Architecture Jobs for a Satisfying Working Life, Signum Magnum Education Project manager Glasgow

4 Jobs in Architecture for a Satisfying Working Life

30 June 2025

Many hands are required to grapple with the task of crafting a beautiful, practical building. A short trek through Glasgow is testament to the work of architects, businesspeople and craftspeople in ensuring that the people of a city can grow to love the high-rises, office blocks and retail complexes surrounding them.

Included in Glasgow’s hodgepodge of architectural history is the Beresford Building, an Art Deco masterpiece that’s almost a century old and towers over Sauchiehall Street with the lazy grace of a cigarette hanging from a flapper girl’s mouth.

Only half an hour away is the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum, a labyrinthine complex which features the intricate burnishing and fanciful spires typical of Victorian Gothic. Then, in an about-turn typical of the city, there’s the beloved Glasgow Film Theatre, a gruff looking building from the Brutalist era that screams ‘function over form!’ at passersby from its hard-nosed brickwork.

It’s no wonder that so many film producers have found cinema magic in the city, dressing it up as an avatar of San Francisco (Cloud Atlas), a sci-fi dystopia (Under The Skin), a pulpy interpretation of New York City (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) and even Gotham City itself (The Batman, unsurprisingly).

Much like those films, the architects devising the best buildings in Glasgow are not just those in the head honcho’s chair, but a diverse cohort of creatives and managers. Here are just a few and how you can join their ranks.

CAD designer

‘CAD’ is short for ‘computer aided design’ and CAD designers use software to mock up two- and three-dimensional designs based on architectural projects. They’ll typically have qualifications in computing, while their day-to-day tasks will require a firm grasp of both analytical and creative skillsets.

Project manager

Project managers are dedicated to ensuring a project runs smoothly, and will usually have qualifications from business-focused educational institutions like Signum Magnum Education.

Those best suited for this role will have exceptional planning skills, as well as a familiarity with task-led software like Asana or Trello. They’ll also have a small amount of knowledge of everyone’s job on a project so they can communicate with different departments effectively.

Building surveyor

Acting like an adjudicator after the big exam of finishing a work, a building surveyor will type up reports on a building’s safety, advising on repairs, maintenance, restoration and expansion options.

More often than not, the job will also require a hands-on approach to efficiency, foregrounding how ageing buildings can be transported into the modern day. This will require a constant upkeep on your knowledge of the sustainability technology of the future.

Architect

Continuing our film analogy from earlier, the head architect on a project is very much the person in the director’s chair, working on new projects or restoring old ones while balancing the priorities of a plethora of stakeholders.

Your day-to-day task in this line of work will vary wildly; sometimes you’ll be hunkered down in an office creating new designs, while others you’ll be on-site coordinating large crews of craftspeople to ensure your buildings are functional, safe, pleasing to the eye, and unique. As the skyline of Glasgow shows, your imagination is the limit on where a creative mind can go in architecture – as long as you can take your investors along with you.

Do you know of any excellent jobs in architecture? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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