Healthcare design is having a reckoning. The buildings that house medical care — hospitals, clinics, research facilities, rehabilitation centers — are being fundamentally reconceived in response to a convergence of pressures that would have seemed speculative a decade ago: the normalisation of telehealth and remote monitoring, the emergence of “hospital at home” models that are demonstrably reducing readmission rates, the shift toward hyper-flexible surgical suites and modular lab space that can pivot between specialities week to week. The fifty-year replacement hospital, once the backbone of healthcare architecture’s project pipeline, is increasingly something that is more nuanced, more community-embedded and considerably more complex to design.
For an architect who has spent their career thinking seriously about how the built environment shapes clinical outcomes, patient experience and the wellbeing of care teams — this is the most interesting moment the typology has seen in generations. Perkins&Will, one of the most recognized architecture and design firms in the world, is looking for someone ready to meet it:
The Opportunity
Rush University Medical Center by Perkins&Will, Chicago, Illinois
The firm’s Dallas studio is seeking a Healthcare Principal or Associate Principal to lead the strategic growth and market development of its healthcare practice in the region. It is a principal-level role in the fullest sense: this person will define the vision for the practice, build and steward client relationships, develop and execute business development strategy, mentor the next generation of healthcare designers, and serve as the external face of one of architecture’s most respected names in a market — Texas — that is among the fastest-growing in the country.
The ideal candidate brings a minimum of fifteen years of experience, a demonstrated track record of winning and leading significant commissions, and strong, enduring client relationships, with a track record of successful client engagement. Senior medical planning skills are a particular advantage. This is not a role for someone looking to grow into leadership — it is a role for someone ready to define what leadership looks like for a practice on the move (the ideal candidate will already have a minimum of five years in a leadership position under their belt).
Why Perkins&Will
Rush University Medical Center by Perkins&Will, Chicago, Illinois
Founded in Chicago in 1935, Perkins&Will has grown into a global firm of more than 2,500 professionals across 30 studios, consistently ranked among the most design-forward practices in the world. Its healthcare portfolio is among the most decorated in the profession: recent projects include the Maine Medical Center Malone Family Tower, the Whitman-Walker Health Max Robinson Center in Washington, DC — winner of the 2024 IIDA Healthcare Design Award for Best Ambulatory Clinic — and the Children’s Health Plano Heart Center Cardiology and Fetal Clinic in Texas, which earned recognition at the 2025 IIDA Healthcare Design Awards.
But what distinguishes Perkins&Will’s approach to healthcare is not the scale of its portfolio — it is the depth of its intellectual investment in the typology. The firm operates dedicated healthcare research programs, including the E. Todd Wheeler Health Fellowship, which funds original research into the relationship between the built environment and clinical outcomes. Its designers have written extensively about the frontier questions of the field: how spaces can be designed to support neurological rehabilitation, how flexible modular room configurations can future-proof hospitals against evolving care models, and how community-based facilities can embed themselves meaningfully into the neighborhoods they serve rather than standing apart from them.
For the right candidate, joining Perkins&Will means inheriting not just a client portfolio and a project pipeline, but a body of research, a design culture, and a professional community that takes healthcare architecture as seriously as it deserves.
Why Dallas, Why Now
Baptist Health Miami Beach by Perkins&Will, Miami Beach, Florida
Texas is one of the most consequential healthcare markets in the United States — a state undergoing rapid population growth, significant demographic shifts, and an expanding demand for healthcare infrastructure at every scale, from flagship academic medical centers to community-based ambulatory facilities in fast-growing suburban cities. Perkins&Will’s Dallas studio has already demonstrated what is possible in this context: the Methodist Celina Medical Center, a 200,000-square-foot facility designed to grow alongside one of Texas’ fastest-expanding communities, earned recognition at the 2025 IIDA Healthcare Design Awards for its integration of community identity, design flexibility and local narrative into a building that will serve its city for decades.
The incoming Healthcare Principal will inherit this momentum — and will be expected to build on it, identifying and pursuing the next generation of opportunities in a market that shows no signs of slowing.
What the Role Requires
Jackson West Medical Center Doral Campus by Perkins&Will, Miami Beach, Florida
Beyond the expected credentials — licensure, fifteen or more years of experience, proven business development capability — this role requires a specific kind of professional fluency: the ability to operate comfortably in a healthcare system’s “C” suite and equally comfortably with the planning, design and construction teams, translating those conversations into buildings. Healthcare clients are sophisticated, the stakes of their projects are high, and the most valuable thing a principal can bring to those relationships is the ability to challenge assumptions respectfully and translate complex clinical requirements into design decisions that actually improve outcomes.
The role also requires a genuine investment in talent development — in the mentorship and growth of the designers who will carry the practice forward. Perkins&Will is a firm that takes this seriously, and the incoming principal will be expected to embody it.
If healthcare architecture feels to you like the most consequential work an architect can do — if you have spent your career thinking about how buildings shape the experience of illness and recovery, and you are ready to lead a practice that shares that conviction at the highest level — this is the opportunity worth pursuing.
Apply for the Healthcare Principal role at Perkins&Will’s Dallas studio on Architizer:
