Dezeen Jobs

Heatherwick Studio is looking for a head of staffing to join its team in London.

This is a unique opportunity for a seasoned architect or project manager who wishes to be involved in the studio operations.

The role

The role sits within the people team and owns the capacity planning pipeline for staffing across the studio. It oversees both recruitment and resourcing for the studio. This is a pivotal role that works across people, finance, commercial and projects to coordinate staffing requirement to ensure that designers of suitable skills and calibre are available for tasks. It also works closely with talent and learning functions to input into the development, planning, and skills enhancement of studio people.

Direct line management: recruitment coordinator.

Responsibilities

Planning and strategy:

• manage and present monthly reporting dashboard to head of people
• input into overall staffing and recruitment strategy for the people team annual planning process
• input into staff budget and people domain budget
• twice a year present overall staffing strategy to studio leadership

Capacity and pipeline planning: 

• manage the resourcing workflow across everyone involved to ensure timely communication and efficient process is followed for resource set up and changes
• ensure spikes in supply and demand are expertly managed
• own the responsibility to ensure projects are resourced with the best possible fit for skills and experience required throughout the duration of the project. Assign individuals to both new and existing project teams, adjusting resourcing on a daily basis. Ensure balance between the requirements of the projects, the budget, and the development needs of the studio’s designers for the benefit both of the individual and of the studio as a whole. Actively support the project teams on a day-to-day to meet deadlines, cover for illness, etc.
• manage pool resource (unassigned designers) to ensure maximum benefit and efficiency of bench time when designers are awaiting project assignment
• identify skill development requirements and staff shortages; collaborate across the people team to address issues
• engage and promote the use of key resourcing systems to enable effective resourcing
• maintain knowledge database of software & design skills and levels of all the designers. Maintain resourcing conversation notes and resource quality flags in the HR database for continuity and historical record keeping
• steer strategic staffing allocation and re-allocation across projects
• chair weekly resourcing meeting and work collaboratively to resolve any issues on staff transfers across projects. Chair monthly pipeline review meetings
• contribute to annual people team strategy and planning. Present twice a year to leadership on staffing strategy, including spotting trends, risks and opportunities in staffing strategy

Support of strategic goals and project accounting:

• keep a constant eye on the project pipeline and potential impact on existing projects, recruitment needs and skills gaps
• maintain an awareness of project budgeting and financial targets
• maintain an awareness of underperforming projects and those at risk of underperforming in relation to resource planning and spend
• make long-term recommendations for the studio’s resourcing and recruitment across all projects
• maintain an awareness of professional development goals for project staff and work closely with talent and learning functions to ensure resourcing and professional development are in sync

Recruitment:

• ensure day to day recruitment is agile and responsive to ongoing staffing demands and rigorous capacity planning. Identification of skill gaps from resourcing to inform recruitment
• ensure ongoing development of recruitment teams for best possible practices to be used in interviewing and selection. Ensure all processes follow the competency and value based framework of the studio for candidate assessment
• input into overall strategy for ensuring high quality graduate intake

Skills and experience:

• resource planning or project management experience within a project led environment
• ideally a design/architectural degree with experience working in a design/architectural studio environment
• a comprehensive understanding of resource planning and methodologies
• experience of building relationships across teams
• analytical problem solving ability
• knowledge, experience, and awareness of architectural projects and design work stages

Attributes:

• strategic and critical thinker
• confident
• patient
• active listener and clear communicator
• ability to develop effective working relationships across teams Organised, calm and able to work under pressure in a fast moving environment
• enthusiastic, engaging and inquisitive
• comfort with ambiguity

Please apply here with a CV and covering letter

Heatherwick Studio is a team of over 200 problem-solvers dedicated to making the physical world around us better for everyone. Based out of our combined workshop and design studio in central London, we create buildings, spaces, master-plans, objects and infrastructure. Focusing on large scale projects in cities all over the world, we prioritise those with the greatest positive social impact.

www.heatherwick.com

• Applications have closed.