Design Manager

Design Different, at McNab!

At McNab, Design Managers play a critical role in the success of projects.

We’re expanding and seeking an experienced Design Manager to join our South Brisbane team. This is your chance to turn design concepts into practical, construction-ready solutions that make a real impact on program, cost, and on-site performance.

You’ll be part of a highly collaborative team of design professionals who tackle challenges, solve problems together, and set you up for success. If you thrive on turning complex designs into buildable outcomes and driving projects forward, this is the role for you.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead and manage all consultant design delivery from concept to construction completion, ensuring coordinated, buildable documentation that protects program and cost.
• Support Design and Construct tenders and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), identifying design risks and opportunities, and contributing to value engineering and commercially beneficial outcomes.
• Proactively identify and mitigate design risks, reduce RFIs and site delays, and maintain consistent design control processes across projects.
• Develop and manage design programmes to ensure timely contributions from all stakeholders.
• Apply curiosity and critical thinking to challenge design assumptions and propose efficient buildability and value engineering solutions.
• Ensure design outputs meet all compliance, regulatory, and contractual requirements.
• Build and maintain strong, respectful client relationship with all stakeholders, influencing positive project outcomes and creating future partnership opportunities.
• Coordinate project design schedules, resources, reporting and documentation, overseeing any design changes and ensuring the construction team is fully informed.

About you

You are a passionate design professional with a sharp commercial mindset, driven to deliver results that matter. Your leadership will shape projects that leave a lasting impact and drive the growth and success of McNab.

We are seeking the following:

• Tertiary qualifications in Design, Construction, or a related discipline
• Previous experience working as a Design Manager or Project Manager within construction.
• A strong understanding of building principles and a proven ability to identify and proactively manage design and project risks.
• You have a strong commercial focus, with the ability to uncover cost efficiencies and practical design solutions.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the confidence to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• A collaborative approach and the capability to build and maintain strong, trusted relationships across clients, consultants, and internal teams.

About McNab

McNab is one of the largest Construction, Development and Property groups in Australia, with turnover now exceeding $1bn each year. Despite our growth and size, we've never lost our small company DNA - which centres around genuine care for our staff, customers and all our stakeholders. Success for us isn't about awards or growth, it's when we deliver so well that our customers are proud to wear a McNab T-Shirt on weekends!

We genuinely care. We make it easy. We deliver certainty.

This is our promise - to our clients, and everyone we deal with. Delivering on these three things really, really well is what drives us at McNab. Everything we do, from recruiting and training to performance and promotion, centres around this promise.

We leverage the entire McNab Group to deliver certainty for our clients at a time of unprecedented uncertainty in the industry. And our approach works. From delivering our own property developments, to manufacturing our own building products, and a plethora of aligned businesses, your career at McNab goes well beyond traditional construction roles.

McNab benefits:

• Birthday leave – Celebrate your special day on us!
• Social Club and team events – Work hard, play hard with regular team events.
• Annual health and fitness subsidy – Stay fit and healthy with our health benefits.
• Parental leave program – Supporting you through life’s important milestones.
• Employee Assistance Program – We’ve got your back, with support whenever you need it.
• Tailored development opportunities – We invest in your growth with tailored training programs.

This is a great opportunity to build a strong career with a reputable construction company that genuinely cares about the development of all staff. If you're ready to join a team that invests in your future, please apply now.

Please note: we are not engaging recruitment agencies for this role. Any applications submitted via agencies will not be considered.