Location: Leeds
Hours: 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday in the office
Salary: Competitive (DOE)
Team: Leeds Design Office – Design Coordinators, CAD/BIM Technicians, Graduates, Document Control; interfaces with site teams, Temporary Works, external designers/consultants, and clients.

Purpose of the role

Lead and manage the Leeds Design Office to deliver safe, compliant, timely and cost‑effective design outputs across Joseph Gallagher projects. You will run the operation — planning resources, setting standards and processes, coordinating internal and external designers, and ensuring design deliverables support programme, budget, quality and safety objectives. A strong project management background and sound understanding of design are essential; you are not required to be a practising designer.

Key responsibilities

1) Operational leadership of the design office

• Manage the company’s Design Delivery for temporary and permanent works across our internal resource in the UK and Beirut and Bahrain

• Manage the company’s supply chain partners used to supplement internal resource

• Own day‑to‑day running of the Leeds Design Office, acting as the single point of accountability for design delivery across the business.

• Plan and balance workload, resources and forecasting across live projects and bids; manage recruitment, onboarding and supplier frameworks as required.

• Establish and maintain design management procedures aligned to the Business Management System, including design reviews, approval routes and stage gates.

• Set, agree and monitor design programmes; drive accountability for milestones and information flow.

• Oversee the Common Data Environment (CDE) and document control, ensuring the right information is issued to the right people at the right time.

• Produce Monthly Report to demonstrate delivery, efficiency and financial return for presentation at CVR meetings

2) Manage Project delivery & governance

• Lead design kick‑off/clarification meetings; define scope, interfaces and deliverables matrices.

• Coordinate internal teams and external consultants to produce integrated, buildable solutions; challenge scope, drive value engineering and optioneering.

• Chair/coordinate IDC/IDR (inter‑discipline and independent design reviews) and technical audits.

• Manage/Coordinate design team to ensure queries/RFIs and change control are managed and decision logs and design registers are maintained.

• Ensure timely support to site teams, including temporary works coordination with the TWC and interface with supply chain designers.

3) Manage Quality, safety & compliance

• Ensure designs comply with contract requirements, applicable standards/codes, consents and employer’s requirements.

• Embed the principles of CDM 2015 and design risk management; support Principal Designer duties where appointed (or coordinate with the appointed PD).

• Drive right‑first‑time culture and continuous improvement; manage non‑conformances, lessons learned and close‑out.

• Ensure accurate as‑built information and O&M/Health & Safety File contributions are delivered.

4) Manage Commercial & programme control

• Set and manage design budgets, forecasts and earned value; track fee proposals and sub‑consultant spend.

• Protect programme by monitoring design progress against critical path; escalate risks early with recovery plans.

• Support bid teams with design strategy, methodologies, programme and design deliverables during work winning.

5) Manage People leadership & culture

• Line‑manage the Leeds design team: objectives, coaching, capability development and succession planning.

• Build a collaborative, inclusive culture that promotes safety by design, innovation and knowledge sharing.

• Manage performance with clear KPIs and regular reviews; address issues promptly and professionally.

6) Manage Digital engineering / BIM

• Champion the effective use of the CDE and model‑based coordination (2D/3D/4D as appropriate).

• Ensure information requirements (AIR/EIR), model deliverables and naming/metadata standards are met.

Key performance indicators (examples)

• On‑time delivery of design packages and approvals.

• Efficient use of business and supply chain resources

• RFI/design query turnaround time and overdue actions.

• Design‑related non‑conformances and rework.

• Adherence to design budgets/earned value.

• Evidence of design risk elimination/mitigation under CDM.

• Internal/client satisfaction scores and handover quality.

About you – skills & experience

Essential

• Strong background in project or business management with potentially some design management experience in civil engineering/infrastructure or a contractor environment.

• Proven experience running multi‑disciplinary teams (possibly design) across multiple projects, coordinating internal teams and external suppliers.

• Sound technical literacy and the ability to interrogate/challenge designs; not required to produce calculations or drawings.

• Excellent planning, organisation and communication skills; confident chairing reviews and managing stakeholders.

• Commercial and programme awareness (change control, budgets, forecasting, earned value, NEC/Contract awareness).

• Working knowledge of CDM 2015 and design risk management.

• Competent with CDEs/document control workflows and typical tools (e.g., ProjectWise, Aconex, 365, MS Project/Primavera).

Desirable

• Degree/HNC/HND in Civil/Structural Engineering, Construction Management or similar.

• Chartered/Inc. status (e.g., ICE/IStructE/APM) or working towards.

• Experience with temporary works coordination and supply‑chain designer management.

• BIM/digital engineering experience and familiarity with information requirements.

Company Background 
The Joseph Gallagher Group is a family owned Civil Engineering business that delivers expertise whilst putting client satisfaction at the core of the business. Built on a personal reputation for honesty and quality, we understand the actions we take affect the communities and environments we operate in.

LIFE Culture
We're promoting a culture change within the industry and demonstrating initiatives to dramatically improve Health, Safety and Wellbeing. In 2014, we launched our award-winning cultural safety programme (LIFE) which is deeply embedded into the company’s DNA and core values.

Disability Confident Committed 
We are a disability confident employer and we're committed to providing equal opportunities in employment. All individuals will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law regardless of gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation.

Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make our recruitment processes accessible to everyone, so if there is any way that we can support you to enable you to be the best you can, please contact the HR team at HR@josephgallagher.co.uk.