London, UK
Practice manager
at Sean and Stephen
Sean and Stephen is seeking a practice manager to join its team in London.
About us
Sean and Stephen is a published architecture practice of five employees, and we are an ambitious, progressive, thoughtful team. We operate from east London serving mostly private residential and some commercial clients. We will celebrate our ninth anniversary from incorporation on 1 May 2022.
You may know our House with a Slide, and our projects are covered in magazines [https://bit.ly/3tEQHeu], and recently published online.
We design and build, all in-house, in a fashion. We have a sister company, Pencil and Brick, a construction company, which builds some of the residential projects we design. Pencil and Brick allows us to give our clients a single point of contact and ultimate quality control from initial design brief to practical completion of their build.
We are interested in the question: what is a 21st Century architectural practice? We’re about to start a new adventurous chapter for the business, bringing with it refined vision, business name(s) and the stepping-down of one of our founders Stephen Mackie from his director role. Our new practice manager will be a trusted backbone and brains of our design and build teams.
The businesses are on trajectory to grow ambitiously, sustainably and in innovative ways. We see this practice manager role evolving, in the near future we want this role to become head of a team of non-architects/non-designers.
Key points:
- Sean and Stephen will be the employer
- we’ll consider fixed period freelance leading to employment if it seems appropriate
- part-time employee, two or three fixed days a week, with aim to be full-time within the year, although if full time doesn’t work for the successful candidate other solutions may be possible
- the person in this role needs to generally ensure the smooth-running of the practice in all those areas of business that architects are not trained in
- applicants will be judged primarily on their evidence of hands-on experience, secondarily by their ability to perform this role, and least importantly by their uni/college education, if at all
Duties (in no intended order)
HR, office and premises:
- manage rent and bill payments to utilities
- oversee management of the office, including supplies, cleaning and equipment
- manage tangible assets
- weekly resource planning meetings
- arrange staff social events, dinners and celebrations
- drive our companies, clients and colleagues to take action against the climate emergency
- being a key part of the studio culture and sharing the success and celebrations of the companies
- optional bonus skills – manage HR processes, including recruitment, contracts, new employment legislation, any disputes/grievances
Finance:
- work closely with our external accountants
- bookkeeping; general accounting, invoicing, VAT returns, tax payments, R&D tax credits
- reporting an overview of bank position each month, keeping on top of debtors
- oversee payroll and pensions each month
Design and build projects:
- lead management plus first point of contact for new enquiries
- creating and collating basic documents to support projects, including helping teams liaise with planners, clients and other consultants
- purchasing, managing suppliers and budgets within build projects
- helping develop systems, workflows, scripts and processes
Marketing:
- Instagram, newsletters, website content
- arranging project documentation e.g. professional photography
PR:
- liaise with journalists, submit projects to magazines, press releases
- write and submit award submissions
Optional desirable experience:
- communicating with clients, third-party colleagues, our build team and our office staff
- advising director(s) on business strategies, policies and key decisions, including helping write our new business plan, vision, values and purpose
- be a key player in the expansion of the companies
- planning and managing the budgets and financial aspects to optimise our income, overheads, margins and surpluses; plus dealing with our debtors and creditors
Optional desirable digital skills:
- computer platform – MacOS/Apple ecosystem
- file management – Google Drive
- email and chat – Gmail and Google Chat
- accounting software – Quickbooks Online or similar accounting software
- file production – Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms etc or near equivalent
- timekeeping and time-planning software
- client relationship management
How to apply:
- prepare a digital CV (PDF), as plainly as you like
- fill out the online form by clicking this link, uploading your CV
- only if you can not make that should you email us with the subject line starting with the text ‘practice manager ad’ to [email protected]
- we’ll aim to personally acknowledge your form/application submission within a few days of receipt
- role to start March 2022
- interviews Tuesday 1 February during working hours