Director of design technology

PLP Architecture is hiring a director of design technology to join its team in London. PLP Architecture is an internationally recognised architectural and urban design practice with studios in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Singapore. Our work spans commercial, residential, mixed‑use, and infrastructure projects across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. We are known externally as a technologically progressive practice — and we are now entering a deliberate next phase: scaling innovation into everyday delivery, modernising our digital backbone, and embedding technology as a strategic advantage across design, operations, and client engagement.

We are seeking a director of design technology to provide clear leadership, structure, and vision across design technology, AI adoption, and digital workflows. This is a senior, practice‑shaping role. The successful candidate will bridge architecture, technology, and business, working alongside Partners, Design Directors, IT, and Operations to ensure technology meaningfully improves how PLP designs, delivers, and operates — not as isolated innovation, but as standard practice. This role is based in our London studio and will play a key part in shaping PLP’s global digital strategy.

You will be accountable for:

• Design technology strategy across the practice
• Firmwide AI and automation adoption
• Integration between design teams, IT, and business systems
• Ensuring technology investment delivers measurable value
• Leading sustainability and environmental software adoption
• Generating and managing the IT budget

This role is about leadership, scaling, and adoption. Integration of business systems may be less pertinent for this role.

Key responsibilities

• Design technology leadership and strategy
  • Define and communicate a clear firmwide design technology strategy
  • Establish standards, priorities, and roadmaps for BIM, computational design, AI, and digital workflows
  • Act as the senior point of authority for design‑related technology decisions
  • Ensure consistency and quality across projects and studios
• AI and automation (design and operations)
  • Lead structured, responsible adoption of AI across concept and competition work, design development and documentation, visualisation and storytelling, business operations (bids, reporting, forecasting)
  • Move AI from experimental silos to scalable capability
  • Define AI usage policies, governance, and approved platforms
  • Ensure security, ethics, and compliance are embedded from the outset
• Integration with IT and cloud‑first systems
  • Work closely with IT to align design needs with PLP’s cloud‑first technology strategy
  • Help shape how design tools, data, and workflows sit within modern cloud infrastructure
• Ensure technology decisions support
  • Mobility and flexibility
  • Security and resilience
  • Integration with finance, HR and CRM systems
  • Act as a bridge between creative teams and technical infrastructure
• Design delivery, skills and adoption
  • Embed design technologists and hybrid architect‑technologists into project teams
  • Reduce dependence on individual “experts” and hero knowledge
  • Strengthen Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper and any new related software core delivery competency across the practice
  • Support consistent onboarding, upskilling, and mentoring
  • Build adoption plans that translate new tools and workflows into consistent project delivery
  • Develop consistent training and upskilling strategies
• Knowledge sharing and communication
  • Create mechanisms to capture and share successful workflows, lessons learned, reusable tools and approaches
  • Ensure technology innovation is visible, understood, and accessible to the whole practice
  • Support PLP Labs by connecting research, experimentation, and live project delivery
• Measurement and value
  • Define KPIs to measure the impact of technology on design quality, speed and efficiency, risk reduction, business performance
  • Help leadership understand where technology investment creates real value
  • Develop and manage the DT annual budget (software, external resources, training, conferences, etc.)

About you

You are likely an architect‑technologist or design technology leader with architectural project delivery experience, proven leadership in design technology or computational design, strong understanding of tools such as Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper, and emerging AI workflows, experience scaling technology adoption across teams — not just developing tools, and the ability to speak credibly with partners, architects and IT professionals. A strategic mindset paired with pragmatic delivery is essential. You are comfortable operating at both board/partner level, and project/studio level.

What this role is (and is not)

Is: a leadership role with authority and influence focused on scaling, adoption, and value central to PLP’s future practice.

Is not: a pure AI research role, a BIM coordinator position, an IT support function.

Why join PLP

• Shape the digital future of a globally respected design practice
• Work directly with senior leadership on practice‑wide strategy
• Influence how architecture is designed and delivered in the AI era
• Combine design excellence, sustainability, and technology at scale
• Competitive salary and benefits package

To apply

Please submit a CV, a brief covering letter outlining your approach to design technology leadership, examples of relevant work, tools, or initiatives you have, and include director of design technology in the subject line. This is a full-time permanent position with benefits, based in our London office five days a week. All candidates should be eligible to work in the UK. PLP is an equal opportunity employer.