Kirkwood Timber Frame is a leading timber frame supplier to the UK, renowned for our innovative designs and sustainable practices.
Due to recent growth and significant investment in our factory at Sauchen, Aberdeenshire, we have a new opportunity for a Design Manager to join our technical department.
Reporting to the Technical Director, our ideal candidate will have significant technical and/or design experience within the timber frame environment.
Job description:
- To provide technical expertise and knowledge on timber frame design.
- Oversee a design department that produces effective and efficient fabrication and construction drawings of timber frame builds.
- To represent the company in all technical matters, both internally for functional obligations but also externally for any customer interactions or representation at relevant trade and industry forums.
Role objectives:
- Successfully manage a small technical / design team and provide technical leadership.
- Develop and maintain delivery of the company closed panel system.
- Allocate workload to design team.
- Agree design timelines with internal and external design teams.
- Monitor and report on department non-conformances and defects and implement improvement measures accordingly to stop re-occurrences.
- Liaise with department heads to ensure the smooth running of the business.
- Stay up to date with Building Regs, STA and NHBC updates.
- HR Policies are followed and implemented and ensure team follow / use all relevant paperwork etc.
Key responsibilities:
- Lead and develop the design team, implementing training plans for junior members of the design team and support and encourage senior members' progression.
- Be at the forefront of Consultec maintenance, development and updates, reporting bugs and liaise fixes back to design team.
- Ensure design information is clear and concise and available to production and site teams in a timely manner to suit site delivery dates.
- Manage and monitor external design resources and report back good and negative feedback and ensure processes are reviewed.
- Ensuring the team are following QA processes and procedures and implement changes to QA that may be required.
- Develop strong relationships with suppliers and feedback performance to senior management team.
- Engaging and reporting to senior management team.
- Monitor design team procurement against budgets, bettering.
- Engage with consulting engineers to ensure project appraisals are satisfactory and to develop further timber frame panel systems.
- Provide project handovers to design team staff.
- Develop and manage KPIs to monitor design team performance.
- Consulting with existing and potential new customers as and when required.
- Dynamic thinking with individual and team management, prioritising workloads and implement action plans where necessary.
- Perform design risk assessments.
- Follow H&S procedures and implement guidance to the design department.
- Technician training plans, STA workbook refreshers where applicable.
- Support the sales and estimating teams as and when required.
Required:
- Significant technical and / or design experience within the timber frame environment.
- Well-organised, dependable and self-motivated.
- Solutions driven individual, good problem solver who will see solutions through to resolution.
- Strong reporting and analysis skills.
- Accurate with a strong attention to detail.
- An excellent communicator both verbal and written; comfortable in a design or customer environment.
- Over 10 years’ experience with Consultec or alternative timber frame design related software.