Head of Operations and Maintenance Department

Dar Al Riyadh Group; Saudi Arabia; On-site; SAR 300,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Dar Al Riyadh Group seeks a Head of Operations and Maintenance Department to lead the O&M strategy for dam portfolios and related assets across multiple locations in Saudi Arabia. You will establish objectives, budgets, KPIs and governance frameworks to ensure safe, reliable operations.

The role requires 16+ years of O&M leadership, experience with major contracts, and strong capability in asset management, budgeting and compliance with international standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering required.
• CMRP certification or equivalent preferred.
• Minimum 16 years of professional experience in operations and maintenance.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and implementation of the O&M strategy for the dam portfolio.
• Establish departmental objectives, annual plans, budgets, KPIs and performance targets.
• Develop and maintain O&M policies, procedures, manuals, workflows and technical standards.
• Establish consistent maintenance and reporting practices across the assigned dam portfolio.
• Develop operating philosophies covering normal, abnormal, emergency, shutdown and restart conditions.
• Define governance arrangements for planning, approval, execution, inspection and close-out of maintenance activities.
• Review O&M practices against international standards and recommend improvements.
• Identify critical assets and establish risk-based maintenance priorities.
• Ensure emergency plans, business-continuity arrangements and operational-response procedures are maintained and tested.
• Direct the operation and maintenance of dams and their associated systems.
• Oversee preventive, predictive, corrective, emergency and condition-based maintenance programs.
• Supervise repair, rehabilitation, replacement, installation, testing and commissioning activities.
• Monitor equipment availability, reliability and maintenance backlog.
• Promote lifecycle asset management and sustainable maintenance practices.
• Administer O&M contracts and ensure compliance with scope, SLAs and specifications.
• Review contractors’ work programs, maintenance plans and resource schedules.
• Monitor performance against KPIs and service-level agreements.
• Provide input to new O&M scopes of work and tender documents.
• Develop annual and long-term O&M plans for the dam portfolio.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering

CMRP certification

Job description

Head of Operations and Maintenance Department

Job Ref. 2238

Experience: 16

Multiple Location

Sep 9, 2026

Job Overview

Date Posted

Sep 9, 2026

Location

Multiple Location

Expiration Date

Oct 1, 2026

Experience

16 Years

Job Skills

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and implementation of the department’s O&M strategy.
• Establish departmental objectives, annual plans, budgets, KPIs and performance targets.
• Develop and maintain O&M policies, procedures, manuals, workflows and technical standards.
• Establish consistent maintenance and reporting practices across the assigned dam portfolio.
• Develop operating philosophies covering normal, abnormal, emergency, shutdown and restart conditions.
• Define governance arrangements for planning, approval, execution, inspection and close-out of maintenance activities.
• Review O&M practices against recognized international standards and recommend improvements.
• Identify critical assets and establish risk-based maintenance priorities.
• Ensure emergency plans, business-continuity arrangements and operational-response procedures are maintained and tested.

Operations and Maintenance Management

• Direct the operation and maintenance of dams and their associated civil, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, instrumentation and control systems.
• Oversee preventive, predictive, corrective, emergency and condition-based maintenance programs.
• Supervise repair, rehabilitation, replacement, installation, testing and commissioning activities.
• Ensure maintenance plans are aligned with asset condition, operational priorities and available resources.
• Monitor equipment availability, reliability, downtime, failure rates and maintenance completion.
• Review recurring failures and ensure root-cause analyses and permanent corrective actions are completed.
• Coordinate planned shutdowns, isolations, restoration and return-to-service activities.
• Ensure maintenance backlogs are prioritized and controlled.
• Monitor spare-parts availability, critical inventory and long-lead equipment requirements.
• Promote lifecycle asset management and sustainable maintenance practices.

Contract Administration

• Administer O&M contracts and ensure compliance with scope, service levels, specifications and contractual conditions.
• Participate in contractor kick-off, coordination, progress and performance-review meetings.
• Review contractors’ work programs, maintenance plans, method statements, technical submissions and resource schedules.
• Monitor consultants, contractors, engineers and technicians and verify the quality and timeliness of their work.
• Evaluate contractor performance against contractual KPIs and service-level agreements.
• Review variations, claims, additional-work requests and extensions of time in coordination with the Contracts team.
• Confirm that completed work is properly inspected, documented and accepted.
• Monitor defects, non-conformances and corrective actions through to closure.
• Provide technical input to new O&M scopes of work, specifications, bills of quantities and tender documents.

Planning, Budgeting and Cost Control

• Develop annual and long-term O&M plans for the dam portfolio.
• Monitor approved schedules, budgets, commitments, expenditure and forecasts.
• Review actual performance against planned maintenance and project milestones.
• Identify schedule delays, cost variances, resource constraints and delivery risks.
• Develop recovery plans and corrective measures for activities performing below target.
• Coordinate with Planning, Finance, Contracts, Procurement and Project Controls.
• Prioritize expenditure according to asset criticality, safety risk and operational need.
• Review maintenance cost trends and identify efficiency and optimization opportunities.
• Support lifecycle cost assessments and capital replacement planning.

Team Leadership and Coordination

• Lead multidisciplinary O&M managers, engineers, technicians, planners and support staff.
• Define roles, responsibilities, reporting lines and performance expectations.
• Review workforce capacity and identify recruitment, deployment, training and succession requirements.
• Develop technical competencies through coaching, training and knowledge transfer.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Asset Management, Risk, Quality, HSE, Procurement and other departments.
• Promote accountability, collaboration and timely decision-making.
• Ensure department resources are deployed effectively across projects and locations.

Safety, Quality and Compliance

• Ensure all O&M activities comply with Saudi laws, applicable codes, Client procedures and contractual requirements.
• Promote safe systems of work, permit-to-work, isolation and lockout/tagout practices.
• Ensure risk assessments, method statements and emergency procedures are approved and implemented.
• Monitor compliance with quality, environmental and occupational health and safety requirements.
• Participate in audits, inspections, incident investigations and management reviews.
• Ensure lessons learned are communicated and incorporated into procedures and maintenance plans.

Performance and Reporting

• Establish and monitor O&M KPIs, including:
• Asset availability and reliability
• Preventive-maintenance compliance
• Planned versus reactive maintenance
• Mean time between failures
• Mean time to repair
• Maintenance backlog
• Work-order completion
• Contractor SLA compliance
• Budget and schedule performance
• Safety and environmental performance
• Prepare clear daily, weekly, monthly, annual and technical reports as required by the assignment.
• Present asset performance, contract status, operational risks and improvement recommendations to senior management.
• Coordinate with government stakeholders, consultants, contractors and multidisciplinary teams.
• Attend meetings, inspections and site visits anywhere in Saudi Arabia as required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering or an equivalent relevant discipline from a recognized university.
• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) certification or an equivalent internationally recognized qualification.
• Minimum 16 years of professional experience in operations and maintenance.
• Substantial experience administering and managing major O&M contracts.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering and maintenance teams.
• Strong knowledge of dam, water-infrastructure or comparable asset-intensive O&M requirements.
• Experience managing preventive, predictive, corrective and emergency maintenance programs.
• Advanced capability in SAP maintenance management and project-management systems.
• Experience preparing O&M strategies, procedures, budgets, schedules and management reports.
• Sound understanding of contract administration, service-level management and contractor-performance evaluation.
• Strong leadership, commercial awareness, analytical thinking and stakeholder-management capabilities.
• Relevant experience must be supported by verifiable employment records, project references, reports or studies when requested.