Senior Technical Director – Property & Buildings

Role Overview

Senior Technical Director – Property & Buildings at WSP in the Middle East, based in Riyadh. This is a highly visible, client-facing appointment for an internationally experienced Property & Buildings professional with a strong technical background in architecture, building structures or building services.

Company Overview

WSP is a global professional services firm with more than 69,000 employees working across multiple disciplines and markets. The company operates a regional presence in the Middle East with a global network of specialists supporting Property & Buildings services.

Role Purpose

Provide senior oversight of selected projects and client relationships within WSP's Property & Buildings portfolio. Represent the combined building engineering design capabilities to clients as one coordinated business. Combine client influence, multidisciplinary oversight and direct project leadership while leading selected prospects and maintaining active involvement in project delivery within your own professional discipline.

Key Responsibilities

Client & Business Development

• Represent the full breadth of WSP's Property & Buildings capabilities with assigned clients, including core design disciplines and wider specialist and advisory services.
• Build trusted relationships with existing and prospective clients, including developers, asset owners, government entities, architects, and project managers.
• Lead selected prospects from early positioning and capture planning through proposal, client presentation, negotiation, and project mobilisation.
• Take an active role in work winning and shaping integrated solutions.
• Lead the development of compelling technical approaches, scopes, delivery strategies, and fee proposals.
• Represent WSP confidently at client meetings, industry events and professional forums, strengthening the company profile and identifying new opportunities.

Client Relationship Management

• Act as a senior adviser and point of escalation, understanding the client's wider priorities and ensuring WSP provides a coordinated response across all relevant services.
• Maintain and strengthen client confidence in WSP through clear communication, consistent engagement, and timely resolution of concerns.
• Maintain a direct relationship with the client throughout delivery, ensuring that expectations, risks, opportunities, and technical decisions are effectively managed.

Property & Buildings Oversight

• Provide senior oversight of Property & Buildings services involved in selected projects and priority client engagements.
• Bring together the relevant discipline and specialist leads to ensure that WSP's services are coordinated, aligned and responsive to the client's objectives.
• Maintain oversight of project health, including client confidence, quality, multidisciplinary coordination, scope, programme, resources, commercial performance and risk.
• Identify technical, contractual, commercial, delivery and relationship risks early and ensure appropriate mitigation or recovery actions are implemented.
• Establish clear accountability across disciplines while drawing on the appropriate technical authorities for each service.
• Ensure WSP communicates consistently with the client and that important decisions, risks and actions are clearly understood across the project team.

Direct Project Delivery

• Lead and deliver selected complex or major projects within your own professional discipline.
• Take responsibility for the technical quality, coordination, scope, programme, resources, fee, and performance of the assigned discipline.
• Provide authoritative technical direction, lead key design reviews and resolve complex discipline-specific and multidisciplinary interfaces.

People & Capability Development

• Provide people leadership for assigned employees and project teams, including performance, workload, coaching and career development.
• Encourage strong collaboration across Property & Buildings disciplines and specialist services.
• Support the development of Saudi national talent.
• Connect teams with WSP's regional and global expertise, bringing the best available capability to clients and projects.

Qualifications & Experience

• Western education in architecture, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering.
• Approximately 20 years of relevant experience, with substantial experience in the design and delivery of major or complex Property & Buildings projects.
• Experience within a leading international or multidisciplinary consultancy, with exposure to projects and clients across different markets.
• Strong understanding of multidisciplinary building design and the ability to bring different disciplines together around the client's objectives.
• A proven ability to develop senior client relationships, lead prospects and take an active role in work winning.
• A strong client-facing record, with the presence and judgement required to represent WSP, manage sensitive issues and maintain client confidence.
• GCC experience and an established regional client network would be advantageous, with Saudi Arabian experience particularly valuable.

Skills & Competencies

• Excellent professional English communication, presentation, negotiation and influencing skills.