design and construction.
• Carry a tape measure, crawl into an attic, and collaborate with the builder when needed.

Skills

Project management

Communication

Residential design

Detailing

Building codes

Education

Architecture degree

Tools

Revit

AutoCAD

SketchUp

Adobe Creative Suite

Monograph

Job description

Designer. Problem Solver. People Person. Professional Home-Maker.

THE SCENE: We design and build homes.

Not widgets. Not office parks. Homes. The places where people raise families, gather with friends, make memories, and occasionally stand in the kitchen at midnight eating cheese straight from the refrigerator.

We believe that makes what we do matter.

We're a small, award-winning residential design and construction company in Seattle working toward something pretty special: one truly integrated design-build business, where architects and builders work together from the first sketch through the final nail.

We're looking for an experienced Residential Architect who wants to help us do that.

But here's what matters: you need to want this for your life. This isn't just another job-it's a step into something bigger.

WHO YOU ARE

• Curious. You want to know why. Why is that wall there? Why are we detailing the window that way? Why does the builder see a problem we missed? You like figuring things out, learning how things work, and finding better solutions. And you're not afraid to say, "I don't know"-because "I don't know... but I'll figure it out" is one of our favorite answers.
• Humble. You're confident in your abilities, but you don't need to be the smartest person in the room. You know the builder with 30 years of experience, the carpenter, or the client might have a better idea—and you're genuinely happy to use it. You can defend a good idea without defending your ego.
• Accountable. When something goes wrong—a missed dimension, a detail that doesn't work, a client change for the 47th time—you don't look for someone to blame. You say, "I've got it," fix it, learn from it, and move forward.
• Hardworking. Great homes don't happen by accident. It's not all mood boards and beautiful kitchens. It's coordination meetings, consultant calls, redlines, details, code research, site visits, RFIs, budgets, revisions, and figuring out why something that looked perfectly reasonable on paper absolutely will not fit together in the field. You care about the work—all of it.
• Good with people. You can talk design with an architect, budget with a client, and construction with a superintendent. You listen well, communicate clearly, and can disagree without being difficult. Most importantly, when a project gets stressful, you don't disappear into your computer. You lean in.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead residential projects from concept through construction completion
• Work directly with clients throughout the project
• Develop thoughtful, beautiful, and buildable designs
• Produce and coordinate complete construction documentsCoordinate structural, mechanical, electrical, landscape, and other consultants
• Collaborate closely with our construction team throughout design and construction
• Participate in budgeting, estimating, value engineering, and scope decisions
• Attend client meetings and construction site visits
• Provide construction administration and help resolve real-world field issues
• Review submittals, RFIs, and shop drawings
• Manage project schedules and deliverables
• Help create a seamless connection between design and constructionAnd occasionally, you'll probably need to carry a tape measure, crawl into an attic, admit your builder teammate was right, or figure out why something costs $17,000 more than the client thought.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 8+ years of professional architecture experience
• Significant high-end residential experience
• Experience leading projects from design through construction
• Strong understanding of residential construction, detailing, and building codes
• Strong project management and communication skills
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Architecture
• Licensed Architect in Washington State preferred, but not required
• Strong proficiency in Revit
• Experience with AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Adobe Creative Suite
• Monograph experience is a plus

But here's the thing: your résumé isn't the most important thing to us.

WHY JOIN US?

We're building more than beautiful homes. We're building a company.

We believe the homes we create can genuinely change people's lives. We're in the middle of something - transitioning from caterpillar to butterfly, moving toward a truly integrated design-build model. That means there will be challenges. It also means there's a lot of room for someone with the right experience, curiosity, and ambition to make a real difference.

You'll have a meaningful voice, work closely with both architects and builders, see your designs actually get built, and help shape the future of how design and construction can actually work together.

THE practical stuff:

• Full-time
• Hybrid - Seattle
• $85,000-$115,000, depending on experience
• Part of the Collaborative Family
• Award-winning workplace
• PTO, medical, dental, and vision
• Close collaboration with our sister construction company, Valor Builds

ONE LAST THING

We're not looking for someone who checks every box.

We're looking for someone who reads this and thinks: "That sounds like my kind of place."

If you want to design beautiful buildings but don't want to understand how they're built, we're probably not the place for you.

If you want to be the smartest person in every room, we're probably not the place for you.

If you don't really like talking to clients, we're definitely not the place for you.

But if you're an experienced architect who loves residential design, loves learning, works hard, takes responsibility, enjoys people, and wants to help build something meaningful—

If you're ready to step into something bigger, not just fill a position—

We should probably talk.

Come help us build homes people love to live in.