Design Projects Manager

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Project Portfolio Management & Delivery

• Own end-to-end delivery accountability for all assigned design projects from contract award through design completion, ensuring every milestone, submission, and contractual obligation is met in full.
• Manage a concurrent portfolio of projects across multiple sectors and scales, maintaining clear project health visibility at all times through structured reporting and milestone tracking.
• Assign and direct the work of the Assistant Design Projects Manager across specific projects, calibrating workload to complexity and priority.
• Develop and maintain master project delivery programmes, identifying critical path items, inter-dependency risks, and resource pinch points well in advance of impact.
• Lead project kick-off processes, establishing delivery frameworks, communication protocols, and submission schedules aligned with the contract and client expectations.

B. Contractual Governance & Scope Management

• Serve as the primary contractual interface for all assigned projects — thoroughly understanding the scope of work, deliverable schedules, and obligations defined in each design services agreement.
• Monitor scope boundaries rigorously, identifying and formally processing all scope deviations, change orders, and variation requests in accordance with the contract mechanism and firm policy.
• Maintain a live contractual tracker for each project, documenting all amendments, approvals, extensions of time, and outstanding obligations.
• Ensure that all design submissions are reviewed for scope compliance and completeness prior to issue to the client or authority.
• Manage project closeout processes, ensuring all contractual deliverables are formally accepted, archived, and signed off.

C. Client & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the principal point of contact for clients across the project portfolio — building trusted, long-term relationships with both private developers and government/semi-government entities.
• Lead client meetings, design review workshops, authority coordination sessions, and stakeholder presentations — preparing structured agendas, facilitating productive discussions, and producing formal minutes of meetings.
• Manage client expectations proactively, communicating progress, risks, and decisions with clarity and professionalism at all times.
• Navigate government authority submission and approval processes — including MOMRAH, municipality, and other relevant regulatory bodies — coordinating submission strategies with the technical team.
• Represent the firm at project sites, client offices, and authority counters as required, maintaining the highest standards of professional conduct.

D. Commercial Management & Fee Control

• Own the commercial performance of each assigned project — tracking actual hours consumed against planned fee budgets on a regular basis, and taking corrective action when consumption trends exceed projections.
• Prepare and present regular project financial health reports to the Design Director, highlighting fee burn rates, over-run risks, and commercial exposure.
• Coordinate with the Operations Manager to align production planning with fee budget availability, ensuring that design team deployment is commercially justified.
• Manage the identification, appointment, and contractual engagement of sub-consultants and specialist advisors on a project-by-project basis — covering disciplines or scopes that fall outside the firm's core services, or are engaged to manage production capacity constraints.
• Prepare sub-consultant scope briefs, evaluate proposals, negotiate fees, and administer sub-consultant agreements throughout the project lifecycle.
• Track sub-consultant deliverable schedules and fee drawdowns, ensuring alignment with the master project programme and the client contract.

E. Internal Coordination with Operations

• Work in close and structured collaboration with the Operations Manager to ensure design team resourcing, production scheduling, and delivery timelines are fully aligned across all active projects.
• Communicate client priorities, scope changes, and submission schedule updates to the Operations Manager promptly to enable agile production planning.
• Participate in regular operations and project management coordination meetings, contributing portfolio-level visibility and flagging cross-project resource conflicts.
• Escalate unresolved delivery risks or inter-disciplinary coordination issues to the Design Director with clear problem statements and proposed resolution paths.

F. Team Leadership & Development

• Provide day-to-day direction, mentorship, and performance guidance to the Assistant Design Projects Manager and Document Controller.
• Foster a high-performance project management culture within the team — promoting accountability, precision in documentation, and proactive client service.
• Support the professional development of the Assistant Design Projects Manager, progressively delegating responsibility commensurate with demonstrated capability.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of project management processes, templates, and tools within the firm.

G. Documentation & Reporting

• Oversee the document control function, ensuring all project correspondence, submissions, approvals, RFI/RFA logs, and transmittals are managed and archived to firm standards.
• Prepare executive-level project status reports and portfolio dashboards for the Design Director on a cadence aligned with firm governance requirements.
• Ensure comprehensive and audit-ready project files are maintained throughout the project lifecycle and formally closed out upon completion.

3. QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Architecture (strongly preferred) or a relevant Engineering discipline from an accredited university.
• A postgraduate qualification in Project Management (PMP, MSc Project Management, or equivalent) is highly desirable and will be given preference.
• Additional certifications in contract management, BIM management, or design management are advantageous.

Professional Accreditation

• Valid registration with the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) is required. Candidates currently based outside the Kingdom must demonstrate full eligibility to obtain SCE registration and the appropriate KSA professional work visa upon appointment.
• Additional professional memberships (e.g., RIBA, AIA, PMP/PMI, RICS) are a competitive advantage.

Experience

• 12 to 15 years of progressive experience in architectural, engineering, or multi-disciplinary design project management.
• Demonstrated track record of independently managing multiple concurrent projects across diverse sectors including Residential, Commercial, Hospitality, Government & Civic, Mixed-Use, and Infrastructure.
• Proven experience managing both private-sector developer clients and government/semi-government clients (e.g., PIF-related entities, Royal Commissions, government ministries, semi-government authorities) in the Saudi or GCC market.
• Hands-on experience in sub-consultant procurement, scope management, contract administration, and fee control within a design consultancy environment.
• Minimum 5 years of experience working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the wider GCC design market is strongly preferred.

Language

• Professional proficiency in English — written and spoken — is mandatory.
• Arabic language proficiency (written and spoken) is a strong advantage, particularly for government client engagement and authority submission processes.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES & SOFTWARE

The Design Projects Manager is not expected to produce design drawings or documentation. The following technical literacy is required to effectively govern project environments, review deliverables, and communicate with design teams and clients:

• Autodesk AutoCAD, Revit — ability to navigate, review, and interrogate design files without production-level proficiency. Design Software Literacy:
• Autodesk BIM 360 / Autodesk Construction Cloud — document control, issue tracking, model coordination review, and submission management. BIM & Document Management:
• Familiarity with scope matrix development, sub-consultant brief preparation, and RFI/RFA management. Sub-consultant & Scope Tools:
• Proficiency in MS Project or equivalent scheduling software for programme development and milestone management. Project Scheduling:
• Advanced MS Excel for fee burn tracking, resource planning, and project financial dashboards. Commercial Tracking:
• MS Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) to an advanced professional standard. Reporting & Presentation:
• MS Teams, SharePoint, or equivalent digital project collaboration environments. Collaboration Platforms: