Technical Design
Technical Designer (Live Events)
Own the drawing set: stage design, rigging plots, load calculations and the visuals a client signs off before anyone loads a truck.
- Location
- Uxbridge, with venue surveys across London and the UK
- Contract
- Full time
- Salary
- £45,000 to £55,000 a year
- Department
- Technical Design
This role owns how a show gets drawn. The plans, sections, elevations and rendered visuals that the client approves and the crew builds from, across conferences, awards ceremonies, exhibitions and private events.
It is a design job as much as a drafting one. You will take a half formed brief, work out what will actually stand up in the room, and produce the set of drawings that makes the build boring on the day.
We need someone properly fluent in Vectorworks and the events modules, not a general CAD operator who will pick them up as they go. In return you get ownership of the standard, the templates and the library, and a CAD Technician alongside you to develop.
What you will do
- Own the drawing set for events and exhibition builds, from concept through to the version the crew works to.
- Model in 3D and produce visuals that let a client see the room before anyone loads a truck.
- Run venue surveys and turn them into accurate drawings, including sightlines, access routes and rigging positions.
- Work with the rigging team on load calculations and structural documentation for venue and safety sign off.
- Set and keep the drawing standard, templates and symbol library, and bring the CAD Technician on.
What we are looking for
- Genuine fluency in Vectorworks, including the events modules: Spotlight for plots and paperwork, Braceworks for structural and load calculations, and ConnectCAD where signal paths need drawing.
- Confident in both 2D drafting and 3D modelling, and able to produce a clean, buildable drawing set rather than a pretty picture.
- A real understanding of scale, sightlines, rigging points, truss and ground support structures, and venue restrictions.
- Several years drafting for live events, exhibitions, theatre or stage builds.
- Able to take a half formed brief and ask the questions that turn it into a drawing.
Useful but not essential
- Renderworks or other rendering experience for client facing visuals.
- AutoCAD as a second package, since some venues and clients still work in it.
- Experience preparing documentation for venue technical sign off, method statements or rigging plots for approval.
- Any rigging, LOLER or working at height background, even at awareness level.
- Experience setting drawing standards or mentoring a junior drafter.
Apply for this role.
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