Year One - Junior Designer - City Design

Join SOM’s Year One Program as a Junior Designer - City Design. Our Year One program picks up where your formal education leaves off, with a suite of events and creative initiatives to help you get the most out of your first year at SOM. Alongside your day-to-day project responsibilities, we’ll encourage you to expand your learning and to propose bold ideas for the future of design. SOM offers the best of both worlds: the hands‑on experience of small, dynamic studios, and the resources and diversity of a global organization.

Our interdisciplinary firm affords a wealth of opportunities for emerging designers; our collaborative approach means that your ideas and creativity will be valued and recognized from day one. In keeping with SOM’s reputation for innovation, our Year One program invites you to shape the future of the practice with us. At SOM, we are a collective committed to shaping a better future for our clients, communities and planet. We aspire to create the most sustainable, impactful work through creative, interdisciplinary teams with all the resources and diversity of a global firm. We value those who are passionate about excellence, innovation, integrity, inclusivity, and collaboration. Together we can achieve great things.

Instructions For Year One Applicants

SOM is a global collective of talented and passionate people—help us understand what you would bring to the table. Complete applications must include Resume or CV and Work Samples. Work Samples shall be one PDF attachment, 10-20 pages, maximum 5 MB. Submit Work Samples as part of your application in the section where the application asks for your Resume or CV. Applications that do not meet this criteria will not be reviewed.

Success at SOM Means

• Ideas: We believe in a meritocracy of ideas. We look to everyone to actively contribute to the discourse in the firm.
• Knowledge: We believe that expertise is the result of lifelong learning. We are not expected to know everything, but rather to passionately pursue answers, develop new skills and deepen our knowledge.
• Product: We strive for excellence in the concept, quality, and delivery of our work.
• Individual: We value individuals who bring the highest standards of professionalism and personal integrity in the way they work.
• Team: We value the power of interdisciplinary integration. A positive team culture in which everyone collaborates openly towards common goals is essential.
• Firm: We have a history of making transformative contributions to the profession and our communities. We are constantly innovating and attempting to bring new approaches, solutions and processes to our work.

Position Responsibilities

• Generates planning and design ideas, conducts research, documents precedents and scale studies, develops diagrams, renders site plans, and contributes to all manner of graphic and visual production.
• Takes initiative to learn and apply SOM City Design Practice protocols for file management, planning and design processes, and quality control standards for deliverables.
• Demonstrates a basic understanding of planning and urban design concepts, building typologies and critical dimensions, utility and infrastructure systems, land development considerations and planning / zoning codes, and phasing and implementation techniques.
• Is able to enrich design concepts through knowledge, research, and proficient application of technical and visualization skills and effectively uses software and appropriate analogue and digital tools to design and document at all project phases.
• Applies a strong conceptual design ability to projects of varying complexity and sites of divergent scales; begins to integrate interdisciplinary criteria to effectively move forward the planning and urban design aspects of complex projects.
• Effectively communicates internally through timely and appropriate written, oral, and visual means.
• Actively collaborates at a project team level by developing, communicating, and critically and constructively evaluating ideas.
• Manages time and workload to meet project task deadlines and commitments with regular interaction and direction from project leaders and team members.
• Actively participates as a junior member of the CDP Team.
• Brings energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and a disciplined work ethic to the City Design Practice.
• Becomes immersed in the SOM office through lectures, design reviews, lunch and learns, site visits, and participation in office activities and professional development opportunities.
• Actively participates in the Year One Program (as appropriate).

Minimum Qualifications

• Recent completion of professional Degree in Architecture, Planning, Urban design, or Landscape Architecture.
• Strong collaborative ability.
• LEED accreditation preferred.
• Interest in large-scale planning, mixed-use and transit oriented development, and working in a fast-paced and intensely collaborative professional environment.
• Exhibits initiative, process innovation, problem solving, and decision-making quality with a high attention to detail, precision and accuracy at a task specific level.
• Demonstrates proficiency in AutoCAD, Rhino, Grasshopper, Enscape, Lumion, parametric and rendering software, and other graphic software as well as Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office; Revit proficiency a plus.

Are you ready to join a team of creative professionals working on transformational projects around the world? Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to build a better future with SOM.

Our Benefits

• Health and Wellness: Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life & accident insurance.
• Work/Life Balance: Hybrid/Flexible schedules, paid family leave, paid vacation, backup child and elder care, and an employee assistance program.
• Professional Development: Reimbursement for professional licenses, associated renewals, and exam fees as well as specialized in‑house career development.

Our Culture

Our creative, interdisciplinary teams work like small, dynamic studios, with all the resources and diversity of a global firm. Here, you’ll collaborate with industry experts on some of the most exciting and transformative architecture, engineering, and planning projects in the world. We believe an inclusive environment improves our teams, our firm, and our communities and are passionate about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our DEI Action Plan was created to bring meaningful change to our profession, starting with our own culture and practices. We are proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

Visit this page to learn more about SOM's employment policy and how to apply offline: www.som.com/employment_opportunities_and_policy. For more about SOM: www.som.com.

Portfolios must be submitted for all design and project management positions (Architecture, Interiors, City Design, Graphics, etc). Applications without work samples will not be reviewed. Portfolios should be one PDF attachment, 10-20 pages, maximum 5 MB. Submit portfolios as part of your application in the section where the application asks you for your Resume or CV.