Sports Design Leader

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place.

DLR Group's Kansas City Office has an opening for a Sports Design Leader. We operate within a hybrid work model, supporting flexibility between office time and work from home.

About Sports at DLR Group

DLR Group’s Sports Studio is helping define the future of sport and entertainment.

Today’s fans seek more than participation. They expect connection, community, and memorable experiences. This shift is redefining the role of venues, moving beyond passive viewing to creating a sense of belonging. At the same time, the demands on athletes continue to evolve. Their environments must support not only development and high performance, but also overall well-being. From training and recovery to mental health, nutrition, team dynamics, and life beyond sport, today’s athletes require spaces designed for holistic human performance.

At DLR Group, we don’t just respond to change; we define it. As a Senior Sports Designer, you will help shape next-generation environments that:

• Create memorable experiences through immersive, emotionally engaging design

• Foster authentic community by promoting connection, belonging, and shared energy

• Elevate athlete performance and well-being through integrated, holistic environments

Position Summary:

As a Senior Designer at DLR Group, you will collaborate with our multi-disciplinary design teams to design projects from conception through construction documents and support the project team through construction administration for a variety of project types and sizes. As part of our integrated design teams, you will create buildings that elevate the human experience through design.

You will partner directly with the Client Leader and Project Manager to ensure the quality of project documents, meet Client responsibilities, support DLR Group's financial goals, and facilitate team collaboration and communication.

If you are a collaborative thought leader with a strategic mindset, this might be the position for you. DLR Group is 100% employee-owned, and as such, you’ll enjoy the opportunity to own a stake in the Firm. We rely on all our employee-owners to apply their financial acumen to grow the Firm profitably.

The successful candidate will:

• Provide planning, design, and coordination for projects of varying sizes, including large, complex projects.

• Be a client-facing design leader, actively leading teams and client interaction, generating storylines and designs that inspire clients and partners, capturing the essence of the client’s institutional goals and manifesting them in creative design solutions.

• Independently apply advanced architectural concepts and designs as well as carry out complex or novel assignments requiring the development of new or improved techniques and procedures.

• Engage and guide innovative idea generation within the integrated team in pursuit of design excellence.

• Review cost estimates for alignment with the design.

• Provide guidance and mentoring to your team’s design / architectural staff.

• Responsible for applying DLR Group practice standards to project deliverables across the project team.

• Demonstrate a strong foundation of comprehensive design and technical skillsets.

• Engage and guide innovative idea generation within the integrated team in pursuit of design excellence.

• Actively lead project and integrated team collaboration by generating design ideas and solutions.

• Effectively communicate with project team members through timely and appropriate written, oral, and visual means.

• Engage peers and specialty experts to proactively develop holistic solutions.

• Meet deliverable deadlines to maintain the overall project schedule.

• Manage time in alignment with the project work plan.

• Respect construction and material costs in alignment with the project budget.

Required Qualifications:

• Ten or more years of professional experience.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in collegiate and/or major professional sports stadia, arenas, and training facilities.

• Professional Degree in Architecture from an accredited program.

• Proficiency with computer-aided design, modeling, and rendering software; experience with Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper, and rendering programs is expected.

• Positive, entrepreneurial spirit, underpinned by a strong work ethic.

• Desire to continually learn, grow, and pursue design excellence in a fun environment.

• Knowledge in executing technical drawings and construction documents.

• Experience with coordination and integration with Interior Design and Engineering disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Licensed Architect and NCARB certified.

• Sustainability Certification/Accreditation (LEED, WELL, etc.) and a demonstrated interest in sustainable building design

• Skilled in hand drawing techniques that communicate visually.

• Knowledge of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and parametric design software, such as Grasshopper and other modeling software

• Proficiency with visualization software, such as Lumion or Enscape

*TO BE CONSIDERED, PLEASE SUBMIT CURRENT PORTFOLIO/WORK SAMPLES IN PDF FORMAT*

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects.

We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.DLR Group follows a four-day in-office work model, with employees having the flexibility to work somewhere other than the office on Fridays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.