Workspace Design Manager (Fixed Term 13 Months)
- Full-time
Company Description
About SEEK
At SEEK, we work with heart. Our purpose is to help people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed. We make a positive impact on a truly global scale and our world-class technology solutions connect more people to relevant employment and education opportunities. The work we do impacts people’s lives when it matters. We value and celebrate the diversity of our employees who rise to the challenge to contribute to the success of our organisation. It’s a fast-paced and supportive environment where everyone is passionate about our common purpose and where our people can create enriching and exciting careers. Our future potential is your opportunity.
Job Description
The Role
This is a fixed‑term role to backfill a parental leave position. We are seeking an experienced workspace strategist and designer with a strong design and design‑strategy background who will lead the design / fit‑out stream of SEEK workspace projects, with a particular focus on a significant, large‑scale project currently in site selection. You will ensure our aspirations are translated into quality, highly functional and great‑value design outcomes that are truly “us”.
You will:
- Use the SEEK Workspace Playbook as the core framework for all projects, ensuring new workspaces align to our standards and intent, and refine the strategy as needed for each site, market and way of working. Work closely with the Workspace Project Director to coordinate internal delivery streams (e.g. Technology, OX), guiding them to define the right requirements and feed information and decisions into the design at the right time, while jointly managing timeline, budget, supply chain and risk.
- Lead briefing activities aligned to our purpose so that specific requirements are captured and considered, and the external team is clear on our aspirations, constraints and measures of success.
- Work alongside the Workspace Project Director to lead the design of SEEK workspaces, while supporting our Office Experience (OX) and Technology teams to ensure milestones, dependencies and operational requirements are identified and met.
- Be a key connector between SEEK and external design / project teams, ensuring design solutions are right for SEEK and not just “off‑the‑shelf” proposals. You will actively challenge and guide external designers and consultants to achieve the best outcome for SEEK and our people.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders across the business, maintaining regular contact to understand how our spaces are working, how teams are evolving, and what’s changing in headcount and ways of working.
- Workspace Planning, gather and interpret data (e.g. headcount, utilisation, ways‑of‑working insights, survey and research data) to inform workspace strategies, test design assumptions and measure outcomes.
- Be a key contributor to the Workspace Project Director to ensure projects remain aligned to the agreed purpose and parameters of cost, time and scope, and that risks and opportunities are clearly identified, communicated and managed (including recommending well‑reasoned deviations where these better achieve the project purpose).
- Manage the production of project documentation (e.g. presentations, status reports, risk registers, minutes/agendas, design packs) and/or ensure delivery of agreed external consultant reporting.
- Monitor external consultants and contractors to ensure work and deliverables (including design stages) are produced to the required quality and submitted/completed on time.
- Plan, facilitate and document meetings and workshops (e.g. stakeholder briefings, co‑design sessions, design reviews, lessons learned), ensuring the right people, inputs and artefacts are in the room.
The Team
This role sits within Finance and Business Support (FABS) in the Workspaces team and reports to the Head of Workspace Strategy & Travel.
You will work closely with internal delivery teams including Office Experience (OX) and Technology, and with external consultant teams including Project Managers, Architects / Interior Designers, Property Consultants, Engineers and Cost Consultants.
Qualifications
Essential Skills, Experience and Competencies
- Interior Architecture Degree / Architecture degree
- Non‑negotiable: Significant experience as a workspace / workplace strategist and designer, having led the strategy and design of large, complex commercial workplace projects (e.g. headquarters, multi‑floor or multi‑site projects) for progressive organisations.
- Deep understanding of commercial fit‑out design principles, Signage & Wayfinding, workplace planning, buildability and pricing, and how these influence design decisions.
- ESG & DESIGN: Strong understand of Universal Design Principles, Accessible Design Standards (across APAC), Global green building council “green building credentials” , WELL and ability to implement and align to SEEKs ESG initiatives (including but not limited to supply chain, governance, sustainability, carbon reduction strategies)
- Exposure to working in ANZ and South East Asia markets.
- Demonstrated ability to lead workplace strategy and design from briefing through concept, schematic and detailed design, including working with and constructively challenging external architects and designers.
- Experienced leading detailed documentation review
- Ability to understand the purpose and priorities of a project and how it aligns to SEEK’s broader business purpose and portfolio strategy.
- Ability to proactively identify and engage the right stakeholders to obtain meaningful qualitative and quantitative data to inform project direction and space planning.
- Strong judgement to analyse events, inputs and stakeholder feedback in the context of the project plan and act or escalate appropriately.
- Ability to translate between the “commercial office construction” world and the “client” world, making technical or commercial issues understandable and actionable for business stakeholders (and vice versa).
- Proven ability to manage and influence stakeholders at multiple levels to drive engagement, alignment and support for workspace strategies and design outcomes.
- Strong negotiation and conflict‑management skills, particularly in balancing user aspirations, commercial realities and design integrity.
- Medium to high proficiency in:
- Revit and AutoCAD for space planning and design coordination
- Adobe suite/InDesign + Illustrator to produce graphic concepts
- Microsoft Excel for data analysis, headcount / test fit modelling, basic dashboards
- Microsoft PowerPoint for storytelling and stakeholder presentations)
- Microsoft Project for programme and milestone tracking
Desirable Skills, Experience and Qualifications
- Project Management qualification (e.g. Cert IV or higher) or equivalent practical project management experience on large workplace projects.
- Change management experience, particularly relating to changes in workplace, location or ways of working.
- Experience using workplace analytics tools (e.g. utilisation sensors, survey platforms, space planning tools) to inform and evaluate workspace strategies.