Senior Landscape Architect - K-12 Schoolyard Greening Program, LAUSD

MAAS Companies; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 197,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP

Health insurance

Dental

Vision

401k

Paid time off

Job summary

MAAS Companies in Los Angeles seeks a Senior Landscape Architect to lead the Landscape Unit, supervising staff and guiding projects across planning, greening, irrigation, and hardscape. You will be the Landscape Architect of Record on in-house designs and provide technical direction to external firms.

You will engage with principals, teachers, and community groups, ensuring constructible, sustainable, and compliant outcomes. Licensure and broad project experience required.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional landscape architectural design on commercial and public projects.
• 3+ years supervising a team of landscape architects and staff.
• Bachelor's degree in landscape architecture and licensure as a landscape architect.
• Strong knowledge of planting design, materials, and technical landscape systems.
• Experience reviewing construction documents, specs, and contracts.
• Construction administration experience coordinating with engineers.
• Excellent design skills, organization, and communication.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Landscape Unit, directing staff, projects, and programs.
• Serve as Landscape Architect of Record on district projects and certify plans.
• Direct design for in-house and consultant projects and set design direction.
• Prepare drawings, specs, and construction documents; issue revisions.
• Provide technical direction to consultants and design firms.
• Develop scopes of work, proposals, and task orders.
• Engage with principals, teachers, parents, and nonprofits.
• Estimate costs, review materials, and determine delivery methods.
• Conduct site visits and resolve design/installation issues.
• Review grant documentation for greening and sustainability.

Skills

Leadership

Team leadership

Written & verbal communication

Organization

Self-motivation

Education

Bachelor's degree in landscape architecture

Licensed landscape architect

Tools

AutoCAD

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe InDesign

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Job description

The Work

LAUSD needs a Senior Landscape Architect to lead its Landscape Unit. You run the staff, the projects, and the programs that plan, design, and build landscape and greening work on District school sites, and you are the Landscape Architect of Record on the projects the District designs in house. Your name goes on the plans.

On in-house projects you set the design direction. On consultant projects you give the outside landscape architects and design firms their technical direction and hold them to the District's standard, and you negotiate their scopes, proposals, and task orders. You get out to the sites, see what is actually there, and fix what is going wrong in design or installation.

The work also faces the community. Principals, teachers, parent groups, and nonprofits all have a stake in what a schoolyard becomes. You hear them out, decide what belongs in the project, and build it in.

What You Will Own

• The Landscape Unit: its staff, projects, programs, and technical direction
• Landscape Architect of Record responsibility on District-designed projects: preparing, reviewing, coordinating, and certifying plans, specifications, and technical documents
• Planning and directing complex projects covering site planning, greening, irrigation, grading, planting, and hardscape
• Drawings, specifications, construction documents, and design revisions for new landscapes and changes to existing ones
• Technical direction and oversight of consultant landscape architects and other design professionals
• Design service proposals, scopes of work, and task orders: developing, reviewing, negotiating, and approving them
• Coordination and community engagement with principals, teachers, parent groups, nonprofits, and other stakeholders
• Cost estimates, evaluation of materials and equipment, installation methods, and project delivery methods
• Site visits and field investigations to assess existing conditions, review installation progress, and resolve design and technical issues
• Technical review and approval of grant documentation for greening and sustainability projects
• Design reviews for constructability, maintainability, lifecycle, sustainability, accessibility, safety, cost, and District compliance
• Technical advice to District management, project teams, and school site staff

What You Bring

• 10+ years of professional landscape architectural design on commercial and public agency projects
• 3+ years supervising a team of landscape architects and related staff, carrying projects from inception to completion
• Bachelor's degree in landscape architecture
• Licensed landscape architect, able to serve as Landscape Architect of Record and certify plans and specifications
• Extensive AutoCAD and Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), plus Word and Excel
• Knowledge of planting design, materials, and the technical side of landscape architecture
• Review of construction documents, specifications, and contracts
• Construction administration, including coordination with civil, electrical, and structural engineers
• Strong design skills, organization, self-motivation, and written and verbal communication

Preferred

• School or university projects
• Revit, Rhino, and Lumion

Compensation

Salary range: $180,000 to $197,000 per year, based on experience.

Benefits: health, dental, and vision at low cost; 401k; three weeks of PTO; and an ESOP (employee stock ownership) at no cost to you, with a 3% Safe Harbor contribution vested on day one.

Why MAAS

MAAS has spent nearly 40 years earning the trust of 50+ educational institutions across California, managing over $10B in projects. That track record means the work here is stable, funded, and consequential. You are not chasing the next contract.

As a MAAS employee, you are also an owner. The company is 100% employee-owned through an ESOP, a retirement benefit provided at no cost to you, on top of your salary. MAAS is a profitable, well-run organization and our share price has more than doubled since the plan's inception, with continued growth year over year. Your ownership stake builds the longer you stay, and ESOP participants nationally tend to accumulate 2.5x more in retirement savings than employees at non-ESOP companies.

In an industry not known for prioritizing culture, 96% of MAAS employees say it is a great place to work, and 100% say people genuinely care about each other.