Senior Level Project Lead: Masterplanning, Urban Design & Project Management (Associate / Senior Associate / Associate Director)

About

Studio Egret West is an award-winning transdisciplinary design-led practice bringing together urban designers, landscape architects, architects, interior designers, and place creatives in the shaping of place and communities.

We design and curate places with compelling narratives and identities, places that are firmly rooted in their context and grow naturally out of it. Places that cultivate sustainable communities, amplify local identity, prioritise the public realm, and evolve over time - Shaping Everyday Wonder.

Since our founding in 2004, our 65-strong practice has delivered some of the most exciting, high quality placemaking projects through the symbiosis of memorable architecture, strategic urban design and ecology-driven landscape. The success of the practice and the places we create is based on the layering and symbiosis of these disciplines - from the strategic framework to the individual building.

Your Role

As our portfolio of international work continues to grow, we are seeking a Senior Level Project Lead: Masterplanning, Urban Design & Project Management (Associate / Senior Associate / Associate Director) to join our team and play a leading role within our growing urban design and landscape urbanism teams working on multidisciplinary masterplanning projects in the Middle East. In coordination with the Directors, you will lead the design and coordination of complex masterplanning projects, working closely with clients, consultants and multidisciplinary teams across strategic, concept and detailed design stages.

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in some of the studio’s most ambitious international masterplanning work, helping to shape complex places from early vision through to coordinated delivery, while working across SEW’s urban design, landscape, architecture and place-shaping disciplines.

We want to hear from candidates with experience and a strong interest in leading masterplanning projects in the Middle East.

This is a client-facing role for someone with proven experience delivering complex masterplans and coordinating multidisciplinary teams across multiple stages. The role will be based in our London studio, with travel to the Middle East as required.

The successful candidate will combine strong organisational and delivery capability with excellent communication skills and a collaborative, design-led approach. You will be responsible for project & programme management, consultant coordination and project leadership across complex and fast-moving projects, helping to maintain clarity, quality and momentum throughout the project lifecycle.

Working alongside our Directors, you will support operational delivery of projects, balancing design ambition with programme, stakeholder and delivery requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Identifying and agreeing project objectives and developing a strategy for achieving these;
• As a key externally facing role, building strong relationships at all levels internally and externally;
• Client relationships across projects;
• Leading and overseeing integration of multidisciplinary teams to ensure cohesive and deliverable outcomes with high design quality and maintenance of place vision;
• Leading the project team – building, motivating, maintaining, coaching, guiding, and developing the team;
• Coordinating the urban design, landscape, and place-shaping design leads and their workstreams across strategic, pre-concept, concept and detailed design stages;
• Supporting and monitoring project planning, governance, programme, resourcing and delivery across multiple stages, proactively identifying challenges and proposing solutions;
• Supporting commercial and contract considerations of the projects;
• Identifying and managing any matters that could pose potential contractual/commercial risks;
• Negotiate and administer change control in accordance with the contract;
• Overseeing key project meetings, workshops and coordination;
• Leading key project presentations and reports;
• Contributing to bids and work-winning activities;
• Contributing to a collaborative and ambitious studio culture;
• Willingness to travel as needed for project meetings.

About You

• Degree in urban design, landscape architecture, architecture or a related discipline;
• Demonstrated project leadership experience of multidisciplinary masterplanning within the Middle East, including a clear understanding of project workstages and approvals;
• A minimum of 8+ years’ experience working on fast-paced multidisciplinary design-led urban design & masterplanning projects;
• Experience delivering large-scale, mixed-use, district or regional masterplanning projects;
• Strong verbal, written, and graphic communication skills across client-facing and multicultural environments;
• An aptitude towards work winning through strong service delivery;
• Strong project leadership, organisation, design, coordination and programme management skills with demonstrated experience facilitating high-stakes meetings of complex stakeholder structures;
• Methodical, detail-focused working style with strong time management skills;
• Experience supporting junior team members;
• Experience contributing to bids and business development;
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud software, Microsoft 365 software;
• Experience in key 3D modelling design platforms, including Rhino and Revit;
• Familiar with rendering software such as Enscape;
• Familiar with GIS software such as ArcGIS Pro or QGIS;
• Familiar with climate, wind and environmental modelling tools;
• Fluent in spoken and written English;
• Arabic language skills would be an advantage;
• Right to work in the UK.