Overview
Role – Associate Landscape Architect – Opportunity of a Lifetime (Major UK Destination Project)
Location – Bedfordshire
Salary – £DOE
Can you find a more exciting role than this for a Landscape Architect?
Leadcareers are delighted to be exclusively recruiting for one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, delivering a £6bn destination project set to become one of Europe’s leading theme parks and the UK’s most significant visitor attraction.
While 2 fantastic Landscape Architects have already been secured, we are still looking for 3 more at Senior to Associate level.
You will be joining a brand-new UK based core project team, working alongside experienced specialists from the US within a large multidisciplinary environment. Interviews are taking place daily.
By 2031, the destination is expected to employ around 9,000 people, with landscape playing a central role in how this place is experienced, remembered and talked about by every visitor.
WHY THIS PROJECT IS DIFFERENT
Beyond being part of something truly special, this legacy project flips the usual approach to landscape design. Here, design and spatial sequencing are driven by storytelling, imagination and guest experience rather than policy constraints. It offers a level of creative freedom that most Landscape Architects will never experience, allowing landscape to lead rather than adapt.
THE ROLE AND THE EXPERIENCE
While the official title is Landscaping Development Design Manager, this is very much a Senior or Associate Landscape Architecture role. You will be responsible for managing and overseeing the development, design, coordination and on-site delivery of large scale themed outdoor environments. At these parks, landscape architecture plays a central role in how guests move between worlds. It doesn’t just frame attractions, it actively guides people through them and shapes the overall experience. Planting, landform, water and spatial layout are used to subtly shift mood and pace as visitors move through the park. Design teams carefully choreograph these transitions, taking guests from tightly framed streets that feel like detailed film sets, into expansive high energy landscapes, before drawing them into darker, more enclosed environments inspired by iconic scenes we all recognise….How amazing does that sound?
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Management, coordination and area development design across entire themed lands and zones
Shaping site wide layouts for guest areas, hotels, team facilities and supporting infrastructure
• Developing planting strategies, grading, drainage, irrigation, hardscape and detailed construction documentation
• Working closely with architects, engineers, creative directors, ride and show designers to deliver fully immersive environments
• Managing and directing external consultants and specialist vendors
• Taking projects through construction including bid reviews, contractor coordination and on-site installation
• Reviewing drawings, overseeing mock ups and ensuring design intent is protected on site
WHO WILL YOU BE WORKING WITH AND HOW DOES IT WORK
It is fully understood that this role will likely be very different to anything you have done before. Because of this, you will be working directly with highly experienced teams across both the UK and US who have delivered some of the world’s most immersive themed environments who will support you throughout. This is a rare opportunity to gain first hand exposure to how landscape architecture drives guest experience at the highest level, and learn from people who are genuinely at the top of their field building a theme-park the whole country is going to want to come and see!
WHO WILL THIS SUIT
These opportunities are suited to Senior or Associate level Landscape Architects who:
• Have experience delivering complex or large-scale landscape projects
• Have a genuine interest in theme parks and immersive world building
• Want to be involved from early design through to construction on site
• Enjoy leading teams and working within large multidisciplinary environments
Enthusiasm for themed entertainment is essential. This is a role for someone who is genuinely excited by the idea of building iconic worlds.
LOCATION, SALARY AND WORKING PATTERN
• Location: Bedford
• Hybrid working: 4 days in the office and 1 day remote
• Easily accessible from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire and surrounding areas
• Generous salary depending on experience (full details shared on a call)
• Tax free relocation package if needed, with work pattern flexibility in the first 12 months to support an ease the transition
LOOKING AHEAD
This has the potential to be the most exciting 4 to 5 years of your career. This is also a long-term project meaning that as the park evolves over time, there may opportunities to remain involved. Also, the experience gained in this post will open doors well beyond it and given most Landscape Architects move roles every 3 to 5 years, this represents a rare opportunity to gain something truly unique within the same timeframe of any normal permanent position.
NEXT STEPS
If this has caught your interest, all conversations will remain completely confidential between yourself and Adam Johnston, but you need to get in touch now. Things are happening every day on this huge, exciting scheme, and you can´t miss your chance to be involved.
For an informal chat about what this opportunity could bring to your career, the salary, the benefits and more specific details get in touch by emailing adam@leadcareers.co.uk