Client Services & Project Manager

Job Description

Full-time | New York City

Dunham Robinson is a growing architecture and interior design studio in New York City creating thoughtful, inventive residential spaces designed around the people who live in them. Founded by an architect and structural engineer, our studio brings creativity and technical expertise under one roof.

We’re building a studio that's ambitious about the work, collaborative and down-to-earth with each other, and genuinely excited about what we’re creating. We’re looking for a Project & Client Services Manager to become a central part of that.

This is a client-facing role for someone who is an exceptional communicator, highly organized, and very good at keeping track of a lot of moving pieces. You’ll work directly with the partners and serve as the connective tissue between our clients, collaborators, and our internal design team - keeping communication clear, projects organized, and everyone a few steps ahead.

This is not a design or architectural production role. Your job is to keep our communication clear and effective, our internal processes organized, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

What you'll do:

You’ll be involved with multiple projects from kickoff through completion, helping manage both the client experience and the day-to-day organization that keeps each project moving.

You’ll:

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• Build strong relationships with our clients and become a trusted point of contact throughout their projects alongside the partners
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• Lead day-to-day project correspondence and make sure questions, decisions, and next steps reach the right people
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• Schedule and attend client meetings, consultant meetings, and construction site visits
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• Document meetings clearly and turn conversations into organized decisions, action items, and follow-ups
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• Develop and maintain project schedules, milestone trackers, and checklists
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• Keep clients and internal teams aware of upcoming decisions, deadlines, and priorities
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• Follow up proactively so that important items are addressed in a timely way
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• Monitor client contracts, flat fees, hourly work, and additional services
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• Recognize when scope, priorities, or expectations are shifting and flag them to the partners
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• Help the partners plan staffing and resources across active and upcoming projects
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• Continually improve the systems we use to make our projects - and our clients’ experience of them - run better
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Who we're looking for:

You’re the kind of person who remembers what someone said three weeks ago and why it matters.

You communicate clearly and warmly, are comfortable taking the lead in a conversation, and know how to keep people informed without overwhelming them. You enjoy bringing order to complicated situations and get real satisfaction from making sure things happen when they’re supposed to.

You can zoom out to understand the big picture and zoom back in to notice the unanswered email, approaching deadline, missing decision, or small detail that could become a bigger issue later.

You’re comfortable working with sophisticated residential clients, designers, architects, consultants, and contractors - and equally comfortable in a client meeting, around a conference table, or walking through an active construction site.

Experience in architecture, interior design, construction, or another creative industry is preferred, but not required. If you're coming from another field, you should be curious and excited to learn the vocabulary and process of architecture and interiors.

Above all, we’re looking for someone who is proactive, sharp, warm, cheerful, and exceptionally dependable. Someone who likes people, likes solving problems, and naturally thinks about what needs to happen next.

What we're looking for:

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• 5+ years of experience in project management, client services, account management, or a similar client-facing role
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• Experience tracking project fees, contracts, scopes, or budgets
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• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
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• Highly organized, with strong attention to detail and an excellent memory
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• Comfortable managing multiple projects, deadlines, and priorities at the same time
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• Proactive by nature - you notice what needs to happen next and follow through without needing to be reminded
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• Confident and polished communicating directly with clients, consultants, contractors, and other professionals
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• Strong judgment and the ability to recognize when an issue needs to be escalated
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• Able to turn meetings and conversations into clear decisions, action items, and next steps
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• Comfortable working independently while staying closely connected to a collaborative team
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• Comfortable visiting active construction sites throughout New York City
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• Proficiency with standard project management, scheduling, and office software, with the ability to quickly learn new systems
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• Based in or able to commute daily to New York City
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Nice to have:

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• Experience in architecture, interior design, construction, real estate, advertising, branding, or another project-based creative industry
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• Experience managing high-touch client relationships
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• Familiarity with architectural or interior design terminology and project phases
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• Experience working in a small, fast-moving studio or agency environment
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Architecture and/or interior design experience is a plus, but it isn't required. We're more interested in finding someone with excellent client instincts, strong organizational skills, and the ability to keep a lot of moving pieces going in the same direction.

Why Dunham Robinson:

We’re a small studio doing increasingly ambitious work, and this role will have a key seat at the table as we grow.

You’ll work directly with the partners, have visibility into both our projects and the way the studio operates, and help shape how we work with our clients as the firm evolves.

We care deeply about doing excellent work, but we also care about creating a workplace that is friendly, collaborative, and enjoyable to be part of.

There’s a lot we’re excited to build over the next few years. We’re looking for someone who is excited to help us build it.