Medical Education Design & Practice Leader

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

DLR Group is seeking a Medical Education Design Leader to shape the future of medical education through planning and design. This senior, firmwide leadership opportunity offers national influence and international growth potential, with the ability to expand an established portfolio and build the team behind its next chapter.

About Higher Education at DLR Group

DLR Group is one of the nation’s leading firms in higher education design, recognized among the top practices in Building Design + Construction’s ranking of university building architecture firms. Our Higher Education practice partners with institutions to create environments that advance learning, discovery, and social development.

Our medical education and academic medical portfolio include Ohio State’s Jameson Crane Surgical Skills Lab, the Wexner Medical Center Site and Facilities Plan, South Street Landing, a health education facility serving Brown University, and much more!

As a global, 100% employee-owned, integrated design firm, we bring architects, planners, engineers, interior designers, and specialty experts together to address complex institutional challenges. Our established relationships and depth of talent provide a strong foundation for a senior leader to grow our medical education portfolio nationally and internationally.

Position Summary

Working closely with the Global Higher Education Leader, you will lead the strategy and growth plan for medical education planning and design worldwide. Together, you will establish priorities, identify emerging opportunities, and align talent and resources across the firm to strengthen DLR Group’s position in this specialized market.

You will bring an established national portfolio and a clear vision for environments that prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals. Your expertise will guide work across colleges of medicine, health sciences programs, simulation and clinical training facilities, and academic research environments.

Helping our teams win work will be a central part of your impact. In partnership with the Global Higher Education Leader, regional and local leaders, business development leaders, and marketing teams, you will shape pursuit strategies, deepen client relationships, and bring a compelling planning and design perspective to significant opportunities. You will connect the strength of our existing portfolio with the evolving needs of institutions across the country and around the world.

Collaboration is essential to success. You will work alongside a broad network of designers, planners, engineers, interior designers, and specialty experts, bringing the right people together to advance ideas and deliver exceptional projects. In partnership with the Global Higher Education Leader, you will also identify talent needs, support recruitment, and mentor emerging leaders to build medical education expertise across the firm.

This is an opportunity to combine your design leadership with the reach, relationships, and resources of a global firm!

What You Will Do

• Shape strategy with the Global Higher Education Leader. Develop and advance the worldwide growth plan for medical education planning and design, establishing priorities and aligning opportunities with the broader Higher Education practice.

• Help teams win significant work. Partner with firm leadership, business development, and marketing teams to position DLR Group for opportunities through pursuit strategy, proposals, interviews, and compelling planning and design ideas.

• Expand our national and international reach. Build on existing institutional relationships and portfolio strengths while identifying new clients, partnerships, and markets.

• Lead planning and design. Guide programming, conceptual thinking, and design development for medical education environments, providing leadership and continuity as teams advance projects through documentation and construction.

• Connect expertise across the firm. Collaborate with leaders and multidisciplinary teams across offices, bringing together diverse perspectives and creating shared ownership of client and project outcomes.

• Build the team for future growth. Work with the Global Higher Education Leader and other firm leaders to identify talent needs, support recruitment, mentor designers and planners, and develop future leaders.

• Advance design excellence. Lead collaborative workshops, charrettes, and critiques that translate evolving medical education models into effective learning, simulation, and research environments.

• Strengthen our industry presence. Share expertise through conferences, publications, speaking engagements, and professional relationships that advance DLR Group’s visibility in medical education.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of relevant planning and design experience, including significant leadership on medical education projects.

• An established national portfolio demonstrating expertise in medical education and the ability to contribute at a firmwide level.

• Demonstrated success in client-facing leadership and helping teams pursue and win higher education or academic medical work.

• Strong expertise in programming, planning, and design for medical education environments, with proficiency across all design phases.

• Ability to develop a strategic vision and translate it into actionable priorities in partnership with senior leadership.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate, build trust, and lead through influence across multiple offices and disciplines.

• Comprehensive understanding of integrated design and the coordination requirements of architectural, engineering, interior design, and specialty disciplines.

• Excellent presentation, written, and verbal communication skills, supported by strong organizational skills.

• Ability to travel as project and practice needs require.

Our comprehensive Benefits at DLR Group include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer a 401(k) plan, employee stock ownership, and bonus opportunities. Compensation considerations are based on location, experience, and skills. The suggested pay range for this position is:

Pay Range

$150,000—$200,000 USD

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.

We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.

DLR Group follows a four-day in-office work model, with employees having the flexibility to work somewhere other than the office on Fridays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.