How to hire a design architect

How to hire a design architect, step by step

Here's a step-by-step design architect hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a design architect job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new design architect
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a design architect do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the design architect you need to hire. Certain design architect roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect design architect also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of design architect salaries for various roles:

   Type of Design Architect	Description	Hourly rate
   Design Architect	Architects plan and design houses, factories, office buildings, and other structures.	$25-72
   Job Captain	A Job Captain is responsible for overseeing the drafting process of a project and completing outstanding items or tasks that remain to be accomplished. They take direction from the Project Manager, the Project Architect, and/or the Architect of Record.	$24-46
   Computer Aided Design Designer	A computer-aided design (CAD) designer is responsible for creating plan outlines and project designs for a specific business need. A CAD designer utilizes various technologies and software applications to generate graphic illustrations... Show more	$19-42

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Revit
   • Architectural Design
   • Project Management
   • Sketch
   • Design Development
   • C #
   • BIM
   • Schematic Design
   • Visualization
   • SharePoint
   • Design Concepts
   • Database
   • JavaScript
   • Cloud

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage technical architects for development and support of existing and new terminal platforms to support Walmart mobile and batch application infrastructure.
   • Prepare layouts, drawings and 3D visualization.
   • Sketch and design of require facilities as per contract.
   • Master drawing with Revit and train team members on Revit.
   • Prepare presentation materials (BIM), 3D render images (walk through) animation.
   • Operate in individual role, scope of tasks including project pre-design/design, and construction documents using Revit.

   More design architect duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the design architect job description is a good way to get more applicants. A design architect salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a design architect in Tennessee may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level design architect. Additionally, a design architect with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average design architect salary

   $89,139yearly

   $42.86 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level design architect salary

   $52,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 13, 2025

   Average design architect salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$103,953	$50
   2	Massachusetts	$97,830	$47
   3	Illinois	$97,802	$47
   4	Hawaii	$95,617	$46
   5	District of Columbia	$94,045	$45
   6	Colorado	$91,909	$44
   7	Missouri	$90,437	$43
   8	Washington	$89,965	$43
   9	Maryland	$89,071	$43
   10	Arizona	$87,713	$42
   11	Ohio	$86,286	$41
   12	New York	$85,403	$41
   13	Oregon	$83,253	$40
   14	Georgia	$81,389	$39
   15	Pennsylvania	$80,408	$39
   16	Texas	$78,434	$38
   17	North Carolina	$73,301	$35
   18	Wisconsin	$71,859	$35
   19	Florida	$66,820	$32

   Average design architect salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$180,395	$86.73	325
   2	Google	$166,194	$79.90	101
   3	DoorDash	$153,780	$73.93	18
   4	Apple	$150,486	$72.35	309
   5	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$141,539	$68.05	138
   6	Cadence Design Systems	$136,693	$65.72	41
   7	Helios & Matheson	$133,632	$64.25
   8	Battelle	$132,907	$63.90	2
   9	Sears Holdings	$132,369	$63.64
   10	Autodesk	$131,341	$63.14	4
   11	Amd	$131,278	$63.11	102
   12	Micron Technology	$127,288	$61.20	85
   13	Tesla	$126,618	$60.87	1
   14	Teradata	$124,265	$59.74	188
   15	Alcon	$124,135	$59.68	11
   16	Analog Devices	$124,031	$59.63	33
   17	Intel	$124,026	$59.63	60
   18	Amdocs	$123,459	$59.36	3
   19	InfoMC	$119,112	$57.27
   20	FCA US LLC	$119,047	$57.23	28

4. Writing a design architect job description

   A good design architect job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a design architect job description:

   Design architect job description example

   This role is responsible for defining end-to-end processes and mapping them to customer experiences it supports. The role primarily also orchestrates the necessary meetings, workshops and ideation session to align all process stakeholders and ensure that each understand their role and contribution in
   
   delivering the end-to-end process and spearheads improvement efforts to ensure that desired customer experiences, customer success measures and process metrics are achieved and delivered.
   1. Process Governance
   Steer Globe Process Community to select and plan for integration of any new standards and best practice methods.Use benchmarking services and industry research into both current and emerging process standards and best practices and assess fitness and potential benefit for Globe adaptation. Conduct periodic meetings and reviews with process community to align and and conduct performance analysis of process vis-a-vis experienced delivered by looking at both customer success measures and process metrics.
   2. Process Architecture/Design
   Develop process architecture standards to bring consistency to process solutions including but not limited to - Policy, Standards, Process, Roles and Accountability, Automation, Inter-process linkages, Control Objectives, Metrics/KPIs and Maturity guidelines Define end-to-end process (level 3) and supporting activities (level 4) mapped to specific customer experience being supported with alignment to process owner to ensure acceptance of accountability and KPIs and metrics.
   
   3. Work Design Facilitation and Service Blueprinting
   Uses VOC, VOE and VOP to support improvement initiatives and ensure experiences are being delivered to customers.Collaborate with process owners to develop and maintain process blueprints, aligned with process models; to operate as a guidebook for future process development requirements; and book of record for implemented process improvements. Collaborate with process owners in planning and defining process development roadmaps; which will guide process releases. Facilitate workshops to gather input on process roadmaps to gain input and development support from various process practitioners and management.Synthesize output from workshop sessions to come up with service blueprint. Test and validate process blueprints developed into prototypes with process community to solicit input and expertise. Conduct periodic health checks against process blueprint to assess the integration of previous process change into BAU operation to measure actual benefit realization from improvement releases.
   
   Make Your Passion Part of Your Profession. Attracting the best and brightest Talents is pivotal to our success. If you are ready to share our purpose of Creating a Globe of Good, explore opportunities with us.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find design architects for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any design architects they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level design architects with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find design architect candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as aaonetwork, aia , ala , an jobs, archareer .
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting design architects requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new design architect

   Once you have selected a candidate for the design architect position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new design architect first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a design architect?