Programme Director, Airport Transformation

Key responsibilities

• Define and communicate program vision, objectives and roadmap
• Ensure alignment with organisational strategy and business outcomes
• Provide leadership to program managers, project managers and cross-functional teams
• Establish program governance structures, reporting frameworks and decision-making protocols
• Monitor program performance against KPIs, budget and risk tolerances
• Report progress, risks and issues to the Executive Sponsor and Steering Committee
• Manage senior stakeholders, vendors and partners
• Build strong relationships across the organisation to enable collaboration
• Ensure transparent communication and timely escalation of issues
• Develop and manage the program budget
• Ensure optimal resource allocation and utilisation across projects
• Drive cost optimisation and value realisation
• Proactively identify, manage and mitigate program risks and issues
• Ensure adherence to compliance, regulatory and quality standards
• Champion continuous improvement in delivery practices
• Ensure delivery of agreed business benefits and value
• Monitor performance against benefit realisation plans
• Drive adoption and transition to BAU operations

• Managing the team across a broad portfolio of accounts and projects
• Defining and implementing standards and processes for project execution
• Successfully implementing recovery for project crisis situations
• Conducting timely, fair and accurate project reviews
• Building strong relationships with both clients and all parts of the business
• Supporting new business teams
• Representing delivery at a management level
• Seeking to maximise revenue and margin across multiple projects and accounts
• Holding responsibility for the quality of project deliverables and communications

This is a residential role based in Riyadh with the rhythm and intensity a programme of this scale demands.

Compensation is benchmarked at the top of the global market for this calibre of executive.

• 15 years leading mega-programmes with at least one full lifecycle delivery of an airport transformation at international hub scale (Heathrow, Changi, Hamad, Istanbul, Hong Kong, the GCC new-builds, or peer)
• Demonstrable command of the airport operating model including airside, landside, terminal ops, passenger flow, baggage handling, AODB, common-use platforms, security and border integration
• Comfortable in a multicultural delivery environment; GCC or KSA experience is a strong plus but not mandatory
• Executive presence to hold the room with Saudi senior leadership, global contractors and consortium partners often in the same week

NOTE We are explicitly not looking for airline programme leaders. The operating logic of an airport is different and we need someone fluent in it from day one.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, IT, Engineering or related field
• Postgraduate qualification desirable
• 12 years of experience in project/program management with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles
• Proven track record of delivering complex multi-year transformation programmes
• Certification in programme/project management methodologies e.g. MSP, PgMP, PRINCE2, PMP, Agile
• Experience working in large-scale multi-vendor environments

• Strong leadership, negotiation and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to lead large complex programmes with multiple dependencies
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and influencing skills across all organisational levels
• Financial acumen and experience managing multi-million-dollar budgets
• Knowledge of programme governance, risk management and PMO frameworks