Studio Manager

Architectural Practice Manager

Also known as: Studio Manager · Design Operations Manager

Firm: VastuNirman Architects (VNA)

Location: Ahmedabad — S G Business Hub, Gota. Open to candidates relocating to Ahmedabad; the right person matters more than current city.

Reports to: Founder & Principal Architect

VastuNirman Architects is an architecture-first multidisciplinary practice established in 2001, based in Ahmedabad, with a team of around fifteen and projects spanning residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and healthcare work across India. The practice holds green-building credentials across LEED, IGBC, GRIHA and BREEAM. VNA is now building the internal operating system that will let a 25-year practice grow without every project routing through its founder — and this role is central to that.

This role owns the day-to-day operation of VNA’s operating system — not its authorship, its operation. You are the organised backbone of a creative studio: the person who makes projects run on time and on process, so the architects can concentrate on design and the founder can return to design leadership rather than coordination.

It is a build role first and a run role after. For the first six months you will help co-design and roll out the operating system alongside the founder and a senior architect. After that, you run it and extend it. This suits someone who likes creating order, not only maintaining it.

•    The Project Tracker and the Weekly Project Huddle — the operational heartbeat of the firm.

•    Project coordination — status, deadlines, and who is waiting on what, across every live project.

•    The Drawing Register and drawing-issue control — the single source of truth for what has been issued.

•    The project code register and the firm’s folder and file-naming discipline.

•    Consultant and vendor coordination logistics — meeting cadence, minutes, RFI logs.

•    Onboarding logistics for new hires — VNA is growing, with several hires planned over the coming months.

•    A weekly reporting checkpoint with the founder.

•    Over time, as the system grows: BD pipeline tracking, billing follow-up, and other operational layers.

You will not inherit a finished machine. You will help build it: co-designing the system in working sessions with the founder and a senior architect, rolling it out to the team over a six-week launch, then steadying it into the firm’s normal way of working. If you are energised by setting up structure where there was none, this is the part of the job to look forward to.

1.   4–8 years in an architecture, interior design or multidisciplinary design firm. This is non-negotiable. You must already understand drawings, GFC sets, RFIs, revisions, consultant coordination and the rhythm of a live project.

2.   Demonstrated ownership of process and coordination — project trackers, drawing registers, schedules, or studio operations you have personally run.

3.   Strong organisation and follow-through — the instinct to close loops without being chased.

4.   Clear written and verbal communication in English, and in Gujarati or Hindi.

5.   Comfort being the process backbone of a creative team — steady, dependable, unflustered.

You do not need to be a licensed architect. Many excellent practice managers are architects who found they are better at running the studio than designing in it — that background is genuinely welcome here. But the role itself is operations, not design, and it should be wanted as such.

The hardest part of this role is holding senior, talented people to a shared process without it becoming a fight. You will need the temperament to be firm, respected and persistent at the same time — to chase a senior architect for a register update and have it land as routine, not as friction. We will probe for this directly in the interview. If you are conflict-avoidant, this role will be a difficult fit — and it is fairer to both sides to say so plainly.

•    Exposure to project-management or operations tools — from advanced spreadsheets to dedicated PM software.

•    Experience in a growing firm or setting up processes from scratch.

•    Familiarity with the Ahmedabad AEC ecosystem — consultants, approving authorities, vendors.

•    Interest in how AI and automation can support a design practice — VNA intends to build that layer once the human system is stable.

At six months: the operating system is running; every project has a current Tracker entry and Drawing Register; the founder’s routine coordination load is visibly reduced.

At twelve months: the system runs on your rhythm rather than the founder’s attention; new hires onboard into a defined way of working; and you are extending the system into new areas such as billing follow-up and the BD pipeline.

This role reports directly to the Founder & Principal Architect and carries the founder’s explicit mandate to hold the whole team — including senior staff — to firm process. That authority is real, and it will be stated openly to the team. Without it the role cannot work; with it, it is one of the most important positions in the practice.

Please send a short note on why this role fits you, along with a CV that highlights the operations and coordination you have personally run — trackers, registers, schedules, studio process — rather than a design portfolio. Examples of process you set up or rescued are the most useful thing you can show us. Email it to: [email protected]

• VastuNirman Architects — Architecture. Interiors. Beyond.