Senior Fire & Life Safety Lead - MEP Design & Masterplanning

Parsons; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 312,000 - 502,000; Full time

Job summary

Parsons is hiring a Fire and Life Safety Manager - MEP Design in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. You will lead fire engineering across masterplans, infrastructure and major assets, providing technical assurance, design review and advisory services, ensuring compliance with Saudi Building Code and NFPA standards.

Ideal candidates bring at least ten years of fire and life safety experience, masterplanning exposure, and strong leadership to mentor teams and coordinate with architecture and MEP disciplines.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Fire Engineering is preferred.
• A degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline may also be considered.
• Minimum ten years of fire and life safety engineering and design experience.
• Background supporting major mixed-use, infrastructure, hospitality, entertainment, transportation, or giga-project developments.
• Experience covering masterplanning, concept design, schematic design, detailed design, and construction support.
• Strong expertise in egress, smoke management, firefighting access, fire-water infrastructure, alarms, suppression, and passive protection.
• Practical experience developing performance-based fire-engineering solutions.
• Knowledge of smoke modeling, evacuation analysis, and alternative code-compliance methods.
• Detailed understanding of Saudi Building Code and Saudi Civil Defence requirements.
• Strong working knowledge of NFPA, International Building Code, and International Fire Code requirements.
• Experience coordinating lead design consultants, specialist fire consultants, contractors, authorities, and multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to review and challenge technically complex or high-profile design proposals.
• Excellent report-writing, presentation, stakeholder-management, and verbal communication skills.
• Previous GCC or giga-project experience is highly desirable.
• Membership of the Institution of Fire Engineers or an equivalent professional body is advantageous.
• Chartered Engineer status or equivalent professional registration is preferred.
• Certified Fire Protection Specialist or relevant NFPA certification would be beneficial.
• Performance-based fire engineering, CFD modeling, or smoke-control training is desirable.
• PMP or an equivalent project-management certification would support multidisciplinary coordination duties.

Responsibilities

• Develop and assure fire and life safety strategies for buildings, infrastructure, public-realm areas, transport interfaces, and masterplanned developments.
• Serve as a senior engineering authority on code compliance, life-safety risk, design adequacy, and constructability.
• Review fire-engineering drawings, reports, calculations, specifications, and supporting design submissions.
• Challenge incomplete or unsuitable proposals and ensure that technical concerns are resolved early.
• Develop and assess solutions for complex, unusual, or performance-based designs.
• Review means of egress, occupant evacuation, compartmentation, and emergency-response strategies.
• Evaluate smoke-control and smoke-management arrangements.
• Assess firefighting access, fire-service facilities, and emergency-vehicle provisions.
• Advise project teams on Saudi Building Code and Saudi Civil Defence requirements.
• Guide the application of NFPA standards, International Building Code, International Fire Code, and recognized fire-engineering practices.
• Assess alternative solutions and confirm that supporting engineering evidence is suitable.
• Coordinate requirements with architecture, MEP, infrastructure, mobility, operations, and delivery teams.
• Ensure fire and life safety provisions are integrated into the design rather than addressed as late-stage comments.
• Support authority engagement, approval meetings, and third-party technical reviews.
• Prepare clear engineering positions and responses to regulator or reviewer comments.
• Defend compliant design intent using calculations, standards, and risk-based evidence.
• Review fire-detection, alarm, sprinkler, suppression, and emergency-control systems.
• Assess smoke-management equipment, fire-water networks, hydrants, pumps, and storage requirements.
• Review passive fire protection, fire resistance, compartmentation, and penetration-sealing provisions.
• Identify non-compliances, approval obstacles, coordination risks, and program threats.
• Recommend practical mitigation measures that protect safety, compliance, and delivery schedules.
• Lead technical workshops, peer reviews, and multidisciplinary design-coordination sessions.
• Record decisions, allocate actions, and monitor technical issues through closure.
• Develop program-wide fire and life safety standards, guidelines, review procedures, and templates.
• Capture lessons learned and apply them to subsequent designs and project packages.
• Mentor junior engineers and support consistent technical judgement across the wider team.
• Perform quality reviews of critical fire-engineering deliverables.

Skills

Fire and life safety engineering

Performance-based fire design

Prescriptive code compliance

Fire-strategy development

Means-of-egress analysis

Evacuation modeling

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Fire Engineering

Degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

Tools

CFD modeling

Job description

Parsons is hiring a Fire and Life Safety Manager - MEP Design in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. You will lead fire engineering across masterplans, infrastructure and major assets, providing technical assurance, design review and advisory services, ensuring compliance with Saudi Building Code and NFPA standards.

Ideal candidates bring at least ten years of fire and life safety experience, masterplanning exposure, and strong leadership to mentor teams and coordinate with architecture and MEP disciplines.