Senior Architect - Education

Manchester, United Kingdom | Posted on 02/06/2026

We have an opportunity for a talented Senior Architect to join our award‑winning education team in BDP’s Manchester studio. We are currently working on the design and delivery of several exciting and innovative higher education projects and are looking for an experienced education architect to take a senior role in the team, leading design development, liaising directly with clients, and making a significant contribution to our extensive education sector portfolio.

• Being a highly motivated education architect with experience in the design of inspirational education buildings. Experience could include working on universities, further‑education, or schools.
• Global experience and knowledge of university estate strategies and master plans would be welcome but is not essential.
• Being passionate about the education sector and its potential to transform society.
• Having a portfolio demonstrating excellent concept design skills, including estates master plans, the design of innovative education spaces, and demonstrating design leadership through all stages of a project.
• Offering strong visual and verbal presentation skills, particularly for strategic studies and early‑stage concept designs.
• Having experience contributing to multi‑stakeholder consultation with exposure to education clients.
• Being skilled at working collaboratively with people at all levels and from all backgrounds to lead clients through the design process, particularly during briefing and early design stages.
• Having exceptional interpersonal skills and a proven ability to coordinate designs and collaborate with design teams, including mentoring and guiding junior staff.
• Having the ability to organise and prioritise tasks, with an ability to deliver to an agreed programme.
• Having good knowledge of current trends and legislation in the education sector, particularly in higher education in the UK. It would be beneficial to have experience working globally in higher education.
• Being a critical friend and clear communicator.
• Contributing to the success of the Education sector by producing high‑quality deliverables and building personal relationships with clients and other designers on projects.
• Being confident when using BIM tools (Revit), 3‑D visualisation, and having a curiosity about advanced workflows and innovation.
• Having an ability to produce clear reports, presentations, diagrams, and drawn deliverables.

In return, BDP can offer you a wide range of learning opportunities to encourage personal and professional career development. From sponsorship to profession‑led CPD events, we also offer annual appraisals and a mentoring scheme that is supported by our internal online learning platform.

We are committed to being an employer of choice and offer a competitive remuneration and benefits package that includes an employee profit share scheme, tax‑efficient smart benefits, private medical insurance, life insurance, long‑term sickness insurance, interest‑free season ticket loans, health screening, opportunity to buy/swap holidays, enhanced maternity and paternity provision, and many more.

We offer regular international and studio‑based social, sporting and charitable events. Some recent events include month‑end socials, a hiking club, wellbeing webinars and toolbox talks.

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