Design Director - Utility Compounds

Design Director – Utility Compounds (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

Location:

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Industry: Utilities

Function:
Engineering

Job Type: Full-time

General

Experience:

20 years project or design management experience

Salary: 60,000 – 85,000 (estimated)

Gender: Any;
Candidate Nationality:
Any

Design Director – Utility Compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a senior Utilities opportunity with Parsons Corporation for an experienced design management leader who can direct the full design delivery process for substations, switching and control compounds, utility hubs, associated buildings, and supporting infrastructure. The role focuses on design governance, programme coordination, consultant management, schedule control, stakeholder alignment, change management, risk control, BIM coordination, and design readiness for procurement, construction, commissioning, and operations.

The Design Director will lead the management of multidisciplinary design delivery for utility compound projects without acting as the detailed technical designer. This position ensures that design scope, responsibilities, deliverables, interfaces, approvals, information flows, and construction priorities are properly planned and controlled, supporting successful utility infrastructure delivery by connecting design consultants, client requirements, utility owners, authority approvals, BIM processes, commercial teams, HSE reviews, procurement plans, and site implementation needs into a coordinated and traceable design management framework.

• Define and implement design management strategies, design delivery plans, procedures, workflows, and governance controls for utility compound projects.
• Establish the design roadmap covering stage gates, approval milestones, submission requirements, decision points, and project delivery priorities.
• Develop and maintain the design responsibility matrix, clearly defining scope boundaries, interfaces, ownership, deliverables, and accountability across all parties.
• Ensure consistent application of company and client design management standards across substations, switching compounds, control compounds, utility hubs, and associated infrastructure.
• Develop and own the integrated design schedule in coordination with planning, project controls, commercial, and delivery teams.
• Monitor design deliverables against agreed baselines, identify delays or deviations, and lead recovery planning with consultants and internal teams.
• Coordinate with commercial and finance teams to manage design budgets, consultancy fees, internal resources, cost exposure, and design productivity.
• Track and report design progress, progress curves, resource performance, cost versus budget, and critical design risks.
• Lead multidisciplinary design coordination across civil, structural, architectural, MEP, power systems, protection and control, SCADA, utilities, access roads, and site infrastructure.
• Chair design coordination meetings, progress reviews, technical workshops, and interface sessions, ensuring decisions and actions are recorded and closed.
• Align design outputs with construction sequencing, procurement strategy, commissioning needs, operations requirements, and asset handover expectations.
• Coordinate design interfaces between utility compounds and external networks, including transmission systems, distribution networks, access routes, and external utility connections.
• Establish and manage formal design change control processes, including assessment of impacts on scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, and approvals.
• Maintain a design risk register and facilitate risk identification, ownership, mitigation planning, and escalation with design and project teams.
• Ensure approved design changes are properly documented, communicated, incorporated into deliverables, reflected in schedules, and aligned with contract requirements.
• Oversee design review, verification, peer review, constructability review, stage‑gate approval, and technical authority approval processes.
• Coordinate HAZID, HAZOP, operability, maintainability, safety, and constructability reviews with discipline leads, HSE teams, construction teams, and…