Design Manager (Technical & QC)

Location: India

Experience: 5+ years in BIM Coordination, Design Management, or VDC.

Key Mandates: Technical Output and Systemic QC

Role Summary: Drive Process, Quality, and Profitability

We are a growing, specialized lighting design consultancy committed to delivering high-quality, complex technical design and modeling services for international and high-value domestic projects. We are seeking a proactive Design Manager (DM) to step into a critical management role focused on maximizing our operational efficiency and safeguarding project margins.

This is a pivotal role mandated to institutionalize technical expertise and eliminate the founder's bottleneck in Quality Control (QC). You will be the engine that drives consistent service delivery, ensures resource utilization is maximized, and stabilizes our high-value contracts through rigorous process enforcement.

The DM holds the decisive authority over technical quality, workflow standardization, and maximizing the profitable utilization of our production team across all projects.

I. Workflow Management and Resource Utilization

You will manage the production pipeline for all technical deliverables, ensuring efficient throughput and maximized capacity across the team.

• Utilization Management: Actively monitor resource allocation and capacity, ensuring the technical team (BIM engineers and design staff) consistently maintains or exceeds the 75% billable utilization rate benchmark.

• Process Optimization: Oversee and streamline technical workflows, implementing systems to efficiently manage project timelines, resource scheduling, and output volume.

• BIM Coordination Leadership: Manage the technical BIM model coordination process, which involves ensuring the seamless integration of multi-disciplinary models. You are responsible for ensuring model integrity and consistency for deliverables.

• Digital Environment Management: Manage the cloud collaboration platforms and remote access solutions (e.g., Autodesk Construction Cloud, AnyDesk) to maintain data security, seamless real-time worksharing, and reliable access for the distributed team.

II. Quality Assurance and Scope Protection

You will implement the necessary technical and contractual controls to protect project margins and ensure all technical standards are met before delivery.

• Systemic QC & Audits: Develop, enforce, and audit the application of rigorous quality control systems, including technical QC checklists for lighting specifications, calculations, and BIM model integrity.

• Scope & Margin Protection: For fixed-fee/Value-Based Pricing (VBP) projects, establish and strictly enforce a formal Change Request Management Protocol (CRMP). This is essential to prevent uncontrolled scope creep and ensure all modifications are formally priced and approved by the client.

• Sign-Off Management: Formalize client technical and concept sign-off at critical project milestones (Concept Development, Design Development), ensuring documented approval to lock in project scope and prevent rework.

• Risk Mitigation: Conduct and facilitate clash detection on technical models (structural, MEP, lighting) to resolve conflicts early in the design phase, mitigating costly construction-phase risk and protecting client relationships.

III. Team Leadership and Delegation Architecture

You will assume direct responsibility for managing and mentoring the technical staff, directly absorbing the founder's time commitment for operational oversight.

• Founder Bottleneck Elimination: Assume all day-to-day coordination, QA/QC verification, and process management tasks, successfully transferring low-leverage activities away from the founder.

• Performance Management: Set clear performance expectations and provide structured coaching and mentoring to technical staff (including junior designers, BIM engineers, and low-performing staff). You must focus on promoting problem-solving and continuous skill improvement.

• Knowledge Transfer: Document and standardize the firm's technical knowledge and quality standards into a scalable, repeatable system, ensuring consistent output quality as the team grows.

Required Skills and Qualifications

We seek a leader whose core strengths lie in systematic technical delivery and managerial rigor:

• BIM and VDC Expertise (Mandatory): 5+ years experience in managing technical BIM production, including proficiency in clash detection and model coordination software (e.g., Navisworks, Revit).

• Project Management Acumen: Demonstrated mastery of project management principles, including scope definition, resource allocation, and budget tracking.

• Communication: Exceptional ability to manage complex client expectations, enforce technical compliance, and communicate scope limitations clearly to both internal teams and external stakeholders.

• Technical Tools: Proficiency in lighting calculation software (DIALux/AGi32) and documentation tools (AutoCAD, Revit, Adobe Suite) is required for quality audit.

If you are driven by the challenge of transforming technical operational inefficiency into predictable, high-margin performance, and you want to implement the systems that define the future scalability of a high-growth firm, we encourage you to apply.