Designer II

Perkins&Will•San Francisco, CA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

Our SF studio is a 100-person team inside a 3,000-person global firm, with the mentorship bench, technical resources, and project variety of a major international practice, while allowing you to still being visible enough that your growth gets noticed. If you're doing strong work, the people who make staffing and promotion decisions know it firsthand, not through a performance review written by someone who's never seen your drawings. We're looking for a Designer II who brings real creative energy to project teams, not just producing what's handed to them. You'll generate drawings under supervision across schematic design, design development, and construction documents, but the expectation is that you're thinking through a design problem. You'll take increasing ownership of tasks within project teams and studio activities as you demonstrate you're ready for it. This is a role where ownership gets earned by showing you can self-check your own work for accuracy, omissions, legibility, and compliance with our Project Delivery Manual. You'll get noticed by showing up prepared to design reviews, charettes, and pin-ups with actual opinions, and by coordinating effectively with partners and consultants instead of needing everything routed through someone else. We're looking for someone who communicates in a way that brings people along. Technical skill matters, but so does the ability to explain your thinking clearly enough that a project lead trusts your judgment, a consultant understands what you need, and a client presentation lands the way you intended it to. Curiosity is not optional here. We want designers who are genuinely interested in the world of design and the industry at large, who notice a well-detailed building when they walk past it, who read about material innovations or precedent projects because they're actually interested, not because someone assigned it. That curiosity is usually the difference between someone who's competent at this stage of their career and someone who's actually going to be exceptional five years from now.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in architecture or related discipline.
Preparing for the ARE with active involvement in AXP.
BIM proficiency.
Intermediate Revit.
Intermediate Rhino/Grasshopper.
Familiarity with building codes.
Familiarity with life safety requirements.
Familiarity with construction documents.
Microsoft Office/Adobe Suite proficiency.

Nice To Haves

Enscape or V-Ray.
3D printing/laser cutting.
LEED GA within 6 months of hire.
One Living Design accreditation (LEED AP Specialty, BREEAM AP, WELL AP, SITES AP, CPHC/CPHD, or ILFI).

Responsibilities

Generate drawings under supervision across schematic design, design development, and construction documents.
Take increasing ownership of tasks within project teams and studio activities.
Self-check own work for accuracy, omissions, legibility, and compliance with the Project Delivery Manual.
Show up prepared to design reviews, charettes, and pin-ups with actual opinions.
Coordinate effectively with partners and consultants.
Communicate in a way that brings people along.
Explain thinking clearly enough that a project lead trusts judgment, a consultant understands needs, and a client presentation lands as intended.
Be genuinely interested in the world of design and the industry at large.
Notice a well-detailed building when walking past.
Read about material innovations or precedent projects out of interest.