Director of Operations
Location(s): Seattle, WA
Our client is a well-respected, healthy and forward-looking architectural firm based in Seattle. This firm is one of a small number of practices in the country that can legitimately call itself “design-led”. The Partners are seeking a Director of Operations to provide leadership for the business aspects of the firm.
The Director of Operations will perform the function of ombudsman for non-design problem solving, taking corrective action and communicating with relevant stakeholders. The leadership of the Director of Operations will enable the firm’s technical professionals to practice design, lessening the management load of the firm’s leaders by ensuring that the business “backbone” functions optimally.
This is a significant management position which will guide the financial, IT, HR, legal, and risk management aspects of the firm while ensuring that the day-to-day aspects of smooth office logistics occur seamlessly. Successful candidates will have had exposure to and involvement in all aspects of practice management and will be knowledgeable about typical situations that firms are likely to confront in each area.
This is not a position where one can learn on the job. The Director must be able to advise the Partnership based on previous experience in a leadership position in a respected design firm of at least 75 people. He/she will be expected to recommend technology options, contractual language, business processes, risk minimization techniques, compliance measures, organizational structure and other factors essential for a profitable, robust design practice.
It is likely that the successful candidate will be an architect who became engaged in the business of design over the years and found the mechanics of running a practice as engaging as project work. If you see design firm operations as a challenging and essential part of the practice of architecture and have the experience to guide seasoned design professionals, send your resume in confidence to julianne@breuerconsulting.com. We will enthusiastically initiate a dialog with candidates whose background would be a good fit with our client.
