Design Leadership Jobs in Manchester, United Kingdom
Find your next Design Leadership role at companies that value creative talent
Showing 8 jobs
Senior Design Manager
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Galliford Try 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead the design process for construction projects, managing consultants, design deliverables, BIM requirements, risks, and coordination to meet contractual, budget, schedule, quality, and customer requirements. Support framework bids and project delivery while implementing company policies and improvement strategies, with a focus on safety, timely completion, snag-free delivery, and client satisfaction.
Senior Design Manager
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Bovis 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead design management from pre-bid through handover, overseeing design performance, programmes, resources, approvals, and consultant relationships across complex projects. Work with senior project teams and clients, support bids and project governance, manage regulatory and third-party interfaces, and promote safety and collaboration.
Design Manager, Rail Stations
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Wsp In The Uk & Ireland 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead the delivery of multidisciplinary rail station design and assurance submissions, including defining scope, requirements, processes, and outputs. Plan and forecast design activities, develop technical proposals, and coordinate design responsibilities, interfaces, suppliers, consultants, surveyors, and stakeholder requirements.
Design Manager - Water( Flexible across various locations in UK)
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Atkinsréalis 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver water and wastewater infrastructure designs, overseeing technical deliverables, design reviews, project milestones, budgets, and quality processes. Collaborate with clients and project teams, mentor junior engineers, contribute to bids, and provide technical guidance on complex design challenges.
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Design Manager - Data Centres (Norway)
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Arcadis 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Manage the full design process for data centre projects, coordinating design packages, stakeholders, BIM, technical deliverables, permits, and quality assurance from preliminary design through final construction documentation. Support construction by reviewing contractor submissions, resolving design queries, overseeing temporary works, and ensuring changes are reflected in as-built drawings and the final BIM model.
Design Manager - Water Sector
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Stantec 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary teams in delivering water-sector projects from concept through detailed design, including clean water, wastewater, flood risk, and urban drainage work. Plan and oversee technical delivery across major projects, collaborate with clients and project managers, and ensure value and service excellence.
Design Manager – Energy & Water Resources
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Arup 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary teams and oversee design delivery, technical assurance, and quality standards for energy, water, and resources projects, particularly in the nuclear sector. Develop client and stakeholder relationships, mentor colleagues, and support business development through bids, technical proposals, and client engagement.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Jacobs 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Coordinate multidisciplinary detailed design activities for water and wastewater infrastructure to ensure they are safe, buildable, and effective. Manage design packages, technical interfaces, and assurance requirements while collaborating with construction and commissioning teams.
About Design Leadership careers
Design leaders in 2026 set the strategic vision for design organizations navigating an AI-saturated market. This role requires a balance of craft expertise and high-level business acumen to advocate for design's value at the executive level.
Effective leaders foster a culture of technical agency, establishing systems that allow human creativity and machine efficiency to coexist.
Companies like Stripe and Airbnb seek VPs and Directors of Design who can scale teams and align design strategy with long-term business objectives.
We feature senior leadership positions including Design Directors, Heads of Design, VP of Design, Chief Design Officers, and design team leads at companies like Meta, Google, Airbnb, Stripe, and fast-growing AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. These roles span product design, brand, and cross-functional design organizations.
Many companies offer remote design leadership roles, including distributed-first companies like Notion, Linear, GitLab, and Vercel. AI companies like Midjourney and Anthropic also hire remote design leaders. Some companies prefer hybrid arrangements for VP+ positions.
Most positions require 8–15+ years of design experience with 3–5+ years managing teams. Strong candidates demonstrate strategic thinking, team building, stakeholder management, and a track record of shipping successful products at companies like Figma, Spotify, Netflix, or emerging AI startups. Browse leadership portfolios to see how experienced designers showcase their impact.
Design leadership salaries are highly competitive: Design Directors earn $160k–$240k, VPs of Design $220k–$350k+, and CDOs at major companies can exceed $400k with significant equity packages. AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks often offer premium total compensation. Consult our salary guide for detailed breakdowns.