Senior Director, Development; Saudi National

A major destination developer in Saudi Arabia is appointing experienced residential development leaders to support the growth of a large-scale residential portfolio.

This is a client-side development role with real influence over product, strategy, positioning, feasibility, and development direction. The portfolio includes villas, townhouses, apartments, and wider residential communities within one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious long term development programmes.

The role is focused on the early and mid-development stages. You will help shape projects from development brief, feasibility, and product definition through design management, approvals, procurement strategy, and delivery readiness.

This is not a pure project management, design, or construction delivery role. It requires a true developer mindset: commercially aware, comfortable challenging assumptions, and able to balance market demand, product strategy, design quality, cost, programme, governance, and long-term value.

You will work closely with internal development, design, commercial, delivery, sales, and governance teams, as well as external consultants and stakeholders. The environment is complex and fast moving, so the successful candidate will need strong judgement, credibility, and the patience to drive progress through multiple internal and external interfaces.

• Lead residential development projects from feasibility through delivery readiness
• Shape product strategy, unit mix, phasing, and development briefs
• Drive feasibility, business planning, and commercial optimisation
• Manage design development, consultant coordination, approvals, and procurement strategy
• Represent the business in senior stakeholder discussions
• Balance market positioning, design, cost, programme, and profitability
• Support improved development processes across the portfolio
• Ensure projects are commercially sound and properly set up for delivery

• Experience across villas, townhouses, apartments, mixed residential communities, or large-scale residential masterplans
• Proven capability in feasibility, product definition, design management, commercial decision making, and stakeholder coordination
• A genuine development management background rather than pure project management, design, consultancy, contractor, or PMC experience
• Ability to work through complex approvals, governance, and multidisciplinary stakeholder environments
• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to challenge product, cost, programme, and design assumptions
• Relevant degree required, with real estate or commercial qualifications considered an advantage

This role would suit a residential development professional who wants to move into a high profile client side environment and help shape communities at a formative stage, rather than simply manage decisions that have already been made.