London, UK
Architectural construction assistant
at Sean and Stephen
Sean and Stephen is hiring an architectural construction assistant 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 9th anniversary from incorporation on 1st May 2022.
You may know our House with a Slide, and our projects are covered in magazines, 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 architecture and construction 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.
The businesses are on trajectory to grow ambitiously, sustainably and in innovative ways. We see this role evolving with the companies.
About the role
This role is excellent for estimators, architectural assistants, draftspersons, technicians and project managers who see an exciting life running the construction end of ‘design and build’ projects. This role specifically relates to managing tender packages, pricing and winning them, digesting construction logistics and managing construction purchases, sequences and methods.
The successful applicant will be trained in the main parts of the role, providing construction knowledge which an architect-only practice can not offer. Where this role is light on design experience offer, and it is light on design experience offering, it makes up for this with career-making construction-stage experience and regular exposure to projects at RIBA Stage 4, 5 and 6.
Applicants should:
- be passionately into maths, arch and engineering drawings and computer systems
- be a proud owner of a scale ruler
- work with Vectorworks on a Mac, Adobe Acrobat
- have technical knowledge about construction projects
- be fascinated by Microsoft Excel
- have a decent calculator
- be intelligent, independent and dedicated – these words are not used lightly
- have either architectural or technical qualifications either formally or through equivalent demonstrable experience
- have excellent written, read and spoken English
Duties (in no intended order)
Building regulations/tender/constructibility:
- understanding building regulations design packages of drawings, and structural engineers drawings etc, raising queries
- have an understanding and experience of building regulations, planning, Party Wall Awards, Thames Build-over applications
Pricing/value engineering:
- translate planning and tender packages of designs into priced spreadsheets to establish construction value
- estimate construction sequence, complexities, risks and durations
- communicate sensitively with architects and engineers, builders and clients
- revise costing based on amended scopes
- track established cost rates across projects
Construction phase:
- liaise with the building team
- make critical path timeline programmes of construction
- make purchases, and liaise with suppliers
- work from site at times, review construction work
- price variations, establish valuations
- list and manage completion of snags and defects
- issue invoices
Desirable though optional digital skills/experience:
- 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/gantt chart software e.g. omniplan
Notes
- Pencil and Brick will be the employer/contractor
- full-time, £110 per day, freelance basis during trial period, 8am – 5pm, to start in February, preferably
- the successful applicant will have an opportunity to climb pay-scales and responsibilities, performance permitting
- 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
How to apply:
- prepare a digital CV (PDF), as plainly as you like.
- fill out the online form at this link, uploading your CV to WeTransfer and sharing the link in the form – https://forms.gle/qjkTsvf9YxzxQtHr5
- only if you can not make that work then please email to [email protected] with the role as the subject line.
- we’ll aim to personally acknowledge your form/application submission within a few days of receipt
- role to start February/March 2022
- initial interviews early February