Design Director - Operational Assurance

Parsons; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Parsons Corporation is seeking a Design Director - Operational Assurance in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This senior role leads operability, maintainability, and whole-life design for major city and district developments, ensuring assets are operable and safe from planning through handover.

You will review designs across multiple domains, define design standards, and coordinate with operators, maintainers, and asset owners to optimise lifecycle performance and service delivery.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership with design management experience.
• Experience reviewing complex designs for operability and lifecycle performance.
• Ability to translate operator needs into practical design requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead operational design assurance across city, district, infrastructure, and assets.
• Review development from planning to handover with operator perspective.
• Assess operability, maintainability, functionality, and lifecycle performance; propose improvements.

Skills

Operability reviews

Maintainability reviews

Whole-life design

Asset management

Design governance

Job description

Role Snapshot

Design Director - Operational Assurance Job Snapshot Role: Design Director - Operational Assurance Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Industry: Construction Function: Design Experience: Senior leadership experience Job Type: Full-time

Design Director - Operational Assurance in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a senior Construction opportunity providing design leadership for operability, maintainability, asset lifecycle performance, operational logistics, and future service delivery across major city and district developments. Parsons is hiring an experienced design leader to represent future operators, maintainers, and asset owners throughout planning, design development, governance reviews, operational readiness, and handover, ensuring built assets can be operated safely, efficiently, and sustainably over their full lifecycle.

Job Details

Country: Saudi Arabia

City: Riyadh

Industry: Construction

Function: Design

Salary: 45000-65000 Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer.

Gender: Any

Candidate Nationality: Any

Job Type: Full-time

Role Context

The Design Director will act as the operational design authority across city and district assets, bringing the requirements of future operations into development decisions before they become embedded in completed infrastructure. The position will independently review and challenge designs from an asset owner and operator perspective, with particular attention to maintainability, accessibility, servicing, logistics, support facilities, resilience, and whole-life performance. Working across Development, Delivery, City Operations, Asset Management, Community Management, Utilities, Mobility, Security, Digital, and specialist functions, the Director will translate operational needs into practical design requirements. This early intervention will help reduce lifecycle inefficiencies, difficult maintenance conditions, inadequate support infrastructure, operational conflicts, and costly modifications after asset completion.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead operational design assurance across city, district, infrastructure, community, and supporting operational assets.
• Review developments through planning, concept, schematic, detailed design, pre-handover, and asset acceptance stages.
• Evaluate designs from the perspective of future operators, maintainers, service providers, and asset owners.
• Assess asset operability, maintainability, functionality, accessibility, serviceability, resilience, and long-term performance.
• Challenge proposals that create impractical maintenance conditions, inefficient operations, restricted access, or excessive lifecycle requirements.
• Identify operational risks and constraints before they become embedded in construction or completed assets.
• Provide evidence-based recommendations that improve operational efficiency and long-term asset performance.
• Promote whole-life design decisions that balance capital delivery with future maintenance and operational requirements.
• Develop and maintain operational design standards, guidance, review criteria, and assurance methodologies.
• Define maintainability and operability requirements for use by development, engineering, architecture, and design teams.
• Establish requirements for maintenance access, service routes, operational infrastructure, equipment replacement, and support functions.
• Embed operational design requirements into development processes, design briefs, governance procedures, and stage-gate reviews.
• Establish structured review frameworks that provide consistent operational assurance across different asset classes.
• Maintain alignment between design solutions, user requirements, operating models, and future service delivery strategies.
• Review the sizing, location, configuration, and functionality of facilities supporting City Operations and Asset Management.
• Assess maintenance compounds, workshops, storage facilities, waste areas, logistics zones, and staff support infrastructure.
• Evaluate whether proposed operational facilities have sufficient capacity for forecast demand and future city growth.
• Review operational space planning and identify opportunities to improve facility utilization.
• Verify that maintenance and support facilities are positioned for practical access and efficient service coverage.
• Assess proposed servicing routes, loading areas, deliveries, refuse collection, and maintenance access arrangements.
• Review emergency access and operational resilience requirements within development proposals.
• Evaluate logistics movements to identify conflicts between operational vehicles, maintenance activities, residents, visitors, and other users.
• Recommend design modifications that improve safe and efficient operational circulation.
• Ensure servicing and logistics requirements are incorporated into district and asset designs at the appropriate development stage.
• Provide operational design expertise to district development teams during planning and design activities.
• Participate in design workshops, technical working groups, assurance reviews, and stakeholder coordination sessions.
• Consolidate operational stakeholder inputs into clear and coordinated design recommendations.
• Facilitate alignment between Development, Delivery, City Operations, Community Management, Asset Management, and specialist operational teams.
• Resolve competing operational requirements through structured analysis and stakeholder engagement.
• Maintain effective communication channels between design teams and future operational stakeholders.
• Define consultant scopes, technical deliverables, acceptance criteria, and performance requirements for operational design assignments.
• Manage specialist consultants undertaking operability, maintainability, facilities planning, logistics, and operational readiness studies.
• Review consultant assessments, technical reports, benchmarking studies, and recommendations.
• Challenge consultant proposals where solutions do not adequately address practical operating conditions or lifecycle requirements.
• Coordinate independent technical assessments and specialist reviews where additional assurance is required.
• Escalate material operational design risks and unresolved issues to senior leadership.
• Use consultant engagements to strengthen knowledge transfer and internal operational design capability.
• Participate in governance forums and stage-gate reviews as the operational design assurance representative.
• Assess design submissions against established operational requirements and approved standards.
• Maintain records of assurance findings, design risks, stakeholder actions, and review outcomes.
• Track operational design comments through response, resolution, verification, and formal closure.
• Coordinate operational aspects of asset handover planning with City Asset Management.
• Verify that agreed operational requirements are reflected in delivered assets before acceptance.
• Facilitate coordination between design teams, delivery teams, operators, maintainers, and future asset owners during transition.
• Review handover readiness from an operational and maintainability perspective.
• Capture lessons learned from completed developments, operational experience, and asset handovers.
• Benchmark operational design practices against relevant industry approaches and emerging standards.
• Monitor technologies and design innovations that can improve maintenance, service delivery, asset reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Develop leadership dashboards, assurance reports, risk summaries, and management information.
• Identify opportunities for design optimization that reduce lifecycle cost and improve asset performance.
• Coach project teams and stakeholders on operability, maintainability, and whole-life design principles.
• Promote transparent, evidence-based decision-making throughout operational design governance.

Ideal Profile

This position is suited to a senior design and asset operations professional with extensive experience influencing major developments from planning and design through delivery, operational readiness, and handover. The successful candidate should have a strong multidisciplinary understanding of how buildings, infrastructure, public realm, utilities, mobility systems, community assets, and operational support facilities function after construction is complete. Substantial experience in design management, operational design assurance, facilities management, asset management, city operations, development, engineering, or a closely related environment is important. Candidates should demonstrate the ability to review complex designs from an operator and maintainer perspective and identify issues involving maintenance access, equipment replacement, logistics, servicing, waste operations, resilience, functionality, and lifecycle performance. Experience establishing design standards, assurance frameworks, governance processes, stage-gate reviews, and technical acceptance criteria will be highly valuable. The role requires strong knowledge of whole-life asset considerations and the ability to translate future operating models into measurable design requirements. Experience managing specialist consultants and coordinating multidisciplinary stakeholder groups across major master‑planned developments, cities, districts, or large infrastructure programs will strengthen suitability. The successful candidate must be capable of challenging senior designers and project teams constructively while providing technically credible alternatives and clearly documented recommendations. Strong leadership, technical review, stakeholder management, analytical, facilitation, reporting, and decision‑making capabilities are essential.

Skills Set

Operational design assurance Design management Design governance Operability reviews Maintainability reviews Whole‑life design Lifecycle planning Asset management City operations Operational readiness Asset handover Design authority Stage‑gate reviews Design standards Design review frameworks Operational requirements Maintenance access Maintenance planning Serviceability Operational resilience Facilities planning Support facilities Maintenance compounds Workshops Storage planning Waste facilities Logistics areas Space planning Operational logistics Servicing routes Loading facilities Delivery planning Refuse collection Emergency access Operational movement Asset accessibility Service delivery planning Stakeholder coordination Consultant management Technical assurance Risk management Design optimization Asset performance Lifecycle performance Operational efficiency Benchmarking Management dashboards Community management Utilities coordination Mobility coordination Security coordination Digital infrastructure coordination

Why Join Us

Major city developments increasingly recognize that successful design is measured not only at construction completion but throughout decades of operation. This Riyadh position provides the opportunity to influence that outcome at senior level by ensuring maintainability, logistics, service delivery, asset access, and operational performance are considered before critical design decisions are finalized. The role offers broad exposure across city assets, districts, operational infrastructure, specialist consultants, asset management, and development governance. It provides significant scope to shape standards and assurance practices that can improve lifecycle value and operational performance across an evolving portfolio of major assets.

About the Company

Parsons Corporation delivers engineering, program management, construction, technology, and infrastructure services for complex developments. In Saudi Arabia, its multidisciplinary teams support major city and infrastructure programs across design, development, asset management, operational readiness, project delivery, and long-term infrastructure performance.