Architectural Designer 1
About The Position
STV’s Washington, DC Architecture practice is seeking an Architectural Designer I with 0–5 years of professional experience to join its multidisciplinary Buildings Group design team. The role welcomes emerging architectural professionals with varied strengths and career interests, including design and visualization, technical documentation and building systems, or project coordination and management. It provides broad exposure to architectural practice while allowing individuals to develop their strengths over time. The Architectural Designer I will support transportation, civic, federal, institutional, and other complex public projects across multiple phases of design and delivery. Extensive experience assembling complete drawing sets is not expected, but candidates should be comfortable working in Revit, have strong architectural fundamentals, and demonstrate curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to contribute where project needs arise. The position offers a broad platform for professional development across design, technical delivery, coordination, and project management. Over time, individuals may grow toward design leadership, technical architecture, project architecture, project management, design technology, or a combination of these paths. This position is not eligible for sponsorship.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Architecture from an accredited program.
- 0–5 years of professional architectural experience.
- Strong architectural fundamentals, including an understanding of plans, sections, elevations, spatial relationships, and basic building organization.
- Proficiency in Autodesk Revit, including navigating established project models; creating and modifying architectural elements; developing and organizing views, sheets, annotations, dimensions, tags, and schedules; working with levels, grids, linked models, view templates, visibility settings, and basic worksharing workflows; modifying existing families and parameters and creating simple project-specific content; incorporating markups accurately; and understanding the relationship between the Revit model and architectural documentation.
- Ability to communicate architectural ideas through drawings, diagrams, models, and graphics.
- Strong attention to detail and willingness to develop sound documentation habits.
- Curiosity about how buildings are designed, coordinated, constructed, and operated.
- Ability to learn new software, workflows, project requirements, and technical concepts.
- Willingness to work across different project types, project phases, and assignments rather than specializing too early in one area.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills and the ability to respond constructively to feedback.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with Adobe Creative Suite, Rhino, Enscape, or other architectural design and visualization tools.
- Exposure to construction documentation, architectural detailing, multidisciplinary coordination, or construction administration.
- Experience with computational design, automation, scripting, BIM workflows, data-driven design, AI-assisted workflows, or other design technology applications.
- Interest in transportation, civic, federal, institutional, infrastructure, or other complex public projects.
- Interest in pursuing architectural licensure and continued professional development.
Responsibilities
- Support architectural design, planning, documentation, visualization, and project coordination across different phases of work.
- Assist with developing floor plans, reflected ceiling plans, elevations, sections, enlarged plans, details, schedules, diagrams, and other architectural drawings under the direction of more experienced team members.
- Develop and maintain Revit models and drawing content in accordance with project standards, including views, sheets, annotations, schedules, families, and model organization.
- Contribute to design studies, option development, diagrams, renderings, physical or digital models, and presentation materials.
- Develop an understanding of building assemblies, materials, detailing, constructability, accessibility, life safety, and the relationship between architectural and engineering systems.
- Participate in coordination with structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, civil, and other disciplines while learning how architectural decisions interact with broader building systems.
- Assist project architects and project managers with meeting materials, coordination tracking, issue documentation, and other project delivery activities.
- Explore and apply digital tools, workflows, automation, visualization, and emerging technologies to improve design quality, coordination, productivity, and consistency.
- Incorporate markups accurately, check work for completeness and consistency, and develop disciplined habits around model and drawing quality.
- Work across different project types, design phases, and assignments based on project needs, communicating progress and asking questions when requirements are unclear.
- Build experience across design, technical delivery, coordination, and project management while developing a clearer long-term professional direction.
Benefits
- Health insurance, including an option with a Health Savings Account
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Flexible Spending Accounts for healthcare, dependent care, and transit and parking where applicable
- Disability insurance
- Life Insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment
- 401(k) Plan
- Retirement Counseling
- Employee Assistance Program
- Paid Time Off
- Paid Holidays
- Back-Up Dependent Care
- Parental Leave
- Continuing Education Program
- Professional Licensure and Society Memberships
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Entry Level
