Associate Director – Façade

The role will oversee multiple projects, implementing effective team, process and quality management to deliver projects successfully. The role will involve leading project teams of around three to five people. Good communication skills, both verbal and written, are essential, as is expanding the team’s technical knowledge and how it is shared. In particular, this will include curating and conceiving R&D initiatives (and leading implementation by others) to improve the team’s workflows, operation and quality-of-life. The role will also lead on the preparation of significant fee proposals and the negotiation of appointment terms. The role will report to the director in London and may from time to time involve supporting our offices in Birmingham, Chennai, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Primary Responsibilities

Business Development
  • Secure a significant proportion of team income (for a team of approximately ten) through repeat business with well-established contacts.
  • Secure additional team income through new business using network contacts.
  • Feed into and implement the business development strategy for the team and the wider business.
  • Take ownership of business development areas as identified in the team business development plan.
  • Support the directors with maximizing the opportunities from business development activities/contacts.
  • Participate and lead B2B meetings.
  • Seek new ways to collaborate with other disciplines within the built environment.
  • Represent the company at external client meetings and industry functions.
  • Support the director in assisting with industry-wide initiatives and industry board presence.
Commercial
  • Assist directors in preparing project performance figures for board reports (BUL).
  • Manage commercial performance of projects within the role’s sphere of influence.
  • Negotiation of appointments within the role’s sphere of influence, undertaking appropriate risk mitigation techniques and accounting for PI exclusions.
Technical
  • Rigor and quality of technical façade engineering output.
  • Quality of the presentation of technical façade work.
  • Effective knowledge sharing within the role’s sphere of influence.
  • Acquiring state-of-the-art knowledge within the field of façade engineering.
  • Adhere to, and assist others to adhere to, the company’s health and safety protocols.
Organisation
  • Provide leadership and support to other managers within the team.
  • Effective resolution of façade team issues through day-to-day contact of its senior members.
  • Project work plans including the allocation of required resources for project delivery.
  • The façade team’s ability to work to agreed timescales and deadlines.
  • Team project finances within budgeted parameters, assisting the director in providing relevant data to present to the Board.
  • Provide effective feedback on progress, highlight potential issues and propose solutions to directors to maintain progress and standards.
  • Provide and implement proactive suggestions to improve team processes and tools.
  • Proactively take ownership of areas of responsibility within the team structure and lead initiatives in those areas using working groups or other techniques to make progress.
  • Prepare invoices for projects and undertake other project administrative tasks, supporting directors as appropriate.
  • Participate in façade leadership and management meetings and engage with the strategic direction of the façade team.
People
  • Pastoral care of the engineers within the role’s sphere of influence.
  • Contributing to a compassionate, kind and psychologically-safe working atmosphere were engineers can communicate and feedback authentically in real-time.
  • Effectively delegate delivery of technical design, graphics and project management tasks to engineers and technicians as required. Manage sub-consultants where applicable.
  • Act as a mentor to support engineers, as required, including with Chartership.
  • Develop and maintain communication skills to listen and effectively respond to colleagues, clients, architects and other members of professional teams.
  • Demonstrate personal and social skills and awareness of diversity and inclusion issues.
  • Develop and maintain effective relationships with others in the business to share knowledge and leverage resource and expertise.
Marketing
  • Apply consistent branding guidelines to documentation.
  • Undertake bid and proposal production – preparing fee proposals from inception to completion.
  • Support directors in negotiating appointment contracts with clients.

Key Skills/Experience

Essential
  • A proactive approach to work and self-organisation including prioritising own work loads.
  • Good IT skills and a willingness to develop further knowledge of new façade technology.
  • A good level of competence with written and verbal English.
  • A collaborative approach with good interpersonal and communication skills.
  • An ability to work in a team, under pressure.
  • High level of time management ability by prioritising tasks and managing multiple submissions at a time whilst delivering a high quality of work to deadlines.
  • An appreciation of the need for the application of consistent standards and metrics.
  • Attention to detail in graphic design and layout.
  • Relevant undergraduate degree to façade engineering plus minimum twelve years’ experience in a façade-related role.
  • Chartered Engineer with a relevant institution to façade engineering.
  • Awareness of ethics requirements of their role. Undertake training as required when provided by the company or clients.
  • Previous experience in working in a consulting engineering practice.
Desirable
  • A strong interest in engineering and the built environment.
  • Previous experience of working with parametric modelling and associated software.

Company benefits include

  • Annual Leave of 20 days plus bank holidays.
  • Three days of additional holiday at Christmas. This is non-contractual, the dates are set by the company and these three days are not counted in your annual leave allowance within your contract.
  • Employers pension contribution.
  • Life Assurance and Payment Protection Cover.
  • Group Income Protection scheme, including access to Legal & General health and wellbeing services
  • Flexible working hours.
  • Bupa Health Insurance.
  • Four company socials per year.
  • Chartership support.
  • Professional membership cost covered (two per year).
Interested? Please send your CV and portfolio to: careers(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)meinhardt.co.uk