Senior Designer, Roads & Highways (OpenRoads Lead)

Surbana Consultants Pte Ltd – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) branch; Perth; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

18 weeks paid parental leave

Mentoring programs

Flexible working arrangements

Job summary

SMEC is seeking a Senior to Principal Designer, Roads & Highways (OpenRoads Lead) to join our team in Perth, Melbourne, or Adelaide and drive the national OpenRoads capability.

You will lead technical delivery, mentor design teams, and shape digital engineering practices across major transport projects in Australia.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience delivering major roads/highways projects in a consulting environment
• Advanced proficiency in OpenRoads Designer and its application across projects
• Strong knowledge of 12d and AutoCAD for multi-platform design environments
• Experience leading design development across concept to construction phases
• Knowledge of Australian road design standards and governance frameworks
• Ability to establish and improve design workflows, templates and digital delivery processes
• Experience mentoring designers and coordinating multidisciplinary teams
• Strong commercial awareness and stakeholder engagement skills

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across the design function
• Drive ADOPTION and optimisation of OpenRoads on major transport projects
• Lead delivery of innovative, high-quality design solutions
• Influence design standards, workflows and best practices
• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams and manage design interfaces across projects

Skills

OpenRoads Designer

12d

AutoCAD

Design leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Diploma / Advanced Diploma in Civil Design

Bachelor of Engineering preferred

Tools

OpenRoads Designer

12d

AutoCAD

Job description

About the job

Join a global consultancy delivering iconic infrastructure projects. Work alongside industry-leading specialists in a collaborative, flexible environment. Shape your career with genuine professional growth opportunities.

About SMEC

SMEC is a global engineering consultancy renowned for delivering complex, sustainable infrastructure solutions across transport, water, energy, and urban development markets. Our teams are empowered to innovate, solve technical challenges, and contribute to projects that positively shape communities across Australia and worldwide.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and gender‑equitable workforce and encourages applications from people of all backgrounds across engineering and technical disciplines.

SMEC provides a supportive and flexible working environment that recognises individual contribution, supports career progression, and enables our people to balance work and life at all stages of their career.

• As a family‑friendly employer, we offer flexible working arrangements and benefits including 18 weeks of universal paid parental leave.
• We are proud to foster an inclusive culture that supports gender equity, LGBTI+ inclusion and First Nations representation, with access to strong professional networks, role models, and mentoring and sponsorship programs.

Infrastructure

At SMEC, we understand that our continued success within the infrastructure market is the result of building long‑term client relationships. We listen and understand the specific needs of our clients and deliver a complete value chain of services to provide sustainable solutions across major infrastructure projects worldwide.

The Role

We are currently seeking a Senior to Principal Designer, Roads & Highways (OpenRoads Lead) to join our team in Perth, Melbourne, or Adelaide and play a key role in the continued growth and advancement of our national Roads & Highways design capability.

In this role, you will provide technical leadership across the design function, driving the adoption, development, and optimisation of OpenRoads across major transport infrastructure projects throughout Australia. Working closely with Project Managers, Engineers, Designers, and Digital Engineering leaders, you will lead the delivery of innovative, high-quality design solutions while helping shape the future direction of our digital design capability.

As our OpenRoads Lead, you will influence design standards, workflows, and best practice across the business, supporting project teams through all phases of project delivery while fostering technical excellence and capability development. While OpenRoads will be your primary platform, you will also bring a strong foundation in 12d and an understanding of how both platforms can be leveraged to deliver efficient, coordinated, and commercially successful project outcomes. This is a unique opportunity to combine project delivery with technical leadership, contributing to some of ANZ's most significant infrastructure projects while helping define and strengthen SMEC's national OpenRoads offering.

About You

You will be recognised as a senior technical practitioner within roads and highways design, bringing extensive experience delivering major transport infrastructure projects and a passion for advancing digital engineering capability.

• 8+ years' experience delivering major transport infrastructure projects within a consulting environment, with significant roads and highways design experience.
• Advanced proficiency in OpenRoads Designer, with demonstrated experience leading its application, implementation, and optimisation across complex projects.
• A strong working knowledge of 12d and AutoCAD, with the ability to guide teams operating within multi-platform design environments.
• Proven experience leading design development across concept, detailed design, and construction phases.
• Strong knowledge of Australian road design standards, specifications, and design governance frameworks.
• Demonstrated capability in establishing and improving design workflows, modelling standards, templates and digital delivery processes.
• Experience mentoring and developing designers and drafting teams, providing technical leadership and fostering best practice.
• Proven ability to coordinate multidisciplinary project teams and manage design interfaces across large-scale infrastructure projects.
• Commercial awareness, including management of programme, scope, deliverables, quality and project performance.
• Well‑developed stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with clients, project teams and industry partners.
• A passion for innovation and continuous improvement, with the ability to influence the future direction of digital engineering and design delivery within a national business.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and problem‑solving skills with the ability to influence outcomes and drive technical excellence.
• Diploma, Advanced Diploma or equivalent qualification in Civil Design / Drafting (Bachelor of Engineering advantageous).

Company Overview

Surbana Jurong, we put talent, hard work, teamwork and a fun workplace together to approach problems and solve them creatively and collaboratively. Join us in making a positive impact on the world!

SMEC is a global engineering, management and development consultancy delivering innovative solutions for our clients and partners. Leveraging our 70‑year history of delivering nation‑building infrastructure, we provide technical expertise and advanced engineering services to resolve complex challenges across major infrastructure and energy projects. SMEC has a long and proud history which dates back to Australia’s iconic Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme in 1949, one of the largest and most complex hydroelectric schemes in the world.

Headquartered in Australia, we have offices across more than 35 countries in Oceania, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Americas. Together with our clients and partners, we deliver projects that directly contribute to improving health, quality of life and development outcomes for communities and neighbourhoods around the world. Driven by innovation, ingenuity and skill, our people have shaped these outcomes in some of the world’s most remote and challenging environments. Since 2016, SMEC has been a member of the Surbana Jurong Group, an Asia‑based global powerhouse of over 16,000 employees. Through our network of global specialists and by collaborating with local partners, we connect clients with the best teams and capabilities to deliver sustainable solutions.