A senior owner-track design + growth leadership opportunity
Opportunity at a glanceA senior Atlanta-based leadership role for an accomplished licensed Landscape Architect or Land Planner who can combine strong client development with hands-on design/planning leadership, studio mentorship, and regional business responsibility. This is explicitly an owner-track opportunity.
Position Overview
Our client is seeking a highly accomplished design leader to help shape and grow its Southeast landscape architecture / land planning practice. The role combines blank-page creative leadership, client strategy, business development, project delivery, staff development, and business management. It is designed for someone who wants meaningful influence over both the work and the future direction of a regional practice - not a narrow production or account-management seat.
Why This Role Stands Out
- Owner-track leadership opportunity with a clear path toward broader firm leadership and advancement.
- Hands-on creative influence: leaders remain directly involved in design and planning rather than stepping away from the work.
- A true "three-legged" leadership platform spanning marketing/business development, design, and business management; this search places particular emphasis on the marketing/client-growth leg.
- Opportunity to set vision for the Southeast region and lead the landscape architecture / land planning practice.
- Diverse project exposure across destination resorts and urban hospitality, public places and parks, master planned communities, themed attractions / recreation / dining / entertainment, mixed-use, clubs and amenities, multifamily, senior living, townhomes, and single-family work.
- A collaborative, multidisciplinary environment integrating planning, landscape architecture, and architecture.
- An informal, design-focused culture described in the kickoff notes as open, loose, highly collaborative, and close to a teaching environment - with strong mentorship and room to create your own path.
- Clients seek distinctive, non-formulaic solutions, creating room for artistry, ideation, and design leadership.
- Strong organizational support for growth through marketing leadership, other senior leaders, and an established business network.
Key Responsibilities
Business Development & Client Growth
- Lead business development and marketing activities, including proposals, contract preparation, client communication, interviews, prospecting, industry participation, and selective social media presence.
- Build repeat business and expand scopes by understanding client business plans and identifying how the firm can support future phases or projects.
- Leverage existing relationships while developing new client relationships and market opportunities.
- Carry direct responsibility for generating $1 million or more in new work annually, with the stated expectation that the goal increases over time.
Design & Creative Leadership
- Lead hands-on, blank-page design and planning efforts and remain engaged throughout the design process.
- Provide strategic design leadership while maintaining strong client relationships.
- Champion design quality and the firm's expectations across project types.
- Help choreograph creative solutions across the multidisciplinary practice.
- Increase market visibility through speaking, publishing, and participation in professional organizations.
Studio & Business Leadership
- Lead and inspire design professionals in the Southeast region and help shape the regional vision.
- Mentor staff, support training and growth, and contribute to strategic hiring.
- Ensure successful project delivery, monitor financial performance, and participate in course corrections to maintain profitability.
- Forecast project volume and staffing needs and oversee staff utilization.
- Write and direct sophisticated agreement scopes and fees, and develop new approaches to complex problems.
- Actively sustain a collaborative, design-centered culture.
Required Qualifications
- Accomplished Landscape Architect or Land Planner; the job description specifically calls for an accomplished licensed Landscape Architect or Land Planner for the Atlanta leadership position.
- Approximately 15-25 years of experience.
- Demonstrated business development, project design, and project delivery experience.
- Significant client-facing experience and evidence of developing and expanding client relationships.
- Studio leadership and mentoring experience, with the ability to inspire design professionals.
- Experience in at least one of the firm's core project areas.
- Portfolio demonstrating high-quality built work; award-winning work is specifically identified as desirable evidence, including work outside the Southeast or internationally.
- Ability and willingness to take direct responsibility for new-business generation and regional growth.
Preferred Qualifications
- Breadth across multiple project sectors relevant to the firm's portfolio.
- Established relationships that can translate into repeat business, new pursuits, or strategic introductions.
- Visible industry presence through speaking, publishing, professional organizations, or client-facing market leadership.
- Demonstrated ability to balance design ambition with profitability, staffing, delivery, and organizational discipline.
- Passion, artistry, creativity, and an entrepreneurial/self-directed work style.
Skills / Software
The supplied materials do not name required design software. Candidates should therefore be evaluated first on design/planning leadership, built-work quality, client development, practice leadership, project delivery, and business management rather than screened out for a software keyword that has not been confirmed by the client.
Ideal Candidate Profile
The strongest candidate is a respected senior landscape architecture or land-planning leader who still enjoys ideation and design, has a credible network and measurable business-development success, can lead a studio and mentor others, and understands the commercial side of practice. They are self-guided, entrepreneurial, comfortable creating their own path, and motivated by design impact, culture, ownership potential, and meaningful responsibility - not compensation alone.
Culture & Career Environment
The kickoff notes describe the environment as informal, comfortable, highly design-focused, collaborative, and less corporate than many firms. Team members still sketch and ideate side by side, mentorship is emphasized, and growth can be self-directed rather than rigidly structured. Performance includes annual goals, a 360-degree perspective, daily check-ins, and project success. The firm is explicitly looking for people who want to be there and who can drive themselves.
Benefits
Profit sharing, 401(k), medical insurance, four weeks of paid time off with the option to purchase additional time, and seven federal holidays are specifically stated in the job description.