Premises Recruitment Ltd
Design Manager or Assistant DM - Tier 1 Main Contractor
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Design Manager or Assistant Design Manager (Contract) – Tier 1 Contractor
Day Rate: £250–£320/day
Location: Hayes & Harrow (two nearby sites)
Contract Length: c.5 months+
A leading Tier 1 main contractor is seeking a Design Manager to support two £40m+ education sector projects. This is a short-term but high impact role that requires a confident communicator, strong coordinator, and someone comfortable working across multiple live sites. If you thrive in fast paced project environments and enjoy ensuring that design information flows seamlessly from concept to site, this contract offers an excellent opportunity to make a meaningful contribution.
The Role
As the Contract Design Manager, you will play a central part in ensuring design packages are fully coordinated, compliant, and delivered on programme. This is very much a coordination role rather than a designing role.
Working closely with project teams across two sites, you will:
- Oversee and support the design process to align with contractual, programme, and cost requirements.
- Act as the main link between clients, consultants and internal teams, ensuring clear and effective communication.
- Coordinate design packages and support procurement activities alongside the Site Manager.
- Manage design consultants to ensure buildability, efficiency, and compliance with standards.
- Lead on the preparation, review and approval of design documentation.
- Ensure full adherence to document control and information management procedures.
- Support commercial and procurement strategy development.
- Represent the contractor in client and stakeholder meetings.
- Lead design risk reviews and ensure quality assurance at key project milestones.
- Facilitate smooth handovers from pre-construction to live site delivery.
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Requirements
To succeed in this position, you will need:
- A qualification in Architecture, Construction or a related discipline.
- Experience working for a main contractor.
- Strong knowledge of the Design & Build process.
- Excellent understanding of both commercial and construction-stage design.
- Practical familiarity with the RIBA Plan of Work.
- Strong technical understanding of current building regulations.
- Proven experience managing design on projects such as residential, education, healthcare or student accommodation.
- Awareness of planning requirements and sustainability frameworks (e.g., BREEAM).
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What You’ll Be Doing Daily
Working with the Senior Design Manager to deliver the full design management process across preconstruction and delivery stages.
- Driving the coordination and timely release of design information.
- Problem-solving design-related issues in conjunction with clients, consultants and project teams.
- Producing, reviewing and maintaining accurate design documents.
- Ensuring alignment between design deliverables and procurement strategy.
How to Apply
If you are interested, please click the apply button or contact Rob James on 020 8502 0111 for further details.
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