An architecture firm sells design and drawings against long project timelines, and it keeps the best people only if the work stays interesting. Long timelines mean people stay only if the work remains interesting and the next role is visible from the drawing board.
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Share your requirementsAn architecture firm is led by principals who win the commissions and set the design direction. Beneath them are project architects, junior architects, interns, draughtspeople and 3D specialists who turn concepts into drawings, along with site architects who follow the work on the ground. Projects last months or years, move through stages from concept to construction drawings and demand attention to details that are easy to miss. Deadlines tighten before every submission and presentation. Hours are long, pay often lags other sectors that use the same software skills, and ambitious people tend to think about their own practice early. See also HR for professional services.
Who does the work
Submission crunches repeat
Late nights gather before every client presentation and approval deadline, and the same people carry them each time.
Interns do the heavy drawing work
Fresh graduates on small pay produce much of the drawing output, then leave for further study or other firms.
Pay trails other careers
People with strong software and design skills can earn more in other industries, and the firm has no answer beyond a title.
Project architects carry too much
They coordinate consultants, answer the client, manage the drawing team and visit the site, and something always slips.
Site and studio drift apart
Site architects face problems that studio staff never hear about, and revised details reach site late.
Credit is hard to share
The principal's name is on the work, and talented seniors do not see how they will become visible or become partners.
Skills move faster than training
New software and modelling methods arrive, and people pick them up individually and unevenly.
Plan workload against submission dates
A forward view of which projects will peak in which weeks and who is needed, so crunches are shared and temporary help is arranged in time. The workforce planning work supports it.
Define project architect scope
What a project architect owns, what they hand to a coordinator and how many live projects they carry. The role design work sets it down.
Create a path from intern to associate
A clear route with skills at each stage and a fair pay range, including how the firm shares credit on built work.
Connect site and studio
A regular site-to-studio review where issues from the site feed into drawing revisions, with a log of who changed what.
Teach software and standards in-house
A short internal training on tools and drawing standards for each new joiner. The learning and development process can structure it.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
A plan that spreads workload across submission peaks and shows when more hands are needed.
A clear scope for project architects, coordinators and site staff, and a ladder for juniors.
A view of how your pay compares by stage and skill, so you can decide where to move.
A routine for teaching software and drawing standards so quality does not depend on who sits beside whom.
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From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
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A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
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A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
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Give them real responsibility early, a visible next step and a fair raise at the right time. Some will still leave to start their own practice, so keep the door open.
Plan the peaks months ahead, set internal deadlines before the client's and agree temporary help early. Surprises create the worst crunches.
It depends on size and stage, so look at your own record of what slips. Use that to set a limit and move work when it is exceeded.
Pay should reflect the work they actually do. If interns carry real drawing output, low pay will bring turnover, so review the arrangement and confirm treatment with a qualified professional.
Name them on projects they led, let them present to clients and show a route to associate or partner. Credit matters as much as pay to ambitious people.
We would look at the last few submission crunches and who stayed latest, how many live projects each project architect carries, and what interns and juniors were told about progression when they joined. A workload plan built around submission dates, or a defined path from intern to associate, could be the first piece of work. We agree scope in writing once we have talked.
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