Senior Design Manager

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy committed to delivering impactful work that shapes the future. We are a team of over 20,000 experts working across the world in more than 50 countries. We are proud to be part of an ever-changing global industry, delivering transformative work that’s defining our future. It’s our people who power that performance. As an employee-owned business, we invest in creating a space for everyone to feel safe and valued and empowered with the right tools and support. Whether you want to pursue excellence in your specialism or broaden your experience with flexible roles across our business, you’ll be connected to a community of global experts championing you to be your best. Join us and shape your story with Mott MacDonald, where everyone has the opportunity to be brilliant.

About the Role 

The Senior Design Manager will support the planning, coordination, management and delivery of multidisciplinary design activities on major buildings and transport infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia and, where required, across the wider Middle East. 

The role will coordinate multidisciplinary design teams and support the management of design scope, deliverables, interfaces, programme, technical reviews, design changes, risks and approvals, with particular emphasis on detailed-design delivery. 

Working with Principal Design Managers, Project Managers and technical discipline leads, the Senior Design Manager will help ensure that design outputs are appropriately developed, coordinated, technically compliant and delivered in accordance with the agreed scope, programme, budget and quality requirements. 

The role requires a good understanding of multidisciplinary detailed-design processes, engineering codes and standards, design coordination, scope management and technical assurance. The successful candidate will also require the communication, organisational and stakeholder-management skills necessary to operate effectively within the Saudi Arabian project-delivery environment. 

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to: 

• Coordinate multidisciplinary design delivery, working with discipline leads and design teams to achieve the required scope, programme, quality and commercial objectives. 

• Manage the day-to-day coordination of detailed-design activities and packages, ensuring that designs are appropriately developed, integrated and suitable for their intended purpose. 

• Support the management of design scope and change by maintaining clarity of contractual deliverables, assumptions, exclusions and responsibilities, and by identifying potential scope gaps, changes and additional services. 

• Coordinate technical reviews and design-assurance activities, ensuring submissions are reviewed, checked, commented upon and approved in accordance with the project’s agreed procedures. 

• Support compliance with applicable Saudi codes, authority requirements, client standards and relevant international engineering standards. 

• Coordinate multidisciplinary design interfaces, identifying and supporting the resolution of gaps, conflicts, dependencies and coordination issues between disciplines, packages, contractors and third parties. 

• Monitor design progress against deliverables, milestones, programme and resource requirements, and escalate emerging delays or resource constraints to the Principal Design Manager or Project Manager. 

• Maintain and monitor design deliverable schedules, action trackers, interface registers, design-review records and other relevant design-management controls. 

• Support the identification and management of design risks and opportunities, including constructability, safety in design, technical risks, information dependencies and matters requiring timely decisions. 

• Coordinate information required from clients, contractors, consultants, approving authorities and other stakeholders, and monitor its receipt against agreed requirements and dates. 

• Participate in client, contractor, consultant and stakeholder meetings, clearly communicating design issues, actions, dependencies and decisions. 

• Work with discipline leads and technical specialists to resolve multidisciplinary design issues and support the timely closure of technical comments and review actions. 

• Support the preparation of progress reports, design-management reports and presentations relating to design status, deliverables, interfaces, risks, changes and decisions. 

• Apply the organisation’s quality, technical-assurance and project-management procedures, including applicable business management system requirements

Candidate specifications:

• Essential 

  • Bachelor’s degree in civil, structural, mechanical or electrical engineering, architecture, or another relevant engineering or built-environment discipline. 

  • Proven relevant professional experience, including demonstrable experience in design management, design coordination and multidisciplinary design delivery. 

  • Experience coordinating detailed design on buildings, transport or infrastructure projects. 

  • Experience working with multidisciplinary design teams and coordinating inputs across different engineering and built-environment disciplines. 

  • Good understanding of engineering design processes, codes, standards, specifications and technical-review requirements. 

  • Experience coordinating design deliverables, technical submissions, review comments and approvals. 

  • Understanding of design scope management and change control, including the identification of scope gaps, changes and potential additional services. 

  • Experience monitoring design delivery against programme, deliverables, resources and quality requirements. 

  • Good multidisciplinary technical understanding, with the ability to recognise and coordinate interfaces, dependencies and potential conflicts between key engineering and built-environment disciplines. 

  • Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with clients, contractors, consultants, technical teams and project managers. 

  • Ability to organise priorities, monitor actions and support the timely resolution of multidisciplinary design issues. 

  • Experience working within a structured quality and technical-assurance environment. 

  Desirable 

  • Experience delivering multidisciplinary projects in Saudi Arabia or the wider Middle East. 

  • Understanding of the Saudi Arabian project-delivery and authority-approval environment. 

  • Familiarity with relevant Saudi codes, standards and authority requirements, together with applicable international standards. 

  • Chartered or professionally registered status, or demonstrable progress towards professional registration with an appropriate engineering or built-environment institution. 

  • Experience using building information modelling, common data environments and ISO 19650-based information-management processes. 

  • Experience working within a multidisciplinary engineering or built-environment consultancy. 

  • Experience supporting design-and-build or contractor-led detailed-design delivery. 

  • General awareness of FIDIC or comparable forms of contract used on major Middle Eastern projects. 

  • Experience engaging with clients, developers, government organisations, contractors and delivery partners within Saudi Arabia. 

  • Arabic-language capability would be advantageous but is not essential.