Design Leadership Jobs in Melbourne, Australia
Find your next Design Leadership role at companies that value creative talent
Showing 17 jobs
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Redpath Partners 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Assess development sites and feasibility, shape planning strategies, and lead design from early concepts through planning and design development. Manage consultants and stakeholders, optimise site yield, and ensure design outcomes meet commercial objectives, project requirements, and planning constraints.
Design Manager | Tier 1 Builder
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Amida Group 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Manage the design process from design development through construction, coordinating external consultants across disciplines and aligning design programmes with construction milestones. Resolve design, buildability, and coordination issues while working with project managers, site teams, building services, and digital engineering teams to ensure timely delivery of information to site.
Senior Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Redpath Partners 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead design management from project inception through delivery, coordinating consultants, contractors, clients, and internal teams while ensuring technical compliance, buildability, safety, programme, and budget alignment. Drive value engineering and cost optimisation, manage design progress and procurement, contribute to tenders and business planning, and mentor design team members.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stantec 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Design Manager will lead multidisciplinary teams to deliver complex building projects while ensuring quality, budget, and schedule adherence. They will also foster strong client relationships and mentor emerging leaders within the business.
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Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stantec 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Design Manager will lead multidisciplinary teams to deliver complex building projects while ensuring quality, budget, and schedule adherence. They will also foster strong client relationships and mentor emerging leaders within the business.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Hickory Group 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Design Manager oversees the comprehensive design process from initial planning to project completion, ensuring seamless integration and buildability. They lead design teams, coordinate with stakeholders, and manage design risks and budgets to align with project objectives.
Design Manager Southbank / Full Time
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Signature Hospitality Group 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead venue design from concept through construction documentation, producing drawings, 3D models, renders and presentations that express each brand and create memorable guest experiences. Specify materials, finishes, lighting and FF&E; review documentation and site work; coordinate with internal teams and external partners; and develop branding, graphics and signage while mentoring junior designers.
Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Hickory 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead and coordinate design activities through early contractor involvement and construction, aligning design outcomes with client requirements, project objectives, compliance obligations, and buildability needs. Manage consultants, stakeholders, design risks, changes, and documentation while supporting tenders, resolving construction design issues, and identifying opportunities for value, innovation, and efficiency.
Design Manager – Wind
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Arcadis 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead and coordinate onshore wind farm Balance of Plant design across civil, electrical, and environmental disciplines, including tender, early contractor involvement, and detailed design phases. Provide technical leadership, client and contractor engagement, design optimisation, delivery planning, and mentoring while establishing best-practice wind design methods and workflows.
Design Manager - Water Infrastructure
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Aecom 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead multidisciplinary design delivery for water infrastructure projects, managing scope, schedules, budgets, risks, governance, safety, and technical quality. Chair design reviews and technical forums, advance digital and sustainable delivery, coordinate resources, support bids, and mentor emerging technical leaders.
Design Manager - Ports
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Aecom 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead the design management and end-to-end delivery of ports, maritime, and coastal infrastructure projects, taking responsibility for work packages, scope, schedules, technical outcomes, and commercial coordination. Serve as a key client contact, coordinate multidisciplinary teams across regions, and support the growth of AECOM’s Ports & Maritime capability through technical leadership and mentoring.
Design Manager, Engineering (Australia)
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stack Infrastructure 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Manage engineering design consultants, vendors, deliverables, and design reviews throughout project delivery, ensuring project requirements and schedules are met. Support procurement, customer design implementation, technical decision-making, and cost-saving initiatives in collaboration with the Design Director and project teams.
Design Manager, Engineering (Australia)
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stack Infrastructure Apac 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Design Manager will oversee engineering and design processes for data center projects, including managing consultants, vendors, and project deliverables. They will also provide technical guidance, support procurement initiatives, and ensure all designs meet company requirements and cost-saving objectives.
Senior Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Downer 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Lead multidisciplinary engineering design delivery for high-voltage transmission, substation, renewable energy, and battery storage projects throughout the project lifecycle. Manage design teams, consultants, technical governance, risks, reviews, stakeholder relationships, and engineering support through procurement, construction, commissioning, and handover.
Senior Design Manager
🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Downer 🇦🇺 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Senior Design Manager will lead and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering design services across major power transmission, substation, and renewable energy projects. They are responsible for overseeing design delivery throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring compliance, safety, and alignment with commercial objectives.
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.