Design Manager

At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As we foster a culture of inclusion throughout our company and within our communities, we constantly ask ourselves:
What is our impact on the world? Watch Our Story: ' ' Each and every role throughout our organisation makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world. We believe building engineering is more than systems and structures, it’s about powering progress and enabling innovation.

As part of HDR’s Building Engineering Services Group, you’ll help design the critical infrastructure that supports the digital age and shapes the spaces where people work, connect, and thrive. From high-performance data centre's driving the future of AI to dynamic commercial environments, your work will directly support technological advancement, sustainability, and human experience. We bring together mechanical, electrical, structural, and civil engineering experts to solve complex design challenges with precision, creativity, and collaboration.

Whether you're optimizing energy efficiency, integrating resilient systems, or engineering the backbone of next-generation facilities, your contributions will help define the future of the built environment. This isn’t just a job, it’s a chance to lead innovation, engineer impact, and build a legacy of excellence.

As a Design Manager (Internal: Project Manager), you will lead and co-ordinate design delivery across multi-discipline project teams, ensuring client requirements are clearly understood and translated into a robust design delivery plan. You will manage the design programme, interfaces, information flow and change control, ensuring design outputs are delivered safely, to the required quality, on time and within budget.

We are seeking an experienced and commercially minded Design Manager with a passion for delivering high-quality engineering solutions. Someone who thrives in a consultancy environment, balancing technical excellence with effective project delivery, client engagement, and team leadership. With a strong background in managing multidisciplinary design teams, you have a proven track record of overseeing projects from concept through to completion, ensuring designs are innovative, compliant, cost-effective, and delivered on time.

• Identify and agree project objectives with the Project Director and develop a strategy for achieving programme, budget and quality targets.
• Assemble and own the design delivery programme and delivery plans, keeping these updated as design develops.
• Facilitate communication, co-ordination and information flow with the client, internal teams, sub-consultants and partners.
• Lead Design Team Meetings (DTMs), ensuring clear minutes, decisions and timely completion of actions.
• Implement and continuously improve project management processes (e.g., change control) and co-ordinate target‑led workshops to resolve critical design issues.
• Manage RFIs, early warnings and general communications to reduce project risk and support successful delivery.
• Analyse, process and respond to design transmittals (drawings, specifications, reports and other project documents).
• Review and evaluate quotations to ensure alignment with scope, budget and client requirements.
• Manage changes and delays, ensuring impacts are assessed and resolved or mitigated appropriately.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of project scope and design responsibility, update design delivery programme, resources and instructions accordingly.
• Itemise scope of services, briefing schedules and documentation requirements; regularly assess against standards to improve deliverables.
• Instigate efficiency, appropriate innovation and buildability across design stages with the wider design team.
• Ensure technical compliance and quality production of all deliverables; record scope changes affecting fee…