Why Join our Urban Design Team
Are you ready to make your mark in a thriving team of urban designers?
Join Spiire’s expanding Urban Design team to tackle meaningful project work and unlock rewarding career opportunities.
As one of south-east Australia’s largest employee-owned property and infrastructure consultants, Spiire is passionate about giving our people the tools to grow as the business grows.
Newly established as its own Practice Area, the Urban Design team is led by Lisette Schlesinger-Hunt, who says her leadership philosophy centres on supporting people to develop and take ownership of projects.
“I like to get my team the experience that will help them progress,” she says. “I don’t believe in job titles being a set description of what you’re allowed to do. We’re a team, rather than a group of individuals.”
The team works closely with other disciplines on projects spanning Spiire’s eight office locations. This integrated approach is part of Spiire’s One Team core value and enriches the outcomes for clients and communities.
“As urban designers, we’re specialist generalists,” says Lisette. “We need to know about everything in order to put it all together. At Spiire, you can ask for advice from another discipline and someone will explain it you right then and there.”
Senior Professional Terry Roberts knows this input from other disciplines has helped to improve his work since he joined Spiire as a Graduate four years ago.
“I could be talking to one of the most technically proficient engineers in the business and they’ll take an hour to explain something to me,” he says. “Once you understand how their side works you can take that into consideration and improve the design. We have the creative ideas, and we know they’re practical and deliverable.”
Within the Urban Design team, Terry has enjoyed opportunities to increase his knowledge and technical proficiency, identified through conversations sparked by Spiire’s biannual Pulse Checks.
It’s one of the structured learning initiatives in a culture that champions career progression, including personalised development plans and training programs tailored for graduates, line managers and future leaders.
“I asked for a particular type of project to develop a certain skillset, and within a month or two I was working on it and exercising those skills,” he says. “You run your own race and you’re given the support to achieve your goals.”
Senior Professional Jason Cahill says Spiire’s culture of knowledge sharing and variety of projects are a real drawcard, and that everyone in the business is approachable.
“People are so willing to help. They might not be working on a particular project, but they’ll help because they want me to succeed,” he says.
Jason was attracted to urban design’s large-scale impact for communities, and he has seen this come to life through his work on major projects at Spiire.
He found the responsibility rewarding while working on the Lovely Banks Northern Growth Area in Geelong, from large future urban structure planning and town centre design, down to the details of tree studies.
“I got a real understanding of what Spiire does,” he says. “As urban designers we used our own artistic flair, but we also knew the plan would be deliverable. Our creativity and projects feel like actual tangible outcomes.”
Beyond the project work and career progression opportunities, the team say it’s the fun and welcoming culture that makes daily life enjoyable.
“It feels a bit like a family. Everyone wants to meet up outside of work hours and sometimes even weekends. The people I work with are great!” says Jason.
Join Our Team
Are you interested in becoming part of our Urban Design team? Find out more about the current opportunities here.