The Role
If you think your skills, experience and aspirations make you a good match for this position, we encourage you to apply.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are seeking a creative leader who has the skills, experience and a growing reputation that reflect the importance of this role in our design practice. You will help us achieve our goal to be one of the most innovative, creative, and highly regarded design firms in the world. You will contribute to office leadership, nurturing and developing our people and culture and being a voice for design excellence to your colleagues, clients and the outside world.
HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DO
As a Design Leader, you will report to the Senior Design Leader in your physical location. Your primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:
- Perform in a lead design role communicating and representing design goals to the client and the team for the life of the project, with particular emphasis on early phase development. Partner with team members, co-lead visioning and set conceptual direction. Collaborate with teams throughout all phases of development to ensure design quality. Support Senior Design Leaders on significant strategic pursuits.
- Create innovative design concepts that synthesize our clients’ culture, goals, and aspirations with the needs of people, community, society and the environment. Deliver solutions uniquely responsive to this expanded view of design impact.
- Prepare and direct the preparation of client presentation materials, including oversight and production of design visualizations, to convey the design in a compelling and sophisticated manner. Co-lead design presentations, with an emphasis on storytelling and aiding client understanding of the design. Capture and communicate key client goals and metrics and how our design solutions add value to our clients’ success.
- Work within our culture of being an integrated practice by collaborating with technical leaders, subject matter experts and others, creating holistic design solutions that fulfill the complex array of demands our projects require.
- Integrate performance-based and sustainable design strategies into design solutions. Further our goals to decarbonize the built environment and meet the AIA 2030 Commitment.
- Engage in activities that strengthen, differentiate, and promote our brand locally, regionally and nationally. Contribute to the external recognition of our work by identifying opportunities for publication and awards and contributing to submissions.
Culture, Growth and Mentorship
Partner with us in creating a strong design culture in your office and region. You will be responsible for:
- Mentoring and growing emerging professionals toward future creative leadership. You will assist in nurturing an environment that exemplifies collaboration, experimentation, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
- Recruiting and retaining design talent.
- Creating a stimulating and rewarding environment that sets the tone for design excellence and demonstrates it across the firm.
- Empowering staff and delegating effectively; building high-performance teams by encouraging innovation and continuous improvement.
- Provoking critical thinking and critique of our work.
- Leading by example, contributing to project pursuits that represent our future selves and advance our Living-Centered Design philosophy.
Client and Business Development
You will be responsible for developing and maintaining client relationships; building client trust and loyalty; and collaborating in bringing in work. You will be expected to build upon CannonDesign’s legacy clients, as well as your own prior relationships for these purposes. You will seek out and identify new client opportunities for CannonDesign in collaboration with the business development and marketing teams.In service of top line success, you will have a contributory goal of $1M in net signed fees, in collaboration with your office practice and market leaders.
HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED
- Bachelor or Master degree in Interior Design, Interior Architecture, or Architecture required.
- Minimum of 12 years of experience in related roles.
- Current US Architectural Registration or Certified Interior Designer preferred.
- Additional accreditations and/or training relevant to this role is preferred, including LEED.
- Design portfolio of built and unbuilt work for which you were both primary and contributing designer. Must contain 3 or more fully constructed building designs representing a high level of design excellence.
- Third party recognition (awards, publications) preferred.
- Strong communication and presentation skills.
- Must be able to understand and execute business strategy.
- Must have professional acumen and maturity demonstrated by the ability to communicate authentically and respectfully.
- Travel required.
For a general overview of our benefits, please visit our careers page at https://www.cannondesign.com/careers/benefits
ABOUT OUR FIRM
CannonDesign is a design practice where strategy, experience, architecture, engineering, and social impact converge. We don’t just dream up solutions — we create and bring them to life in ways to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our clients and the society. At the heart of everything we do is Living-Centered Design, a bold commitment to using our talents to not just improve the world but to truly reshape it for the better. It’s more than a philosophy — it’s who we are, and it drives us to make a meaningful, lasting difference every day.
ABOUT WORKING HERE
- We are relentless in our pursuit of client adoration (not simply satisfaction). Consistent delivery of the best service is what we are about.
- We are committed to ensuring our practice provides equal opportunities for all employees, as we strive to connect with communities around us and focus on the future of design. We support equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts that benefit all employees through the leadership of our DEI Council, our Employee Resource Groups which are open to everyone, and other community initiatives.
- We’re about communication and transparency here. If you want to talk to someone about an idea you have, or a challenge that needs addressing, we’re ready for you.
Please note that candidates can only apply to our positions on our company Careers site. It's not uncommon for scammers to create positions that look legitimate on other sites; never enter your information or apply for CannonDesign positions on any platform. Should an issue arise that you feel we should be aware of, please contact us. Please provide your resume and portfolio when applying.
As a condition of employment, all employees are expected to complete mandatory training, including compliance training, within required timeframes and adhere to our internal policies and our Code of Conduct.
CannonDesign is an Equal Opportunity Employer. CannonDesign is committed to maintaining a work environment that is free from any and all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment. It is therefore the firm’s policy to prohibit discrimination and harassment against any applicant, CannonDesign employee, vendor, contractor, or client on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. It is also CannonDesign’s policy to prohibit any and all forms of retaliation against any individual who has complained of harassing or discriminatory conduct, or participated in a firm or agency investigation into such complaints.
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The Company
What We Do
As an integrated design firm, we do a lot of things. But at our core, we help people continuously flourish. We leverage the heart, passion and intelligence of our more than 1,000 creative thinkers to develop solutions for some of the greatest challenges facing our clients and society. Whether designing for equity in education, accessible healthcare, inclusive communities, new scientific discoveries or the “next big idea” in business, we partner with organizations to help them improve human life. We do this through a design approach we created called Living-Centered Design. Our approach realizes that to create a world where people continuously flourish, we must address the complex interdependencies that exist between people, businesses, communities, society and the environment. Learn more at cannondesign.com/livingcentereddesign.
