CDE & Standards Manager

Cape Town - Century City, WC ZA (Primary)

Zutari: Co-creating an engineered impact.

Zutari is a well-established, management-owned engineering firm with almost 90 years' experience. As human-centred engineering consultants and advisors, we are trusted by our clients, business partners, communities and other stakeholders across Africa. We co-create engineering solutions that have a positive impact and improve people's lives. Zutari values inclusion and recognises the importance of a diverse, talented workforce, believing that people need other people to succeed.

What kind of talent do we pursue? We employ people with the right attitude and a positive mindset, who are motivated by doing the right thing, getting things done and sharing a sense of urgency. People who have an impact in our teams and broader community. People who think differently and connect with those around them to co-create new opportunities and leave a meaningful legacy.

We are seeking an experienced CDE & Standards Manager to take ownership of the configuration, governance, and day to day operation of the Common Data Environment (CDE) for a major infrastructure programme. This role is hands on and governance focused, responsible for ensuring that the CDEs are correctly configured, consistently used, and rigorously controlled across multiple designers, contractors, and packages. You will enforce information standards, control formal issuances, and ensure full auditability from design through construction and handover. This is a critical role supporting information quality, contractual certainty, and programme delivery at scale.

• Configure and administer Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) as the primary CDE and oversee the aligned interface/integration with other CDEs.
• Establish and maintain:
  • Role based access, permissions, and access groups (organisation, package, discipline, functional role).
  • Folder structures and information container hierarchies aligned to the BEP, work breakdown structure (WBS), and package strategy.
  • Review, approval, and transmittal workflows, including defined SLAs and escalation paths.
  • Metadata schemas, including required fields, validation rules, status/suitability codes, and classification fields where applicable.
• Manage user onboarding and offboarding, routine permission reviews, and coordination with IT, Information Security, and Document Control teams.

• Implement and enforce the project's information naming, coding, and revision standards as defined in the BEP.
• Ensure consistent application of:
  • Information container naming rules for models, drawings, documents, schedules, and registers.
  • Revision and supersedence conventions.
  • Status, suitability, and "issued for" purpose controls (review, approval, construction, as built).
• Maintain controlled templates, guidance notes, and "golden example" files within the CDE.
• Enforce standards through system rules wherever possible (mandatory metadata fields, workflow gates, and validation checks).

• Ensure all formal information issuances (design, procurement, construction, as built) are executed through the CDE with:
  • Correct statuses, approvals, and supporting evidence.
  • Clear "issued for" purpose and traceable distribution lists.
  • Complete audit trails and immutable records where required.
• Coordinate with discipline leads and document control to ensure issuance packs are complete, correctly structured, and properly archived.

• Monitor overall CDE health and usage, identifying adoption issues, non compliant submissions, late approvals, or process failures.
• Conduct regular compliance checks, including:
  • Naming, coding, and revision compliance against the BEP.
  • Mandatory metadata completeness.
  • Correct use of workflows and approvals.
  • Permissions integrity and segregation by package or party.
• Carry out ongoing CDE housekeeping:
  • Archiving and clean up aligned to WIP / Shared / Published / Archive states.
  • Identification and control of redundant or duplicate content.
  • Scheduled permission reviews and access attestations.
• Maintain an exceptions log and drive corrective actions through to closure.
• Support the production of CDE based reports and dashboards in collaboration with the Information / Reporting Analyst, including:
  • Submission and approval cycle times.
  • Rejection and return rates.
  • Compliance trends (naming, metadata, workflow adherence).
  • Information volumes and throughput by package, discipline, or supplier.
• Provide data definitions and ensure consistency of master data (package IDs, discipline codes, status codes).

• Deliver CDE inductions and "how we issue information" clinics for designers, contractors, and suppliers.
• Act as first line support for CDE process issues and coordinate escalation of technical platform issues to vendors or internal IT.
• Chair or support information management and CDE working sessions to resolve recurring compliance, process, or adoption issues.
• Diploma or degree in Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, Information Management, IT, or equivalent practical experience.
• Formal training in BIM information management and CDE administration (platform or vendor training acceptable).
• 5+ years' experience in CDE, document management, or information governance on built environment projects.
• At least 2+ years in a lead role configuring and enforcing CDE standards.
• Experience working in multi system CDE environments
• Demonstrated experience supporting controlled information issuances across design, procurement, construction, and as built stages.
• Working knowledge of ISO aligned information management concepts as applied in practice (not theory heavy).
• Strong governance mindset with the confidence to enforce standards across multiple organisations.
• High attention to detail and comfort working with structured information and rules.
• Clear communicator able to translate standards into practical, usable guidance.
• Proactive problem solver who identifies risks early and drives corrective action.