Urban Design Jobs

Explore Urban Design jobs across the UK. Shape cities, neighbourhoods, and public spaces through design-led planning and sustainable placemaking.

Urban design sits at the intersection of architecture, planning, and landscape — focusing on the creation of functional, attractive, and sustainable spaces at the city, neighbourhood, and public realm scale. This category includes roles for Urban Designers, Masterplanners, Urban Design Architects, and Public Realm Consultants.

Whether you’re developing mixed-use regeneration projects, designing town centres, or shaping large-scale infrastructure corridors, urban design roles offer the opportunity to influence the built environment at every level. Employers range from architecture and planning consultancies to local authorities and multidisciplinary design teams. To understand current salary ranges across urban design roles, visit our Urban Design Salary Guide.

Urban Design FAQs

Our team have put together some answers to some commonly asked questions from people looking for a job as an Graduate Urban Designer.

If you’re interested in shaping policy and place together, these FAQs explain the role and career prospects of an Urban Design Planner.

They guide urban growth by aligning design thinking with planning policy — contributing to masterplans, development frameworks, design codes, and spatial strategies.

A degree in town planning, urban design, architecture, or geography is typical. RTPI accreditation and a postgraduate urban design qualification are advantageous.

Urban Design Planners focus more on spatial quality, site design, and visual strategy, whereas Town Planners focus on policy, regulation, and application assessment.

Planning consultancies, local authorities, urban regeneration agencies, housing developers, and multidisciplinary design teams all hire for this role.

Salaries range from £35,000 to £50,000 depending on experience, location, and whether the role is in public or private sector. Visit our Urban Design Salary Guide for benchmarks.

Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign), GIS platforms, SketchUp, and basic CAD tools are often used, along with planning databases and mapping tools.

Both. Urban Design Planners bring creativity to spatial solutions while ensuring compliance with policy frameworks and planning regulations.

Progression can lead to roles such as Principal Urban Designer, Regeneration Lead, or Head of Urban Strategy, depending on whether you move toward design or policy leadership.