Senior Manager - Geotechnical

Job Snapshot

Senior Manager – Geotechnical

Location:

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Industry: Transportation – Trucking – Railroad

Function:
Geo‑technical

Experience:

15 years in geotechnical engineering for major transportation and rail projects

Job Type: Full‑time

• Country:
  Saudi Arabia
• City:
  Riyadh
• Salary: 48,000 – 68,000 SAR (estimated; confirm with employer)
• Gender: Any
• Candidate Nationality:
  Any

The Senior Manager – Geotechnical is a client‑facing senior leadership role that oversees technical assurance, ground investigation strategy, geotechnical design, construction support, and risk governance across major rail and transportation infrastructure programmes. The focus is on ensuring consultants and contractors deliver safe, compliant, constructible, and technically robust ground engineering solutions aligned with employer requirements, rail standards, authority expectations, and program delivery objectives.

The position provides program‑level technical leadership within a PMC contract covering rail, metro, light rail, heavy rail, and high‑speed infrastructure. Responsibilities include managing ground investigation quality, validating geotechnical design assumptions, coordinating interfaces with civil, structural, track, drainage, utilities, and rail systems teams, and reducing delivery exposure related to settlement, slope instability, groundwater, deep excavations, tunnels, foundations, and unexpected ground conditions.

• Act as the primary technical focal point for geotechnical and ground engineering matters across the transportation and rail programme.
• Represent the client in technical workshops, design reviews, risk meetings, coordination sessions, authority discussions, and independent review forums.
• Interpret and communicate client requirements, design criteria, rail‑specific geotechnical standards, and ground engineering expectations to consultants, contractors, and delivery partners.
• Provide independent technical advice to client leadership on geotechnical risks, design issues, construction constraints, cost impact, schedule exposure, and safety implications.
• Lead the development and review of project‑wide ground investigation strategies tailored to major rail and transportation infrastructure assets.
• Review site investigation scopes, including borehole locations, in‑situ testing, sampling plans, laboratory testing, groundwater monitoring, instrumentation, and reporting requirements.
• Oversee ground investigation execution and reporting by consultants and contractors to ensure data quality, sufficient coverage, technical relevance, and usefulness for design and risk assessment.
• Maintain clear documentation of baseline ground conditions, geotechnical uncertainties, risk allowances, and potential unforeseen ground conditions.
• Manage geotechnical design across all project stages for rail embankments, cuttings, formations, subgrades, bridges, viaducts, stations, depots, masts, noise barriers, tunnels, shafts, cut‑and‑cover structures, deep excavations, retaining walls, foundations, ground improvement, slope stabilization, and ground‑structure interaction.
• Review geotechnical design reports, analysis models, calculations, drawings, technical notes, monitoring proposals, and design assumptions for compliance with employer requirements, local codes, rail standards, authority regulations, and international best practices.
• Chair or participate in geotechnical design reviews, peer reviews, value‑engineering workshops, and constructability sessions.
• Promote safe, durable, practical, and cost‑effective geotechnical solutions while maintaining technical integrity and client interests.
• Ensure geotechnical and earthworks requirements are captured, traced, verified, validated, and closed out through structured requirements‑management processes.
• Oversee technical assurance for geotechnical deliverables, including independent checks, verification activities, design review records, and formal technical approvals.
• Coordinate geotechnical interfaces with civil design, structural design, foundations, abutments, retaining structures, tunnels, track alignment, formation levels, trackbed…