Regional Design Director

Summary

Join CannonDesign as a Regional Design Director and lead a team of 150-300 design professionals across multiple offices. Transform design excellence by overseeing design quality, conducting design reviews, and securing design awards. Nurture a collaborative design community, mentor future leaders, and champion Living-Centered Design. Transform the design team by fostering innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Transform the organization by contributing to strategic growth plans and achieving financial targets. Demonstrate design talent through a strong portfolio and awards, and possess strong communication, leadership, and business acumen. Success will be measured by regional and firm-wide performance metrics.

Requirements

• Have demonstrable design talent through a design portfolio of significant built and unbuilt work
• Have third party recognition of your work as a lead designer by local, regional, and national design awards programs and recognized design publications or digital platforms
• Possess strong communication skills; aptitude for communicating complex ideas, both business and design ideas, in a compelling manner that convinces others of their value
• Be a leading voice in firm-wide meetings, and events
• Provide inspirational leadership to your region communicating design aspirations, outcomes, directions, and initiatives to our people
• Have the ability to manage a diverse team of creatives in architecture and other disciplines spread across multiple offices
• Forge a strong sense of connection and identity among the regional design leaders, both building a creative community and promoting their collaboration with other disciplines
• Be comfortable with basic managerial skills: hiring, design management and creative operations, and resource allocation
• Possess general fluency in regional and firm business metrics
• Understand how to translate the strategic framework into regional growth goals
• Contribute leadership skills in concert with the Regional Director in the development and execution of a regional strategy focused on growth and impact, including achieving top line targets and successful financial results which will support a minimum 10% growth of the region year over year
• Support design-led growth initiatives in other regions
• Demonstrate the ability and aptitude for innovative design solutions that address the challenges of people, business, community, society and the environment
• Be driven to challenge the status quo and find new solutions
• Be willing to “develop the highest potential, best opportunities for strategic differentiation – our competitive advantages – and take them further, faster.”
• Support a culture of collaboration, transparency, safety and trust
• Take a collaborative approach to understanding organizational problems
• Partner with our most strategic thinkers to advance our goal of harnessing Living-Centered Design for every client to transform their business and the impact they make in the world
• Recruit, retain and grow mid-career design talent to be senior design leaders for the region and the firm
• Empower design leaders in your region to build high-performance teams, to delegate effectively within their offices and nurture future leaders
• Possess a passion for understanding our business and the business of our clients and seek continuous improvement for both
• Contribute to leading a region that supports the firm’s financial success
• Define our design brand through excellence in the region’s work
• Partner with the Regional Director to selectively curate the work we pursue or are called upon to do and build a culture of clients for life over commodity work
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in architecture
• Generally, at least 20 years of related experience in design leadership roles or equivalent
• A minimum of 3 years’ experience leading others in a design studio or design practice segment
• Strong oral presentation and storytelling skills
• Ability to understand and execute business strategy
• Professional acumen and maturity demonstrated by the ability to communicate authentically and respectfully
• Travel

Responsibilities

• Oversee and lead creative and innovative excellence in a specific geographic area
• Be accountable for design excellence and overall design quality across the region
• Conduct regular touchpoints with senior design leaders and other design leaders in your region
• Hold virtual and in-person regional design-standard reviews
• Provide oversight of regional third-party recognition, including publication of projects in design and market-specific media outlets
• Lead the region in regularly submitting and successfully winning design awards, contributing to firm portfolio
• Be a leading voice for how our Living-Centered Design ethos is translated through our work with clients
• Partner with marketing and communications teams to build strong narratives and communicate the impact of our work at a regional level
• Represent the Firm externally at regional events, conferences and broader events that continually support the overall brand and direction of the firm
• Write, speak and communicate externally through 3-5 venues annually
• Work with the Executive and communications teams annually to identify strategic placement / speaking opportunities
• Share the responsibilities of senior design leaders, leading select clients to innovative design concepts that synthesize our clients’ culture, goals, and aspirations with the needs of people, community, society and the environment
• Deliver solutions uniquely responsive to this expanded view of design impact
• Lead design presentations, with an emphasis on storytelling and aiding client understanding of the design
• Capture and communicate key client goals and metrics and how our design solutions add value
• Nurture a community of designers in your region
• Set the standard for an environment that exemplifies collaboration, experimentation, innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship
• Partner with the Executive Director of Design in the recruitment of and retention of senior design leaders
• Hold senior design leaders in your region accountable for the mentorship and growth of the next generation of design leaders
• Ensure high-performance design teams are functioning in all offices in the region, and coordinate with the Regional Director, Regional Practice Director and Office Practice Leaders to fill creative talent gaps
• Be an ambassador with your regional leadership team of our brand, responsible for demonstrating how our Living-Centered Design ethos comes to life in our culture and in the way we partner with clients, and in our work
• Be the leading regional voice for the firm’s design aspiration to be one of the most innovative, creative, and highly regarded impact-driven solutions design firms in the world
• Be an integral part of the regional leadership team and ensure that our design aspirations are considered in regional and firm business goals
• Be a key participant in the definition and execution of a strategic regional growth plan
• Partner in your regional leadership team and engage with others in the firm, office, and market leadership to develop and implement a business plan which identifies key business strategies and entrepreneurial initiatives focused on the continued growth and impact of the region
• Be responsible for engaging senior design leaders within your region as appropriate to participate in the process, take ownership, communicate, and champion the initiatives set forth

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in architecture from an accredited program
• Current US Architectural Registration
• Additional accreditation and/or training relevant to this role, including LEED
• Design portfolio of significant built and unbuilt work. Third party recognition of your work as a lead or supporting design role by local, regional, or national design awards programs and recognized design publications or digital platforms

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
• Discretionary bonuses