If you think your skills, experience and aspirations make you a good match for this position, we encourage you to apply.
Your role is focused on providing strategic leadership, specifically, developing and leading a high- performance, diverse, and inclusive, leadership team for the Minneapolis, MN office of CannonDesign to achieve growth and outstanding top line results. You will develop and implement a business plan for your office in context with a firm-wide blueprint for developing a network of highly integrated offices that enhance our SFMO (Single-Firm, Multi-Office) culture and grow the firm. Importantly, you will be a leading ambassador of our brand, responsible for demonstrating how our Living-Centered Design ethos comes to life in our culture and in the way we partner with clients. The majority of your time on strategy development and execution, and on activities that support the growth and impact of the office(s), including external brand opportunities. You will also be expected to spend time, at a high level, on client leadership opportunities engaged directly on projects.
Expectations of Success:
- Office Growth: Providing leadership, guidance and support to Office and Market Leaders in the development of new business opportunities with client partners to achieve top line targets, which will support a minimum 10% growth of the office year over year. You will be accountable for the growth and success of the office.
- Strategic Leadership: Leading strategy development and execution. Engaging and partnering with all staff levels in the office and the firm to advance entrepreneurial opportunities, innovative market solutions, and impactful design solutions that differentiate the firm and create opportunities for increased market presence and office growth.
- Market Brand Enhancement: Acting as a leading voice for the office within the Community and Advancing a strategic plan that engages other office leadership in activities that promote and elevate the brand of the office and the firm. Championing Living-Centered Design and bringing our firm’s purpose—to help people continuously flourish—to life in every touchpoint you have with employees, clients and the community.
- Design Culture: Together with Design Leadership be a leading voice in the office for fostering a design-focused culture, understanding, and advocating for the power and impact of a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and integrated response to the opportunities presented by our clients. Empowering our people to realize the importance of design in all that we do and championing innovation in client and team approach.
Areas of Focus
- Business Plan Leadership: Responsible for the leadership and implementation of a yearly strategic business plan for your office, including key strategies for future top line development, branding, and client engagement that advance the growth of the office. You will be responsible for engaging Office and Market Leaders to participate in the process, take ownership, communicate, and champion the initiatives set forth in the plan.
- Top Line Development: Partner with Market Leaders, Service Leaders, Business Development Leaders, Client Leaders, and others to grow the business volume of your office and the firm. Be agnostic to market and champion strategic client development and initiatives that differentiate CannonDesign in the marketplace, promoting the full range of our integrated design services and supporting the advancement of Living-Centered Design in all phases of client engagement. In this role you will be accountable for the overall top line results of the office and have a personal goal of achieving top line success of $2.0M per year.
- Client Leadership Development: Identify, assess, and evaluate Client Leaders and champion the implementation of our client engagement process. Work with the Director of BMBD and other Office and Market Leaders to provide mentorship and training to advance the best practices of client leadership.
- Practice and Market Building: Work with the Regional Director to evaluate and take appropriate action to address the senior talent needs in your office, focusing on building a strong leadership team capable of expanding our impact and growth Work with other leadership to establish actions to implement the firm’s business plan to grow top line, optimize collaboration and integration, and expand our markets and services.
- Staff Development: Champion mentoring and the growth and development of our future leaders of Work with Human Resources, Market and Office Leaders to identify, assess, mentor and coach the employees in your office. Champion employee engagement activities and own results.
- Adherence to Business Practices: Partner with the Regional Practice Director and the Regional Associate Practice Directors to champion the best practices of project management, risk management, process improvement, project leadership and office profitability.
- Communication: Represent office leadership and staff in firm-wide meetings, conferences, and Communicate outcomes, directions, initiatives, policies, etc. back to the office for implementation or information purposes. Develop and execute internal communication processes to keep staff informed and foster collaboration.
Time Commitments
- 35% of your time should be devoted to activities that advance our brand and develop new business opportunities with client partners focused on the growth of the office, the region, and the Firm.
- 30% of your time should be focused on engaging and partnering with clients on billable project work. As a senior leader of the firm, we expect you to not only find ways to grow top-line revenue, but also to partner with clients at a high level. Providing leadership and fostering strong client relationships that lead to high client satisfaction and potential opportunities for future work.
- 25% of your time should be devoted to office leadership including strategy development, practice and market building, business practice support, recruiting and other related staff growth and development activities.
Targets and performance metrics for this role are subject to change as CannonDesign periodically evaluates our performance metrics.
Your required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field required. Master's preferred.
- Licensure preferred.
- 15 years’ minimum experience with a proven track record of business development success and top-line growth.
- Additional certifications and/or training relevant to this role is preferred.
- Communicates effectively; energizes, inspires, motivates, and develops high-performing accountable teams.
- Champions our Living-Centered Design ethos.
- Champions an ethical culture.
- Demonstrates ownership and accountability.
- Champions collaboration; shows fairness in actions and decisions putting the Firm first.
- Champions’ entrepreneurial behavior is open to new ideas, innovative concepts and solutions.
- Demonstrates sound judgement.
- Demonstrates sound approach regarding risk management and mitigation.
- Business acumen and proven ability to execute strategy.
- Some travel is required.
The salary range for this position is $143,800 to $179,800 annually. This salary range is the range we believe is the anticipated range of possible base compensation at the timing of the posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the anticipated salary range for the position. Employees may be eligible for discretionary bonuses. We offer a full benefit package including medical, dental and vision coverage and flexible spending account options and voluntary insurances. We have paid time off, flex-time schedules, remote work options and a 401k plan and employee perk programs. For a general overview of our benefits, please visit our careers page at
https://www.cannondesign.com/careers/benefits. Actual compensation may vary from posting based on geographic location, work experience, education and/or skill level.
ABOUT OUR FIRM
CannonDesign is a design practice where strategy, experience, architecture, engineering, and social impact converge. We don’t just dream up solutions — we create and bring them to life in ways to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our clients and the society. At the heart of everything we do is Living-Centered Design, a bold commitment to using our talents to not just improve the world but to truly reshape it for the better. It’s more than a philosophy — it’s who we are, and it drives us to make a meaningful, lasting difference every day.
ABOUT WORKING HERE
- We are relentless in our pursuit of client adoration (not simply satisfaction). Consistent delivery of the best service is what we are about.
- We are committed to ensuring our practice is equitable for all employees, representative of the communities around us – and focused on the future of design. We advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts through the leadership of our DEI Council, Employee Resource Groups and other community advocacy initiatives.
- We’re about communication and transparency here. If you want to talk to someone about an idea you have, or a challenge that needs addressing, we’re ready for you.
CannonDesign is an Equal Opportunity Employer. CannonDesign is committed to maintaining a work environment that is free from any and all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment. It is therefore the firm’s policy to prohibit discrimination and harassment against any applicant, CannonDesign employee, vendor, contractor, or client on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. It is also CannonDesign’s policy to prohibit any and all forms of retaliation against any individual who has complained of harassing or discriminatory conduct, or participated in a firm or agency investigation into such complaints.
Please note that candidates can only apply to our positions on our company Careers site. It's not uncommon for scammers to create positions that look legitimate on other sites; never enter your information or apply for CannonDesign positions on any platform. Should an issue arise that you feel we should be aware of, please contact us.
As a condition of employment, all employees are expected to complete mandatory training, including compliance training, within required timeframes and adhere to our internal policies and our Code of Conduct.
