Urban Designer

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Austin (TX); On-site; USD 115,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SOM in Austin seeks a senior City Design/Urban Design leader to direct complex urban projects and mentor a multidisciplinary team. The role emphasizes collaboration with clients, consultants, and project leaders to advance design excellence across all project phases.

The position requires a professional degree and a minimum of 10 years in urban design, with strong leadership, communication, and design visualization skills. Compensation reflects experience and location.

Qualifications

• Professional degree in Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, or Landscape Architecture.
• Licensed in state of practice or must be AICP or equivalent; LEED Accredited preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in urban design and planning of large-scale projects.
• Familiar with LEED ND or equivalent sustainable rating systems.
• Strong communication in verbal, written, and graphic form.
• Proficient with Rhino, Grasshopper, Enscape, AutoCAD, and related digital tools.

Responsibilities

• Promotes City Design Practice within the home office and leads multiple projects and teams.
• Directs delivery of planning and urban design projects in all phases.
• Ensures quality standards across design outputs, reports, and visualizations.
• Mentors staff, manages project schedules and budgets, and supports staffing.
• Leads client relations, consents, and entitlements processes.
• Contributes to business development and recruitment of key staff.

Skills

Project leadership

Client engagement

Mentorship

Sustainable design

Urban design

Budget management

Education

Professional degree in Architecture/Planning/Urban Design/ Landscape Architecture

Licensed in state or AICP / LEED Accredited

Tools

Rhino

Grasshopper

Enscape

AutoCAD

Microsoft Office

Adobe Suite

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.

Position Responsibilities

• Actively promotes the City Design Practice within the home office.
• Develops plans and policies, directs research, and helps provide strategic direction for complex projects.
• Develops and directs efficient approaches to develop ideas, communicate design intent, and fulfill scope requirements.
• Directs delivery of planning and urban design projects in all phases.
• Ensures adherence to quality and consistency standards for all CDP planning and urban design work products – research, analysis, site planning, design guidelines, renderings and visualization.
• Ensures regular and active review of deliverables for compliance with project requirements."
• Helps elevate project thinking, manage the project team, and oversee project work plans and support practice initiatives.
• Collaborates with and provides regular updates to the project leaders.
• Participate in organizational management including team building and staff training, contributing to office culture, strategic planning.
• Support project staffing and manage resources.
• Coordinate with project managers to implement on financial management"
• Participate in mentorship of junior staff and support office-wide studio culture
• Actively engage in recruitment and retention of key staff; encourage and support individualized professional development of entire studio
• Facilitates decision making in the public interest
• Prepare clear and cogent client/public presentations.
• Cultivates and maintains strong relationships with clients, consultants, contractors and others during various stages of project development.
• Engage in new business development, cultivating relationships with consultants, and supporting the provision of exceptional service to clients.
• Actively participates in local City Design Practice initiatives and makes substantive contributions to the advancement of activities of the CDP Global Practice. Lead annual awards cycles / applications

Leadership Responsibilities

• Actively leads multiple projects and teams.
• Established as an officewide resource in an area of expertise for market, discipline, or department.
• Directly supervises, trains, and mentors team members.
• Engages in talent strategy to find specialists, leaders, and future professionals for the firm through resume review, interviews, and leveraging personal network.
• 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, procedures based in an understanding of the business principles that protect SOM from financial and legal risk.

Minimum Qualifications

• Professional degree in Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, or Landscape Architecture.
• Licensed in state of practice or must be AICP or equivalent certification; LEED Accredited preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of experience or equivalent knowledge, skills and abilities.
• Experience in the urban design and planning of domestic and international large-scale and complex urban districts, campus planning, new communities and/or regional planning projects.
• General understanding of sustainable strategies and principles including familiarity with LEED ND or equivalent sustainable community rating systems.
• Strong verbal, written, and graphic communication skills.
• Practical understanding of the application of digital tools such as Rhino, Grasshopper, Enscape, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully lead and inspire project teams and manage and provide oversight for project schedule, budget and program.
• Experience in successful engagement with client and community and project entitlement.
• Office-wide recognition for contribution and achievement.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Adobe Suite, Google Suite, and AutoCAD.

Compensation for this role is based upon experience, qualifications, location, and education and typically ranges from $115,000 to $160,000.

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.