Project Architect

Full-time, in our Spokane studio. This is not a remote position.

We're looking for a Project Architect / Project Manager who is already good at this and suspects they could be doing more than they currently are.

Our target is 8-12+ years, though years alone don't determine capability. A better test: you've carried at least two projects from schematic design through construction administration and owned the outcome. If you're earlier in your career, we're also hiring an Architectural Designer at 3-5+ years.

WHAT WE NEED

Independent project ownership as a starting point, not a growth area.

We should be able to hand you meaningful responsibility for a project and trust you to move it forward, with principal oversight, design collaboration, and final accountability, but without principal-level management of your daily work. That means understanding the client's goals, advancing the design, managing the schedule, coordinating consultants, anticipating problems, reviewing documents, communicating with contractors, and making sure important details don't fall through the cracks.

In practice: you know where your project stands and what needs to happen next. You follow up with consultants before anyone reminds you. You recognize problems before they become RFIs. You review your own drawings, and your team's, before handing them off for another level of review. You bring potential solutions when you bring a problem, and you communicate early when something is going off track.

DESIGN ABILITY MATTERS

We're not looking solely for a manager. Trek is a design firm, and that's the part we won't compromise on.

You should be able to think spatially, develop a concept, evaluate proportion and material, work quickly through ideas in SketchUp, communicate design effectively, and translate that thinking into technically sound architecture. Moving comfortably between a sketch, a model, a consultant call, a client meeting, a detail, and a jobsite conversation.

A project manager who has stopped designing isn't the right fit here. Neither is a designer who can't carry a project through documentation and construction. We're looking for the combination.

YOU SHOULD BE EXCEPTIONAL AT

• Leading projects from early design through construction

• Architectural design and critical design thinking

• Revit, SketchUp, and architectural documentation

• Consultant coordination and building-code analysis

• Detailing, constructability, QA/QC, and drawing-set review

• Client communication, presentations, and construction administration

• Managing schedules, deliverables, budgets, and competing priorities

• Mentoring developing staff while still producing at a high level

Licensure preferred. Demonstrated capability, judgment, leadership, and design ability matter tremendously to us.

AI AND THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

We're looking for people who are curious about where our profession is headed and interested in helping shape how our studio works in the future.

Our interest in AI goes well beyond chatbots and renderings. We're exploring AI agents, automation, project management, research, documentation, QA/QC, data analysis, and connections between AI and the tools architects already use.

We're particularly interested in candidates who aren't simply using new technology but are thinking critically about how it can improve an entire workflow.

If you've developed an automation, built an AI workflow, improved a process, experimented with agents or integrations, or found a substantially better way to accomplish something within architectural practice, we want to hear about it.

ABOUT TREK

Trek is a collaborative, design-focused studio with a diverse range of projects and significant opportunity for people who earn responsibility.

We're building a team of people who can depend on one another. A studio where each person knows the people around them will take ownership, follow through, and care about the quality of the work. For the right person, this is meaningful responsibility in a growing practice and real influence over where the firm goes.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

$100,000 to $135,000, based on experience and demonstrated capability.

Health insurance, paid time off, paid holidays, and retirement with employer matching.

Based in our Spokane studio. If you're currently in Coeur d'Alene, Seattle, or Portland, we're glad to talk about what a move here looks like.

TO APPLY

Reading this back, we're aware it describes someone rare. We think that person exists, and we'd rather wait for them than fill the seat.

Send your resume and portfolio as a single PDF under 15MB, or a link to an online portfolio.

For portfolio projects, clearly identify your personal role. At this level we're less interested in what a project team accomplished than in what you personally owned, what you decided, what problems you solved, and what you delivered. Curated beats comprehensive.

Tell us about one process, tool, workflow, or system you've personally improved at a previous firm, and what you did to make it better.

No recruiters or agencies, please.

Trek Architecture

Design Well. Always.