Director of Operations

Perkins&Will New York is seeking a talented and enthusiastic Director of Operations to join a highly collaborative and dynamic New York team. The ideal individual will have 20+ years of combined experience in design profession practice, project management, and/or practice management, studio and practice operations, as well as excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Key leadership position with responsibilities that include, but are not limited to, coordinating the development and implementation of the office strategic plan, ensuring effective administration and management of business operations, maintaining appropriate levels of qualified staff and allocation, establishing and monitoring both firmwide and office level procedures and strategic initiatives, with fiscal, contractual performance and collections oversight with project managers. May participate in marketing efforts and/or serve in Project Manager capacity on specific projects.

EXEPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

• 20+ years combined in design profession practice, project management and/or practice management. Including at least 10 years of direct experience focused on Practice/Office operations management. Professional Degree in Architecture, Interior Design, or other design-related professions .

• Professional Licensure and LEED AP.
• Enhanced knowledge of project design and project delivery.
• Worked extensively on multiple large-scale projects, including management of fee, contract, time and staffing.
• Prepared proposals and contracts.

• Experience working directly with clients during a project and in negotiations regarding fees, contract terms and project schedule.
• In depth experience of the full cycle of HR processes including hiring, compensation, interviewing, terminations, and HR related decisions.
• MS Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel) and Deltek Vision desirable.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and experience managing or directing project teams.
• Exceptional collaboration and people skills with the ability to help others understand financial parameters and business practices.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Financial, Operational & Administrative

• Support and collaborate with the Managing Director in providing office leadership in meeting financial goals and project performance, with direct daily management of financial/administrative operations and project delivery.
• Responsibility for creatively and effectively aligning the operational and organizational structure to support the objectives of the MOD (Managing Director, Operations Director, Design Director).
• Lead development of annual office financial plan, monitoring and assuring compliance throughout the fiscal year.
• Review, monitor and approve G&A expense requests, assure monthly collections and earnings, participate in collection efforts if required.

• Communicate closely with project principals, project designers and project managers, assuring all involved in project delivery have the requisite skills to achieve quality level design and technical goals.
• Review timesheets, expense reports. direct and indirect labor, overtime and trends.
• Coordinate support services including human resources, information technology, administrative resources, accounting and marketing; monitoring performance including adherence to annual budgets and strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate with Human Resources and office leadership, with participation in recruitment, retention, employee relations, performance reviews, staff development, and compensation and benefits practices.
• Represent the office to the firm at large, sharing and promoting best practices with firmwide operations leadership.

• Work with Finance Manager to ensure compliance with best practices in financial performance and planning for all projects in the studio.
• Supervise office manager, finance manager, and assigned project managers.

Project Delivery

• Review, monitor, and approve work authorizations.
• Review, monitor, and approve project work plans including milestones, workflow, staffing, and project budgets.
• Review, monitor and forecast office staffing to assure adequacy, proper balance and compliance with individual work plans.
• Assure adherence to budgets, monitoring all project earnings, collections, and expenditures.
• Conduct project management review meetings to assure projects meet schedule, scope, budget, and collection targets.

• Guide project managers and team members toward continually improving project delivery, quality, and profitability.
• Support/Collaborate with Project Management Initiative (PMI); leading implementation efforts with Project Managers.
• Work with Studio Assistant to lead project administration oversight.

Technical

• Work with Architectural and Interior Technical Director to lead studio-wide initiatives to control quality, risk and delivery of the technical aspects of the work produced in the studio per the following:

• Provide oversight of the technical aspects of project delivery including project set- up, implementation, and quality.
• Organize periodic review of project documents and deliverables.

• Monitor implementation of project team meetings.
• Ensure implementation of firmwide technical and delivery standards.
• Monitor construction contract administration process and procedures.
• Support, collaborate and lead the effort to enhance and embrace project delivery systems technology and innovation at the office level.

Design

• Support and collaborate with the Design Director and the Design Leadership Council (DLC), Technical Design Community (TDC), and the Project Management Community (PMC), to facilitate a culture of sustainable design and design excellence and integration in project delivery.

Risk Management

• Review and approve fee proposals and contracts with respect to scope, fee and schedule issues.
• In conjunction with in-house Legal Counsel, review and approve fee proposals and contracts with respect to the allocation of risk and liability, insurability, rights of intellectual property, dispute resolution and other key contractual issues.

Salary Range Information

We foster a culture that is diverse and inclusive and strive for pay practices that are fair, and competitive and reflect our commitment to pay equity. Our compensation decisions include but are not limited to a candidate’s qualifications including skill sets, education, experience and training, licensure and certifications credentials if applicable, and business-related factors. This practice extends to all employees, including performance considerations for merit increases, job promotions, and transfer opportunities. We additionally review our pay practices, conduct pay equity audits, and ensure our managers are trained in our pay practices on an annual basis. At the time of posting this job advertisement, the annual pay salary range for this position is between $175,000 and $215,000 commensurate with qualifications.

• Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Perkins&Will has established and adopted an Equal Employment Opportunity Employment policy (“EEO”), which is part of the Company’s Human Resources Policy. The purpose of this EEO policy is to ensure that all employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis, and without regard to sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, disability, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, gender reassignment, citizenship, pregnancy or maternity, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state, or local law. In some cases, local laws and regulations may provide greater protections than those outlined here and employees will be covered by the laws of their local jurisdiction.

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision

Perkins&Will will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.