Design Manager
Design Manager Location: Derby or Bristol | Hybrid working, typically 3 days on site and 2 days from home Are you an experienced design professional ready to take greater ownership, influence how projects are developed and help shape a growing design capability? We're looking for a Design Manager to take a leading role within our Rolls-Royce design and build framework.
This is an opportunity to oversee the design function across a varied portfolio of projects, providing the governance, technical challenge and leadership that takes schemes from an initial requirement through design and into successful construction. You could come from an M&E, civils, building or building fabric background.
What matters most is your ability to understand the design process, bring people together and provide credible leadership and challenge. What you'll be doing Sitting at the heart of our pre-construction activity, you'll provide oversight across the entire design function while working closely with project teams, designers, consultants, commercial colleagues and Rolls-Royce stakeholders. You'll:
- Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary design activity across projects from early concept through RIBA Stages 0–4.
- Manage and develop our designers and provide technical support, challenge and due diligence to Project Managers and site teams.
- Oversee Principal Designer activities, ensuring design risks and CDM requirements are effectively managed.
- Facilitate collaborative design sprints, helping accelerate schemes to a point where scope, risk and costs can be understood and assured.
- Provide design governance through construction, helping protect design intent while finding practical, safe and commercially effective solutions.
An opportunity to build something This isn't simply about managing an established process. Rolls-Royce is developing a clearer separation between its design and construction functions, creating an opportunity for you to help define how design is managed across the framework. A key part of the role will be looking at how we continue to develop and scale our design capability, including opportunities to bring more expertise in-house. You'll have the scope to influence standards, ways of working, future recruitment and the development of the wider team. The projects Variety is a big part of the opportunity. Our portfolio covers projects including:
- Mechanical and electrical installations
- Civil engineering and infrastructure works
- Building and facility refurbishments
- Building fabric and fit-out projects
- Manufacturing facility upgrades and new-build construction
That breadth means we're open to candidates from different technical disciplines. You don't need to have designed every type of project yourself. We're looking for someone who can lead the design process, ask the right questions and bring the appropriate specialists together. What we're looking for You'll bring strong construction or engineering design experience, together with the credibility to work with technical specialists, project teams and senior stakeholders. Ideally, you'll have:
- Experience leading design activity, multidisciplinary teams or a small technical team within construction, engineering or building services.
- Strong knowledge of the RIBA Plan of Work and a good understanding of the design-to-construction lifecycle.
- Knowledge of CDM Regulations 2015 and the Principal Designer role, including design risk and Pre-Construction Information.
- Chartered status within a relevant professional discipline.
- The confidence to challenge, influence and make sound technical decisions with clients, consultants, contractors and internal teams.
Already operating as a Design Manager? We'd like to hear from you. Equally, if you're currently a Design Lead, Assistant Design Manager or experienced designer ready to step into a broader leadership role, we're open to that conversation too.
