Director - Public Realm Operations

Parsons; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Parsons in Riyadh seeks a Director of Public Realm Operations to lead the lifecycle management of outdoor spaces, parks, and plazas. You will drive standards, oversee irrigation, planting, and water features, and coordinate with facilities and vendors to ensure safety, accessibility, and exceptional visitor experience.

The role requires deep operational expertise in large-scale public realm portfolios, sustainability, and asset lifecycle planning within a major development context in Saudi

Qualifications

• Minimum 20 years of progressive public realm, landscape, urban design, or outdoor asset management experience.
• Strong operational experience with large-scale parks, streetscapes, and water features.
• Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture or related field; professional registration preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead operational management of public parks, promenades, plazas, streetscapes, green corridors, and outdoor entertainment areas.
• Establish performance and maintenance standards for public realm assets throughout their lifecycle.
• Oversee large-scale softscape portfolios including trees, palms, turf, shrubs, and seasonal planting.
• Monitor plant health, irrigation performance, soil conditions, and agronomic quality.
• Develop horticultural maintenance regimes for arid climate and demanding public environments.
• Establish resilient planting strategies balancing aesthetics, water use, and maintenance.
• Direct arboriculture programs covering tree health, pruning, and risk assessment.
• Coordinate seasonal planting and landscape renewal programs.
• Monitor contractors against service levels and quality standards.

Skills

Public Realm Management

Landscape Operations

Irrigation Management

Arboriculture

Water Feature Knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Environmental Design, or related field

Job description

Director - Public Realm Operations

Job Snapshot

Role: Director - Public Realm Operations

Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Industry: Architecture & Planning

Function: Facilities Management

Experience: Minimum 20 years of progressive public realm, landscape, urban design, or outdoor asset management experience

Job Type: Full-time

Job Details

Country: Saudi Arabia

City: Riyadh

Industry: Architecture & Planning

Function: Facilities Management

Salary: 65000-90000 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 Director - Public Realm Operations will act as the senior technical and operational authority for outdoor spaces that shape the everyday experience of the development. Rather than focusing only on design delivery, the position takes a lifecycle view of parks, green corridors, pedestrian areas, entertainment boulevards, plazas, streetscapes, water features, landscape assets, and public amenities. The Director will ensure these spaces remain attractive, safe, accessible, resilient, environmentally responsible, and practical to maintain as visitor numbers and city operations expand.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead operational management of public parks, promenades, plazas, streetscapes, green corridors, pocket parks, and outdoor entertainment areas.
• Establish performance and maintenance standards for public realm assets throughout their operational lifecycle.
• Oversee large-scale softscape portfolios including trees, palms, turf, shrubs, groundcovers, and seasonal planting.
• Monitor plant health, landscape establishment, soil conditions, irrigation performance, and agronomic quality.
• Develop horticultural maintenance regimes appropriate for Riyadh 's arid climate and demanding public environments.
• Establish resilient planting strategies that balance aesthetics, water consumption, durability, and long-term maintenance.
• Direct arboriculture programs covering tree health, pruning, replacement, risk assessment, and structural stability.
• Coordinate seasonal planting and landscape renewal programs.
• Monitor specialist landscape contractors against agreed service levels and quality standards.
• Establish inspection regimes for premium paving, tiles, steps, ramps, pedestrian surfaces, and plaza finishes.
• Manage preventative maintenance of shading structures, pergolas, monuments, street furniture, seating, bollards, and associated public assets.
• Identify deterioration before it creates safety, accessibility, or visitor-experience problems.
• Maintain appropriate slip resistance and accessibility across pedestrian surfaces.
• Coordinate repairs, refurbishment, and replacement of damaged public realm materials.
• Work with Facilities Management and specialist contractors to maintain structural and aesthetic quality.
• Serve as the operational technical authority for fountains, cascades, canals, artificial lakes, reflection pools, and other water features.
• Oversee pumps, filtration systems, lighting, controls, treatment equipment, and associated mechanical systems.
• Establish preventive maintenance and periodic deep-maintenance programs for aquatic assets.
• Monitor water quality, hygiene, safety, and regulatory compliance.
• Reduce unnecessary water consumption while maintaining required visual and operational performance.
• Develop shutdown and maintenance procedures for major water features.
• Participate in technical acceptance of newly completed public realm areas before operational handover.
• Conduct detailed technical, functional, and aesthetic inspections of completed assets.
• Verify that completed works satisfy design intent, accessibility requirements, safety standards, and agreed experience benchmarks.
• Prepare technical acceptance reports and structured snag lists.
• Coordinate defect resolution before formal operational vesting.
• Confirm that maintenance information, warranties, asset records, manuals, and operational procedures are complete before acceptance.
• Support Stage-Gate decisions covering transition from construction into operations.
• Review master plans and detailed designs from an operational and lifecycle perspective.
• Challenge materials or landscape solutions likely to create excessive maintenance costs or premature deterioration.
• Identify designs that could lead to excessive irrigation demand or inefficient water consumption.
• Recommend alternative materials, planting palettes, systems, or configurations where lifecycle performance can be improved.
• Review public realm proposals for maintainability, durability, accessibility, safety, and user comfort.
• Collaborate with planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, and operational teams during design development.
• Provide operational input into material selection and public space typologies.
• Ensure lifecycle considerations are incorporated before construction commitments are finalized.
• Direct efficient operation of automated and smart irrigation systems.
• Optimize irrigation schedules according to season, plant demand, soil conditions, and environmental data.
• Support extensive use of Treated Sewage Effluent where technically and environmentally appropriate.
• Coordinate irrigation demand with water utility and sustainability teams.
• Establish water-efficiency KPIs for landscape operations.
• Promote water reuse and conservation across public realm assets.
• Work with smart city teams to introduce connected public realm technologies.
• Support deployment of IoT-enabled waste bins and monitoring devices.
• Integrate automated lighting controls with public space operations.
• Utilize environmental sensors measuring air quality, temperature, noise, and other relevant conditions.
• Incorporate occupancy and footfall information into maintenance and operational planning.
• Use smart-system data to improve asset reliability and visitor experience.
• Support integration of public realm assets into centralized operational dashboards.
• Establish high-frequency cleansing requirements for flagship and high-footfall areas.
• Define service standards for litter collection, pressure washing, waste segregation, and general presentation.
• Set measurable response times for cleaning and presentation issues.
• Coordinate cleansing programs around major events and peak visitor periods.
• Work with waste management contractors to maintain consistent presentation standards.
• Coordinate with municipal and specialist service providers where required.
• Monitor contractor performance through inspections, KPIs, audits, and service-level reporting.
• Develop lifecycle maintenance plans for major landscape, hardscape, and aquatic assets.
• Identify refurbishment and replacement requirements through condition assessments.
• Support long-term OPEX and CAPEX forecasting for the public realm portfolio.
• Prioritize interventions according to condition, safety, operational importance, and visitor impact.
• Maintain accurate asset condition and maintenance information for long-term investment planning.
• Coordinate public realm requirements with utilities, mobility, waste, security, HSE, events, and Facilities Management teams.
• Develop operating strategies for high-footfall destinations and major event periods.
• Ensure emergency routes and critical public access remain unobstructed.
• Monitor accessibility and inclusive-use requirements throughout public spaces.
• Establish public realm operational KPIs covering cleanliness, landscape health, water consumption, asset condition, safety, and service performance.
• Prepare executive reports on operational performance, lifecycle risk, contractor delivery, and investment priorities.
• Lead specialist teams and vendors responsible for maintaining complex outdoor asset portfolios.
• Drive continuous improvement in landscape resilience, sustainability, public space quality, and operational efficiency.

Ideal Profile

• Bachelor 's degree in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Environmental Design, or a related discipline.
• Master 's degree in a relevant field is preferred.
• Minimum 20 years of progressive experience involving large-scale public realm, landscape, urban design, or outdoor asset portfolios.
• Significant experience within mega-developments, destination projects, mixed-use communities, or complex urban environments.
• Strong operational experience with parks and streetscapes rather than a career limited to design and construction.
• Demonstrated experience managing large landscape maintenance programs.
• Extensive understanding of horticulture, softscape management, irrigation, and plant health.
• Knowledge of arid-climate landscaping and resilient planting strategies.
• Experience managing premium hardscape and public realm structures.
• Strong operational knowledge of fountains, pools, canals, or other major water features.
• Understanding of filtration, pumping, treatment, and water-feature control systems.
• Proven experience managing substantial operational budgets.
• Experience supervising multiple contractors and specialist vendors.
• Strong understanding of asset lifecycle management and preventive maintenance.
• Experience conducting technical and aesthetic handover inspections.
• Familiarity with Stage-Gate acceptance and asset vesting processes.
• Demonstrated ability to assess designs from a long-term operational perspective.
• Experience integrating sustainability requirements into landscape and public realm operations.
• Knowledge of Treated Sewage Effluent and water-efficient irrigation.
• Experience with smart irrigation and automated control technologies.
• Familiarity with IoT sensors, smart lighting, occupancy monitoring, and connected public assets.
• Strong knowledge of public cleansing and presentation standards for high-footfall environments.
• Professional registration in landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, or a related discipline is preferred.
• Sustainability, asset management, or facilities management credentials are advantageous.
• Strong leadership and contractor governance capability.
• Excellent coordination skills across design, operations, engineering, sustainability, and technology disciplines.
• Ability to balance visual quality with maintainability, safety, environmental performance, and lifecycle cost.

Skills Set

• Public Realm Management
• Landscape Operations
• Landscape Architecture
• Urban Design
• Public Space Management
• Parks Management
• Streetscape Management
• Landscape Maintenance
• Horticulture
• Arboriculture
• Plant Health Management
• Softscape Management
• Arid Climate Landscaping
• Irrigation Management
• Smart Irrigation
• Treated Sewage Effluent
• Water Conservation
• Hardscape Maintenance
• Paving Maintenance
• Public Realm Structures
• Street Furniture
• Shading Structures
• Accessibility
• Water Feature Operations
• Fountain Operations
• Water Treatment
• Filtration Systems
• Pumping Systems
• Preventive Maintenance
• Predictive Maintenance
• Asset Condition Assessment
• Asset Lifecycle Management
• Public Realm Inspections
• Technical Handover
• Stage-Gate Acceptance
• Asset Vesting
• Snagging
• Design Review
• Design for Maintainability
• Lifecycle Cost Planning
• Sustainability
• Environmental Performance
• Smart City Systems
• IoT Sensors
• Smart Waste Bins
• Automated Lighting
• Environmental Monitoring
• Occupancy Monitoring
• Public Cleansing
• Pressure Washing
• Waste Segregation
• Presentation Standards
• Contractor Management
• Service Level Management
• Operational KPIs
• OPEX Planning
• CAPEX Planning
• Facilities Management Coordination
• Visitor Experience
• Public Safety
• Executive Reporting

Why Join Us

This position provides the opportunity to shape how some of Riyadh 's most prominent public spaces perform long after construction is complete. The Director will influence everything from landscape resilience and water efficiency to smart technology, public cleanliness, water features, lifecycle investment, and the quality of spaces experienced by residents and millions of visitors. It is a high-impact leadership opportunity combining landscape expertise, asset management, sustainability, facilities operations, and destination experience within a major Saudi development.

About the Company

Parsons Corporation delivers engineering, infrastructure, planning, program management, technology, and operational solutions for complex developments worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, Parsons supports giga-projects and major urban programs through multidisciplinary expertise spanning landscape, public realm, infrastructure, sustainability, smart city systems, asset management, and long-term operational readiness.