I.

Design Manager Basic job description within the Construction Industry:

(Irrespective of the construction stages involved in)

Standard Qualifications and skills BSc Architecture and/or Engineering or similar Computer literate and Proficiency in Computer Aided Design CAD software

Standard critical competencies/behaviours Candidates should be able to work independently, multi-task, solve problems; collaborate with colleagues, vendors and other staff at all levels; Strong self and team management skills to ensure timely issue of project deliverables Excellent communication and negotiation skills

Standard Key Responsibilities Manage the construction/design deliverables in accordance with construction requirements and Clients expectations; Co-ordinate all construction/design matters between the key project stakeholders (Client, Design Team, third party specialist designers, Contractor, etc.); Review and monitor the Design Teams and contractor construction/design processes, procedures and quality management plans; Review and manage all construction/design related queries to an amicable resolution;

II.

Automotive and Aerospace industries insights

Tools & Technology used:

There is a large variety of tools and technology used depending on the specific segment of the Automotive and Aerospace industries. What is relevant for our project is the range of Computer aided design software used in these two industries and we can easily conclude that the software most used by automotive and aerospace engineers

like CATIA (or the less expensive SolidWorks, used by smaller automotive companies), used for complex curved surfaces is embedding the technology used by and the knowledge required for the use of AutoCad, more common to a larger variety of industry, such as the construction industry.
CATIA (Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite supports multiple stages of product development, from conceptualization, design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and engineering (CAE), and is applied to a wide variety of industries, from aerospace and defence, automotive, and industrial equipment, to high tech, shipbuilding, consumer goods, plant design, consumer packaged goods, life sciences, architecture and construction, process power and petroleum, and services.

Employers of Automotive Product Development engineers include vehicle manufacturers, component and system suppliers and consultancies. The size of the companies varies from "household name" car makers with thousands of employees, to small consultancies.

The main players in the civil Aerospace Industry manufacturers are responding to the requirements to improve engine efficiency, reduce weight, reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and noise, improve reliability and safety, initial manufacturing cost and maintenance costs.

What can be said about both industries is that much design and engineering effort is directed towards cost reduction in manufacturing and reducing the design and development time of new engines.

Aerospace projects have become over the time so large and costly that many partnerships are being formed to handle all aspects of engineering design and manufacture. This creates more specialist companies and a host of such much specialised engineers.

Many automotive and aerospace companies have adopted flat management structures in design and development and therefore experienced engineers may have significant professional responsibility without necessarily having a senior

grade. We can therefore suggest to target experienced Design Engineers, and not restrict our search to design team leaders

In the same time, technological and commercial factors over the last decade have resulted in changes in the nature of automotive and aerospace industries development, particularly with greatly reduced product cycle times and increased use of computer modelling techniques. A larger proportion of engineers are involved in advanced computer modelling and predictive work and often these engineers are engaged in work that is highly technical, with little general managerial content. Thus, we have to identify and assess critical managerial competencies sought.

III.

Core Cross-industry Competencies

What we have identified as core cross-industry competencies we can asses during the phase of approaching candidates and that can afterwards be also used as KPIs to be monitored in the first period following the induction, are: 1. Project Communication - Ensure constant communication with all project stakeholders to identify potential problems, formulate recommendations, solutions and report; 2. Commercial awareness - Demonstrates cost consciousness; 3. Quality and Compliance - Maintain established policies and procedures, objectives, quality assessment and safety standards and gaining voluntary compliance and alignment to such standards; 4. Customer Focus - Responds positively and proactively to the needs of customers, supervisors and team members; 5. Creative & Innovative Thinking - Constantly communicate ideas for improvement.

IV.

Construction Industry and Sector related competencies

We need to identify the competency areas and elements that an individual new to the industry (or just to a specific sector of the industry) may not be readily aware of, based upon qualifications and work experience alone. We suggest identifying a maximum of 10 such competency areas and to build an industry, sector, company and job specific description of the role, as well as to estimate a timeline for the monitoring and on the job assessment. Ex: The Building Industry and the specific Sector Fundamentals competency area establishes the need for familiarity with a number of aspects: fundamental concepts; common materials; common processes; financial and program management fundamentals; local, regional, national and international laws, regulations, standards and certification requirements; security requirements; and the importance of intellectual property rights, etc: