Interim Director, Design & Capital Redevelopment (Toronto)

Interim Director, Design & Capital Redevelopment

Reports to: VP Corporate Services & CFO

Location: GTA North

Duration: 6-Months

Virtual: 100% virtual

Our client is a major publicly funded healthcare organization advancing a large-scale hospital redevelopment project currently in the design phase. The organization is focused on ensuring that the architectural vision translates into a highly functional, clinically effective, and patient-centered environment that will support future models of care.

The Opportunity

This interim mandate is a design-phase leadership role, positioned at the intersection of architecture, clinical operations, and patient experience. The interim Director will play a critical role in shaping and validating the hospital’s architectural design, ensuring that space planning, adjacencies, and layouts support efficient care delivery, optimal patient flow, and high-performing clinical environments.

Mandate Objectives

• Lead Architectural Design Integration
  • Serve as the primary clinical and operational voice within the design process.
  • Work closely with architects and planning teams to translate clinical requirements into physical design solutions.
  • Review and challenge functional programming, blocking, stacking, and detailed design layouts.
  • Ensure alignment between architectural intent and operational feasibility.
• Shape Clinical Environments & Workflow Through Design
  • Ensure design supports safe, efficient, and modern models of care delivery.
  • Validate unit layouts, room configurations, and staff work zones from a clinical perspective.
  • Influence design decisions that impact staff visibility, collaboration, and patient safety.
  • Integrate leading practices in evidence-based healthcare design.
• Patient Flow & Experience by Design
  • Drive alignment between architectural layout and patient journey mapping.
  • Assess how design impacts access, throughput, wayfinding, and transitions of care.
  • Identify opportunities to enhance the patient and family experience through design features.
  • Ensure the facility design supports future-state care models, not just current operations.
• Clinical Engagement – Nursing & Frontline Validation
  • Lead structured engagement sessions with nursing leaders and frontline staff.
  • Facilitate design validation workshops, testing real-world workflows against proposed layouts.
  • Ensure that design reflects the realities of patient care delivery, staff movement, and operational pressures.
  • Build strong clinical alignment and ownership of the future facility design.
• Design Trade-Offs, Cost Awareness & Decision Support
  • Provide input into design-related trade-offs, balancing clinical impact, space constraints, and cost considerations.
  • Partner with capital and finance teams to understand cost implications of design decisions (without owning the full capital planning mandate).
  • Support leadership in making timely, informed design decisions to avoid downstream redesign.
• Ministry Alignment & Design-Phase Governance
  • Ensure architectural plans align with Ministry standards, guidelines, and expectations.
  • Support design-stage approvals and documentation required for funding and regulatory processes.
  • Participate in governance structures, including design committees and executive reviews.
  • Maintain alignment between design progression and approval milestones.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Experience & Background
  • Senior leader with direct involvement in hospital redevelopment or large capital projects.
  • Deep experience working within the design phase alongside architects and planning teams.
  • Strong understanding of how workflows translate into physical space design.
  • Experience working within Ministry-funded environments and approval processes.
• Capabilities
  • Strong ability to interpret and influence architectural drawings, functional plans, and layouts.
  • Deep understanding of patient flow, clinical operations, and healthcare delivery models.
  • Ability to bridge clinical, technical, and design disciplines.
  • Sound commercial awareness of design decisions and their cost implications.
• Leadership Style
  • Credible with both architects and clinicians.
  • Collaborative but decisive in driving design clarity.
  • Comfortable operating in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
  • Focused on practical outcomes within a defined interim timeline.
• Success Measures
  • Architectural design is validated by clinical stakeholders and aligned with real workflows.
  • Transparent integration between design, patient flow, and care models.
  • Executive team equipped with decision-ready guidance on design trade-offs.
  • Strong clinical engagement, particularly from nursing leadership.
  • Design phase progresses without rework, delays, or misalignment with Ministry expectations.

Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge Corp. is committed to providing equitable treatment and accommodation to ensure a barrier-free recruitment process. In accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and our AODA policy, a request for accommodation will be accepted as part of the hiring process. If you require accommodation to apply or if selected to participate in an assessment process, please provide your accommodation needs in advance to the Recruitment Lead for this opportunity.