Senior Urban Designer

Alaro City is a joint venture between Rendeavour, the largest new city and industrial park builder in Africa, and the Lagos State Government. It is one of the fastest growing real estate and urban development projects in Nigeria. It is conceived on 2,000 hectares of land and has areas for offices, logistics and warehousing, homes, schools, healthcare facilities, hotels, entertainment and 150 hectares of parks and open spaces.

Located in the North West Quadrant of the Lekki Free Zone, Alaro City is ideally situated on the Lekki-Epe Expressway for ease of transportation to Lagos or towards the rest of Nigeria.

Alaro City is a secure, predictable and proven environment for individuals and businesses, and already home to investments by notable global and local business such as BUA Group, CAT (Mantrac), Ariel Foods, Kenol, SANA Group and international real estate developers and investors.

It is in close proximity to the future Lagos international airport and close to the region’s largest deep sea port and major Nigerian and international companies.

The people in our team are multi-skilled and experts in their respective fields. They possess a unique drive, underpinned by the desire to help improve Africa’s urban development.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the guidance of the Group Head of Urban Planning and Design, theSenior Urban Designer will be a dynamic urban development professional holding accredited qualifications in architecture, landscape architecture or urban planning & design. The role will encompass all aspects of research, concept design, documentation, quality control, project management, and client negotiation and management. The Senior Urban Designer is required to work with leadership to manage the design concepts that are developed for a project and protect and sustain them through the project stages until the project is finalised. These will involve a mix of managing in-house designs and/or managing outsource designs with external consultants.

• Working with the Urban design team to develop new, and evolve current, city masterplans based on input from the senior management team and other stakeholders, as well ensure that the plan is in compliance with local statutory legislation. 
• Create key ‘Place Strategy’ documents including but not limited to; Art & Culture, Sport & Recreation, Health & Wellbeing, Education & Training, Retail & Commercial, Community & Residential, Open Space & Public Realm.
• Prepare detailed CAD based Physical plans, Precinct Plans plans, and neighbourhood plans, as well as physical layout plans for yield projections of residential, commercial, institutional, recreational and light industrial areas. 
• Prepare key strategic documents such as Urban Design Frameworks (UDF’s)

Assist in the development of street design guidelines (place-making, coordination of services, landscape and vehicular movement, junction design and urban furniture), as well as built form design guidelines (setbacks, height, massing, access points, materiality.) 

• Involvement in the creation of policies for managing landscaping, traffic movement and integrating sustainability measures 
• Assist the DCC by providing professional input in matters of urban planning and ensure associated master plan and land use zoning compliance.    
• Collaborate with the landscape team to develop master plans for indigenous landscapes and streetscapes that define the cities as Kenyan, Nigerian, Ghanaian Congolese, and also in line with sustainable, climate-responsive international best practices.  
• Deliver in-house, and manage outsourced, design proposals for the cities such as parks, nature trails and urban squares. 
• Involved in the development of the city's overall urban design and architectural guidelines. The urban planning and design guidelines must ensure a high urban quality is aspired to and attained in all scopes of work relating to physical space.

Skills and experience:

• Master’s Degree in Architecture, Landscape Architecture or Urban Design
• Minimum ten (10) years of demonstrable experience in urban design and development work
• Preference to have had exposure to work on international projects
• Good knowledge of the principles, practices, procedures and urban design theory.
• Good knowledge of design development, urban design, and documentation on various projects.
• Good knowledge of applicable codes, laws, rules, standards, and processes to ensure compliance with project quality standards.
• Good knowledge of urban design concepts, practices, procedures and final documents.
• Ability to express ideas effectively both orally and in writing.
• Ability to establish and maintain cooperative relationships with co-workers, clients and technical
• Demonstrable creative design capacity using different tools and media, including sketching, CAD, illustration (Adobe Suite), and post-production software.
• Strong communication and presentation skills 
• Hands-on experience in delivering public realm projects

Soft Skills:

• Leadership, team management and coordination
• Mature, pragmatic and flexible.
• Team player but comfortable working autonomously.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Rigorous and organised approach.
• Good attention to detail.
• Hands-on, ready to roll up the sleeves.
• Ability to multi-task, establish priorities, and maintain organisation in a rapidly changing environment.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• High energy.
• Result-oriented.
• Strong work ethic.

Ability to work effectively under pressure.