Aptitude Senior Design Manager

Senior Design Manager

Best People + Right Culture. These are the driving forces behind JE Dunn’s success. By hiring inspired people, giving them interesting and challenging work, enabling them with innovative tools, and letting them share in the company’s rewards, we’ve found a sustainable way to grow in our industry for the last 100+ years.

Aptitude, JE Dunn’s strategic partner for technology integration services, was born out of the growing need to meet the increasingly complex demands of modern building projects. Our diverse teams around the country strive to enrich lives through inspired people and places every day, and we need inspired people like you to join us in our pursuit of building perfection.

The Senior Design Manager is responsible for successful delivery of projects by leading the design participants, process and technology. Participants include the design team(s) and trade partners when projects utilize design-build, design assist or other alternate delivery methods. This position requires proactive leadership of the design process from initial business development phase through project completion. Plays an integral role with project team ensuring project goals are achieved.

All activities will be performed in support of the strategy, vision and values of JE Dunn.

Key responsibilities include:

• Develop turnkey design pricing proposals in response to client RFPs.
• Collaborate with estimating preconstruction and interpret formal design‑build RFPs and business development teams to develop competitive bid strategies.
• Ensure designs meet functional, aesthetic, and sustainability goals.
• Integrate structural, mechanical, and electrical considerations into technology plans.
• Manage the creation to completion of design packages that include detailed floor plans, elevations, and one‑lines.
• Review and understand bridging documents for project compliance with RFP, including comprehension of codes and criteria to meet the technical requirements and design deliverables.
• Support early phase basic due diligence activities with clients and key stakeholders to ensure professional studies, jurisdictional and permitting requirements are incorporated into design documents.
• Manage design, assuring they meet the technical requirements as well as schedule requirements for design deliverables.
• Manage the design review process with design team and clients to ensure schedules are met and identify project risks and opportunities throughout the design phase.
• Leverage design experience and knowledge to work with project teams identifying solutions to project‑specific challenges while monitoring expectations for design schedules, quality control, and content for design document delivery.
• Generate cost savings and value‑added solutions during the design phase.
• Monitor and control design partners’ and consultants’ cost through the design development, both cost of project and cost of the design services for added scope.
• Review design and provide quality control review comments to ensure the program specifications and life‑safety requirements are met.
• Coordinate the design document packaging strategies with the project team.
• Manage project documentation such as proposals, drawings, specifications, reports, calculations, and shop drawings using both 3D and 2D file management systems.
• Develop sketches and plans to assist preconstruction with pricing of conceptual ideas and coordinate with project team to develop and implement projects as needed.
• Provide technical design guidance throughout the entire construction process.
• Provide design engineering support for the entire life cycle of the project (proposal, site survey, engineering, equipment selection, permitting, training, and construction).
• Understand project budget and steer the project accordingly ensuring the design stays in line with contractual details.

• Lead the process to understand potential client’s business needs and help create conceptual plans, elevations, and 3D models.
• Play a lead role with the Project Executive to set design budgets, schedules and fees, and influence ongoing decisions…