Senior Design Manager

Job Description

With more than 14000 people around the globe, GHD is one of the world’s leading professional services companies operating in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Serving clients across five continents and the Pacific region, GHD people share a passion for exceeding the expectations of our clients and contributing to their success.

We are looking for a Senior Design Manager. Senior Design Manager is responsible for managing the design delivery of complex projects within a multi-disciplinary team, working closely with both the Project Manager and Project Director. This role involves overseeing design functions across multiple market sectors or business groups, ensuring seamless collaboration with regional and global teams to achieve project objectives and meet client requirements.

Responsibilities

• Senior Design Manager works closely with other regions and disciplines to secure additional project support as needed, optimizing resource utilization and providing expert knowledge to resolve design challenges across various project phases. They ensure all client requirements are well understood and incorporated into the design process to make informed, strategic decisions.
• Additionally, Senior Design Manager is responsible for managing and mentoring a high-performing design team. They work closely with Business Group leadership to monitor team performance, address resource requirements, manage absences, and ensure alignment with project delivery goals. The role requires a sense of ownership and responsibility, facing challenges proactively while balancing the needs of the team and the client to ensure successful project outcomes. They posses a sense of responsibility for own actions, faces challenges openly while understanding the needs of others to achieve successful outcomes.
• Senior Design Manager is accountable for the execution of design processes and project delivery within a complex, multi-disciplinary environment. This involves overseeing operational areas and ensuring that design management practices align with company standards, project objectives, and local legislative requirements. Senior Design Manager develops, implements, and continuously improves design management policies, processes, and procedures, drawing on global best practices and quality standards.
• They ensure that company standards, operating procedures, and processes are consistently followed across their projects, coordinating activities across disciplines to meet defined deadlines and project milestones in the most efficient manner.
• Senior Design Manager exercises discretion within set operational boundaries, ensuring that tasks are completed effectively and that resources are aligned to achieve the best outcomes for the client and the business.
• The role also involves collaborating with other teams and disciplines to enhance execution efficiency, ensuring adherence to company standards and supporting the delivery of high-quality design outcomes across all projects.
• Project Governance: Clarify roles and responsibilities within the project team and ensure project compliance with the organization's wider program and/or portfolio management decision-making structures and processes.
• Portfolio Management: Plan and manage the delivery of projects within an area of professional expertise, using an appropriate project management methodology to give assurance that intended outcomes are achieved.
• Project Team Management: Lead large project teams (or multiple small- to medium-sized teams); define the project vision, communicate the necessary outcomes, and provide guidance to achieve these outcomes; coordinate team actions across project activities; coordinate the flow of additional team members on and off the team, as needed; and build the capability of the team through training, coaching, and mentoring.
• Project Risk and Issue Management: Manage identification of risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints associated with the project, escalating these matters where appropriate. Where necessary, develop, agree on, and implement solutions to overcome these concerns.
• Project Benefit Realization: Deliver baseline assessments and post-implementation analyses to evaluate and track the realization of business benefits.
• Project Resource Management: Negotiate and manage deployment of project resource budgets, providing forecasts and presenting variances with narrative at appropriate review points to ensure effective utilization.
• Culture of Innovation: Drive a culture of innovation by creating multistakeholder solutions that boost creativity, innovation, and collaboration across business units, such as idea generation platforms, jam sessions, and hackathons.
• Leadership and Direction: Communicate the actions needed to implement the function's strategy and business plan within the team; explain the relationship to the broader organization's mission, vision, and values; motivate people to commit to these and to do extraordinary things to achieve local business goals.
• Personal Capability Building: Develop own capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching; gain or maintain external professional accreditation, where relevant, to improve performance and fulfill personal potential. Maintain an in-depth understanding of technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.
• Transformational Change Management: Manage projects or substantial workstreams within a transformational change program, ensuring integration with related projects; use structured change management methodologies to build acceptance of change and to embed desired culture and behaviors.
• Stakeholder Management: Develop and implement stakeholder engagement plans for projects to identify relevant stakeholders, to develop positive stakeholder relationships, and to ensure that each stakeholder has an appropriate share of voice.
• Project Scope Definition: Plan and lead the delivery of a range of information gathering, analysis, and stakeholder consultation activities and specify, negotiate, and agree on project deliverables.
• Project Assurance: Manage the delivery of assurance reviews within a project, enable the delivery of assurance reviews by independent third parties, and take appropriate action to resolve any issues identified, to give senior stakeholders confidence that the project can deliver according to time, budget, and quality.
• Enterprise Business Analysis: Interpret the business need and identify solution recommendations to business problems at a business unit level.
• d positive about life.
• Influence – The ability to motivate and persuade others.
• Focus – Preference for organization, procedure, and exactitude.
  
  

Take on some of the world's toughest challenges- with everyone at GHD backing you every step of the way.

At GHD, we celebrate the power of a multicultural workforce and champion individual achievement. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing fair and inclusive employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees—regardless of background, identity, or experience. We believe that diversity drives innovation, and we welcome the unique perspectives that each team member brings to our organization.