Principal Design Lead

Stantec Buildings is on a mission to become the world's leading integrated design practice. Our architects, engineers, interior designers, sustainability specialists, and technologists are passionate about the power of design. We take an innovative, collaborative approach to projects, sharing a common belief that sustainable design for the built environment can make the world a better place for future generations. Join us and design your place with Stantec.

We are looking for an inspiring design leader; a well-rounded practitioner with a commitment to design excellence, sustainability, and collaboration, to take on the role of Principal, Business Centre (BC) Design Lead for British Columbia. In this role you will be working directly with our British Columbia region Practice and Operations Leaders as well as our Design Director, Canada to help shape and support design excellence throughout the British Columbia region. You will implement established design excellence initiatives to support Stantec's mission to become the world's leading integrated design practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Actively engage with the regional practice, driving design culture, quality and brand across all sectors.
• Win and deliver design forward projects by advancing design delivery through integrated design, modeling, coordination, and documentation.
• Support and mentor Designers in the regional practice.
• Engage in the attraction and retention of design talent, to support high performance teams.
• Support a culture of design discourse, learning, professional development, and growth.
• Partner with regional Practice and Operational Leadership to ensure every project has an empowered Design champion
• Organize, schedule, conduct and document Project Pin-Ups to ensure work aligns with our Five Principles of Design Excellence and establish sustainable design through multi-disciplinary reviews. Target 25 reviews through a calendar year.
• Advance Design -Thinking actively participating in the practice wide Design Forum and Design Excellence calls, and regional town halls.
• Support digital design practice and delivery in collaboration with the Design Computing team.
• Support sustainable design processes to lower energy demand, embodied and operational carbon in collaboration with the Carbon and Climate team.
• Advance a design portfolio of outstanding projects, positioning and winning work with high design potential, designing, delivering, documenting, photographing, publishing, presenting, and submitting for design awards obtaining recognition for Design Excellence.
• Participate and support local practice engagement in the academies with future practitioners teaching, lecturing, speaking, and critiquing.

Your Capabilities and Credentials

• The strengths and drive to effectively lead, challenge, and inspire.
• The skills to mentor, lead and motivate designers and design teams.
• Be an inspiring designer and leader attracting and retaining top design talent.
• Possess strong communications skills and advocate our design perspective internally and externally including speaking and presenting [Academia, Conferences, Podcasts, Forums, Panels, etc]
• Possess a portfolio of outstanding design work including documentation, publication, presentations, citations, and awards.
• Demonstrated evidence of collaborative, sustainable, holistic design with a 'green' portfolio of projects achieving high sustainability standards [Passive House, ZCB, WELL, Living Building Challenge, Net Zero, LEED, etc]
• Active leadership in professional organizations and community [committees, councils, design review panels, etc]
• Strong leadership and design skills to conduct practice-based project pin-up and design review and critiques.
• Active leadership in University design school programs teaching, lecturing, speaking, and critiquing.
• Commitment to building and evolving a strong, resilient, value-based design culture.
• Effective working relationships with BC leadership and Design Leadership Team
• Active participation in design-oriented industry peer groups.
• Demonstrated interest and ability to lead and collaborate with all allied disciplines.

Education and Experience

• Bachelors degree in architecture 
• Registration as an Architect 
• 15+ year of experience working with multidisciplinary teams 

Typical hybrid office environment working with computers and remaining sedentary for periods of time with standard ergonomic sit-stand desks. 

This description is not a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that may be required of the employee and other duties, responsibilities and activities may be assigned or may be changed at any time with or without notice. Stantec is a place where the best and brightest come to build on each other's talents, do exciting work, and make an impact on the world around us. Join us and redefine your personal best.

Application Deadline:

Please note that the deadline for applications is 5pm, December 3rd,

About Stantec

Stantec is a global leader in sustainable engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting. The diverse perspectives of our partners and interested parties drive us to think beyond what's previously been done on critical issues like climate change, digital transformation, and future-proofing our cities and infrastructure.