Road Highways Director

Overview

The Market Director – Roads & Highways is a senior leadership role responsible for driving market strategy, business growth, client engagement, and portfolio performance across the Middle East region. This role oversees market development, strategic pursuits, key account leadership, and coordination with technical delivery teams to expand the firm's presence in transportation infrastructure—particularly roads, expressways, interchanges, and highways.

The ideal candidate is a market-facing leader with strong regional connections, proven business development acumen, understanding of government procurement frameworks, and deep technical knowledge of road and highway design, engineering, project management, and construction supervision services.

Your role

Market Strategy & Growth

• Develop and execute the regional roads and highways market strategy, aligned with corporate goals.
• Identify emerging market opportunities across GCC and wider Middle East (e.g., Saudi Arabia's giga-projects and Royal Commissions, UAE mobility initiatives, Qatar expressway upgrades, Oman transport development programs etc.).
• Drive annual business growth targets, market positioning initiatives, and competitive differentiation.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement

• Lead client relationship management for Ministries of Transport, Public Works Authorities, Royal Commissions, PPP authorities, transport regulators etc., and major private-sector developers, including design-build contractors.
• Act as the primary executive sponsor for key accounts.
• Represent the company at industry forums, government meetings, and transport sector conferences.

Business Development & Pursuit Leadership

• Lead major pursuits and proposal strategies, ensuring high-quality, competitive submissions.
• Oversee bid-no-bid decisions, capture planning, pricing strategies, and partnership models (JV, consortiums, subcontracting).
• Develop and maintain a robust opportunity pipeline using CRM tools.

Operational & Delivery Alignment

• Collaborate with design, engineering, project management, and construction supervision teams to ensure successful delivery.
• Support resource planning and talent acquisition to meet project and market needs.
• Monitor project performance and drive client satisfaction initiatives.

Financial & Commercial Accountability

• Own the market P&L, sales forecasts, and project margin performance.
• Evaluate commercial risks, contractual terms, and compliance with regional regulations.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Provide leadership to multidisciplinary teams across the region.
• Mentor emerging market leaders and contribute to capability development.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and high performance.

About you

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering or related field (mandatory).
• Master's degree in Transportation Engineering, MBA, or related discipline (preferred).
• Professional registration (e.g., PE, CEng, PMP, or equivalent) is an advantage.

Experience

• 25+ years of experience in roads, highways, or transportation engineering.
• Minimum 8–10 years in senior business development, market leadership, or client-facing roles in the Middle East.
• Proven track record in winning and delivering large-scale infrastructure projects (expressways, interchanges, corridors, mobility programs, PPP/DB/DBO models).
• Strong network across GCC ministries, public works authorities, consultants, EPC contractors, and developers.

Technical & Market Skills

Deep knowledge of:

• Highway geometric design.
• Traffic and transport planning.
• Pavement design and asset management.
• Construction supervision frameworks.
• Regional procurement and tendering processes (FIDIC, RFPs, PQs).
• Understanding of smart mobility trends (ITS, connected corridors, sustainable transport).

Leadership & Business Skills

• Strategic thinking, long-term planning, and market visioning.
• Excellent negotiation, influencing, and stakeholder management.
• Strong financial acumen (forecasting, pricing, margin analysis).
• Experience leading regional/cross-country teams.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Other Requirements

• Willingness to travel across GCC and Middle East as needed.
• Arabic language skills are a plus.
• Existing client relationships in KSA, UAE, Qatar, Oman, strongly preferred.

Rewards & benefits

Explore the rewards and benefits that help you thrive – at every stage of your life and your career.

This includes:

• Tax-free salary.
• Life insurance coverage.
• Medical insurance.
• Annual leave balance.
• Company gratuity scheme.
• Discretionary bonus program.
• Annual flight contribution.
• Transportation & housing allowances.
• Employee Wellbeing Program: 24/7 access to specialists in finance, legal matters, family care, personal health, fitness, and nutrition.

About AtkinsRéalis

We're AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. We connect people, data and technology to transform the world's'infrastructure and energy systems. Together, with our industry partners and clients, and our global team of consultants, designers, engineers and project managers, we can change the world. We're committed to leading our clients across our various end markets to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.