Associate Technical Director

Summary

Join CannonDesign as a Technical Associate Director and become part of a multi-disciplinary leadership team. You will establish, manage, and maintain technical excellence across the practice, focusing on the quality of design and delivery. Key responsibilities include managing staff, leveraging technology, and improving processes. You will report to the Technical Director, collaborate with various teams, and proactively address project risks. The role requires a minimum of 20 years of relevant experience, a Bachelor’s degree, and professional licensure. CannonDesign offers a full benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, paid time off, flexible schedules, remote work options, and a 401k plan.

Requirements

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field required
• Minimum 20 years of related professional experience in Architecture and/or Engineering. Experience includes 5 years in increasingly responsible roles in construction documentation on institutional and commercial projects and at least 3 years in a responsible role in construction administration on large institutional or commercial projects
• Current Architectural Registration or Professional Engineer license in the United States required
• Demonstrated focus on quality
• Experience leading all technical aspects with production teams on large, complex projects of more than $200M construction costs
• Strong technical leadership with knowledge of building codes and requirements
• Must have the ability to be client facing with strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong business acumen, technical knowledge, coordination skills and the ability to build a rapport is essential
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to lead, influence and mentor across disciplines, projects, and locations
• Demonstrates excellent judgement, strategic process understanding, and the ability to drive results
• Familiarity with Revit, Bluebeam, Microsoft Office, Teams, specification composition and construction management software

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain the standard of technical excellence in project delivery and application of building science to design
• Work across our multi-disciplinary practice to build relationships with and leverage the various business and enterprise units to achieve objectives centered on the execution of design and technical excellence
• Establish and manage a key area of focus relevant to technical design, building science and project delivery
• Research, consider and respond to progress, updates and initiatives in the industry relative to key areas of focus
• Report regularly to the Technical Director on progress in the continuous improvement of the key areas of focus
• Utilize labor management software and develop strategies to effectively utilize the staff you manage for the team that supports your focus area
• Collaborate with Design Technology to embrace and enforce the use of technology for improved consistency and quality
• Manage and maintain relevant content on the intranet and where otherwise accessed by our teams
• Proactively address project and firm-wide risk issues. Assign resources and responsibility, communicate direction and expected results, and report progress to Technical Director
• Establish, manage and maintain a quality process that drives the continuous improvement of our work, including proactive, mid-phase charrettes, document reviews and strategies that drive the capture and reuse of institutional knowledge
• Collaborate with other Technical Associate Directors to build consensus on updating existing or authoring new standards, guidelines or other content
• Establish, manage and maintain a set of technical policies, processes and protocols, and periodically audit regions, offices and projects for compliance
• Establish, manage and maintain a set of practice metrics, regularly monitor them for visibility of project concerns, intervening where necessary, and track trends to determine progress and identify strategies for adjustment and reinforcement
• Collaborate with the Technical Leaders to ascertain the technical needs of offices and regions and plan holistic resolutions that feature a balance of consistency and flexibility that can be applied across the entirety of the practice
• Establish, manage and maintain regular forums with the Technical Leaders to disseminate updates, identify needs and promote a collaborative and collegial culture of technical excellence
• Establish, manage and maintain a methodology to regularly disseminate and promote, and periodically reinforce, technical knowledge
• Establish, manage and maintain a catalog of relevant and intuitive technical training, knowledge base and learning resources and policies. Collaborate with HR to host content and enforce training requirements
• Establish, manage and maintain mentorship of technical excellence across disciplines and levels
• Enthusiastically promote and celebrate the technical excellence of our work
• Evaluate and guide introduction of new building technologies, methods, and materials
• Participate in thought leadership and contribute scholarship internally and to industry publications and conventions
• Participate in the hiring process for new senior technical staff and provide thorough and constructive feedback on candidates
• Establish, manage and maintain a global project delivery process that considers all project typologies and team compositions, focused on quality and continuous improvement
• Establish, manage and maintain a philosophical baseline of technical performance in the development and execution of project deliverables that reflects the size, complexity and operation of a practice that spans multiple regions, the variety of jurisdictional requirements and the imperative of managing consistency across all our offices
• Establish, manage and maintain liaisons with all disciplines across the practice to foster an integrated approach to design and coordinate efforts in the goal of continuous improvement of the technical performance of our work, including but not limited to Design, Engineering, Interior Design, Sustainability, Management and Design Technology
• Manage and maintain a team of technical leaders who represent and support the technical performance of the teams in every office and region
• Establish, manage and maintain a risk assessment process to identify issues that increase the firm's exposure to liability and claims
• Establish, manage and maintain a quality process that leverages Technical Leaders, Senior Project Architects and Subject Matter Experts to thoroughly review projects and documentation through a combination of charrettes and document reviews
• Establish, manage and maintain a project debrief protocol to capture institutional knowledge from lessons learned on projects
• Meets established utilization target
• May perform other duties as needed

Preferred Qualifications

LEED accreditation preferred

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision coverage
• Flexible spending account options
• Voluntary insurances
• Paid time off
• Flex-time schedules
• Remote work options
• 401k plan
• Employee perk programs
• Employees may be eligible for discretionary bonuses