Director: Public Realms (SME)

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Job Description:

**Join a Landmark Giga-Project Shaping the Future of Saudi Arabia**

Our client is delivering one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious and high-profile giga-projects, set to redefine global standards in destination development, innovation, and visitor experience. As part of the integrated Delivery Partner team, you will play a key role in planning, designing, and implementing world-class assets and infrastructure that support the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a pioneering program at scale, working alongside industry-leading experts, cutting-edge technologies, and diverse stakeholders. If you are driven by challenge, motivated by impact, and eager to be part of a legacy project that will influence generations to come, we invite you to consider joining this transformative journey.

The Director for Public Realm is the senior technical and operational authority responsible for the long-term upkeep, landscape architecture, and experiential quality of all outdoor public spaces across the client’s giga-project or master-planned city.

You will lead all areas outside the footprint of private buildings: major public parks, pedestrian promenades, urban plazas, streetscapes, water features, pocket parks, green corridors, and open-air entertainment boulevards. While construction teams deliver these assets, the Director operates as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) to ensure they remain pristine, structurally sound, safe, and highly functional for residents and millions of annual visitors.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Technical Asset Management & Maintenance

• Landscape Infrastructure Management

  • Oversee the health, irrigation, and agronomic performance of large-scale softscape assets, including trees, turf, shrubs, and groundcovers.
  • Ensure planting strategies and species selection are suitable for local climate conditions and long-term resilience, particularly in harsh or arid environments.
  • Develop and supervise landscape maintenance regimes, seasonal planting programs, and arboriculture standards.

• Hardscape Integrity & Public Realm Structures

  • Manage the long-term preventative maintenance of hardscape assets, including premium paving, outdoor tiles, plazas, stairways, ramps, shading structures, pergolas, urban furniture, and monuments.
  • Implement inspection and maintenance programs to preserve structural integrity, slip resistance, accessibility, and aesthetic quality.
  • Coordinate repairs, refurbishments, and material replacements with Facilities Management and specialist contractors.

• Water Features & Aquatic Systems Operations

  • Act as the technical authority for decorative and functional water assets: fountains, cascades, man-made lakes, canals, reflection pools, and associated water-treatment and filtration systems.
  • Ensure water features meet safety, hygiene, and regulatory standards and operate efficiently with minimal wastage.
  • Oversee pumping, filtration, lighting, and control systems, including periodic shutdowns and deep maintenance.

2. Operations-Led Design Review & Vesting

• Construction Handover (Vesting)

  • Evaluate completed public realm areas delivered by contractors, undertaking rigorous technical and aesthetic inspections prior to formal acceptance.
  • Verify compliance with design intent, safety codes, accessibility standards, and brand/experience benchmarks.
  • Issue technical acceptance reports, snag lists, and vesting certificates in coordination with Estate Vesting & Design teams.

• Asset Lifecycle & Design Input

  • Review early-stage master plans and detailed designs to ensure that chosen materials, plant palettes, and design typologies are operationally sustainable and cost-effective over the asset lifecycle.
  • Identify design risks that could generate excessive maintenance, water consumption, or safety issues, and recommend alternatives.
  • Collaborate with planners, architects, and landscape designers to embed maintainability, durability, and user comfort into all public realm schemes.

3. Environmental Sustainability & Smart City Systems

• Irrigation Efficiency & Water Stewardship

  • Manage smart, automated irrigation systems, including those utilizing Treated Sewage Effluent and other water-reuse technologies.
  • Optimize irrigation schedules and technologies to reduce consumption and minimize the project’s environmental footprint.
  • Coordinate with environmental and utility teams on water demand planning and sustainability strategies.

• Public Realm Smart Technologies

  • Work with smart city and technology teams to deploy IoT-enabled public assets such as smart waste bins, automated lighting, environmental sensors (air quality, temperature, noise), and occupancy counters.
  • Integrate data from smart systems into operational dashboards to enhance maintenance planning and visitor experience.

• Waste, Cleansing & Presentation Standards

  • Set operational frameworks for high-frequency public cleansing, pressure washing, litter collection, and waste segregation across plazas, promenades, and event corridors.
  • Define standards for cleanliness, response times, and presentation in high-footfall and flagship areas.
  • Coordinate with waste management contractors and municipal partners to maintain consistently high public realm standards.

Qualifications & Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Architecture, Environmental Design or related field.
• A master’s degree preferred.

Professional Certifications

• Professional registration or accreditation in landscape architecture, architecture, or urban design.
• Additional credentials in sustainability, public realm management, or facilities/asset management are an advantage.

Experience

• Minimum 20 years of progressive experience in large-scale public realm, landscape, or urban design projects, preferably within mega-developments or complex mixed-use communities.
• Extensive experience in operations and maintenance of public parks, streetscapes, and water features, not only in design and construction.
• Proven track record in managing large operational budgets, multiple vendors, and complex outdoor asset portfolios.
• Demonstrated experience in integrating sustainability and smart technologies into public realm operations.

Parsons equally employs representation at all job levels no matter the race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!

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