Senior Architect - Data Centres in Manchester

Company Description

Work with Us. Change the World. At AECOM, we're delivering a better world. Whether improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water, or transforming skylines, our work helps people and communities thrive. We are the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for future generations.

Job Description

We are a multidisciplinary team working with Data Centre clients across both Hyperscale and Colocation and also Enterprise projects across Europe. These projects are led from our specialist data centre team based in the UK in conjunction with our local teams across Europe who ensure localisation and permitting delivery, but also other global design teams providing resource and capability to the projects. We are seeking an experienced Architect or Architectural Technologist with a strong technical background in the design of large multi-disciplinary design projects, preferably data centres. The ideal candidate will be able to collaborate effectively within multi-disciplinary architectural and engineering teams. The candidate must be strong in technical design content, with a CSA bias and in design management, digital technologies, and design workflow. They will be expected to oversee design activities and the production of design information and maintain the level of quality that is expected throughout these projects. They will have to manage this delivery to very demanding timelines and programmes with immovable deadlines. The location of the role is flexible within the UK/ Ireland however it will be important that it is local to one of our hubs of expertise – London, Dublin and Manchester. The role will require travel within the UK&I and Europe.

Project / Design Responsibilities

• Senior Architect/Designer on a portfolio of projects.
• Assist in coordinating the design across multi-disciplinary architectural and engineering teams, working closely with discipline leads to deliver integrated architectural and engineering outputs across projects.
• Ensuring all internal governance is followed both at bid stage and throughout the delivery of projects.
• Presenting to clients and prospective clients.
• Ensuring CDM Safety in Design principles are applied throughout all design stages of a project.

Managerial Responsibilities

• Organises own and others work to achieve set deadlines.
• Ensures, directly and through subordinates, that projects are completed on time and meet all requirements of the Design Brief and Client requirement documents.
• Responsible for the correctness, accuracy and multi-disciplinary coordination of the design documentation prepared by the assigned team.
• Ensures the quality of technical work produced by the team meets AECOM’s Technical Excellence standards.
• Applies knowledge and experience to manage the day-to-day work of practice teams.
• Interact with clients, contractors, local authority representatives and others using skills of persuasion and negotiation to resolve critical issues.
• Responsible for key design input at early design phases and for general design leadership during the course of the project.
• Promotes teamwork within a multi-disciplinary team, maintaining positive morale and instilling a creative culture within the practice.
• Make appropriate value judgements with respect to corrective work that supports the design concept and performance goals of the project.
• For projects on site: Manage interface between Design Team / Site Team ensuring proper design support is provided in a timely manner.
• Support Associate Directors and/or Directors with operational responsibilities which includes development and implementing Technical Excellence initiatives, management of resources (HR), training initiatives (CPD).
• Engage with resource forecasting and management.
• Where requested, engage with business reporting activities.
• Support and develop staff through guidance, mentoring and leadership of their development.
• Ensure the latest software and digital techniques are utilized to increase productivity and identify where training opportunities for staff should be made available.

Commercial Responsibilities

• Understand and implement project management principles and be able to work within project budgets which includes fees and designing to budget.
• Assist in initial assessment of potential new projects and competitions.
• Support Associate Directors and/or Directors in the preparation of bids.
• Help build a network of professional relationships with existing and prospective clients.
• Support marketing and business development initiatives.

Specific Skills Required

• Must be proficient in the team management of, and use of, CAD.
• In particular our approach to design utilises 3D modelling in REVIT for workflow, and direct ‘hands on’ experience and current working knowledge of REVIT is required.
• It would also be useful to have a working knowledge of Sketchup, Photoshop, InDesign, PowerPoint, Twinmotion and other presentation and render software.
• Familiarity with working in Common Data Environments (CDE) like ACC, ProjectWise, Autodesk Docs, etc.
• Creative, practical, adaptable and enthusiastic.
• Ability to demonstrate attention to detail.
• Ability to think in a methodical way to design, plan and organize parts of projects.
• English language proficient, holding good communication skills to present information in speech, drawings and reports.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the UK.

Qualifications

• Fully Qualified Architect or Technologist (Chartered or equivalent) and proven experience in working on large multi-disciplinary design projects, preferably in Data Centres.
• Willingness and interest to work in a range of areas under the guidance of Associate Directors and/or Directors.
• Degree qualification, preferably with Diploma or Masters in a University Course, although the latter is not absolutely essential.
• Some experience of various forms of building contract will be helpful.
• An understanding and knowledge of the application UK Building Systems, Standards and Regulations and construction types.
• IT literate, with knowledge of CAD software, and Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, TEAMS, etc).
• Ability to manage a busy workload and deadlines.
• A clear work history and proof of professional development and learning.

Additional Information

At AECOM, we are committed to maintaining a secure and trustworthy recruitment process and take any fraudulent hiring activity seriously. To support this commitment, all newly hired employees are required to attend an in-person Day 1 onboarding at an AECOM office location as a condition of employment.