Job Site Homepage Redesign

We have just had a new logo designed, and now we're looking for a new homepage to go with it. The winning designer will be our first choice for the work designing the remaining pages of the site.

Engineer Jobs.com

We like the simple, clean, fast-loading design we have today, but we're the #1 site for engineering jobs in the U.S. so we need a site that makes us look the part.  The current site doesn't do that.

The homepage is really the key to the whole redesign.  It will set the tone for the rest of the site, and everything else will flow from it.

We love the simplicity and attractive appearance of Simply Hired's homepage (http://www.simplyhired.com), but we don't particularly like how their homepage is completely different from all their other pages or how cluttered their other pages feel.

We have a long list of wants below, but there are very few things that absolutely have to be done a certain way and we're not absolutely set on only those items.  Feel free to experiment and to ask questions.  We will be very responsive.

- The contents of the page must be 960px wide.
- The design must be based on our new logo.  See several variations at: http://www.engineerjobs.com/newlogo (download PSD).  We definitely want to keep the font, but feel free to experiment with the icon -- both in colors and in design.  The colors in the text itself are somewhat flexible as well if you feel the need to change those, but we probably need to stick with the gray and blue -- though the hues could be changed.  Changes to the logo are definitely not necessary, though.  We would be quite happy with any of the current variations.
- A menu of options for job seekers: Find Jobs (or Engineering Jobs, or Home), Post/Edit My Resume, Who's Hiring, Top 100 Engineering Blogs (exact wording on all options is somewhat flexible)
- A menu of options for job posters: Advertising Information (or "Rates" or something similar), Post A Job, Search Engineer Resumes (or Engineer Resumes, or Engineering Resumes), My Recruiting Center (exact wording on all options is somewhat flexible)
- A menu of general options: Home, Contact Us, Privacy Statement (exact wording on all options is somewhat flexible)
- All menu items should be designed so that they can carry over to all inner pages.
- Some inner pages will also need to have a submenu of options, sothe design will need to look good both with a submenu (exact locationis up to you) and without.
- The primary focus of the page should be text links for the same Cities, States and Disciplines that we have on the homepage now.  They must be text links; this is not optional.
- A section of 200x90 "Featured Employer" logos -- at least 3, probably not more than 9.  The size of the logos is somewhat flexible.
- A "Post Your Resume" callout and text.  Something like: "Post your resume in complete privacy.  Your name and contact information are hidden from anyone who hasn't paid for access, so no more ending up on spam lists just because you posted your resume."
- You can include a "Newly Posted Jobs" section (label is up to you) if you need another homepage element.
- The design must be serious and professional looking.  Be careful with gradients, whimsical fonts or icons, heavy reflections and other Web 2.0 elements.  Our average user is a 30- to 40-year-old male who is a highly paid professional.  The site needs to look like it's designed to appeal to him.

- A search box
- Busyness and clutter
- A heavy page with slow load time
- A page that looks targeted to cool 20-year-olds