Associate Director MEP (Buildings)

About Mace Group

Mace Group combines construction expertise with consultancy to enhance projects and redefine ambition. The company's values guide its consultancy approach and define the professionals sought to join its teams. This role is part of a major mixed-use development program in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which includes sports facilities, entertainment, arts, and associated infrastructure. Mace Group acts as a delivery partner, seeking experienced professionals to lead integrated teams across all project phases.

The Role: Associate Director MEP (Buildings)

The Associate Director MEP (Buildings) will manage MEP technical excellence within the commercial offices business unit, converting vision into investment-ready assets. This full-time position involves providing specialist design assurance, coordinating multidisciplinary consultants, and ensuring compliance, sustainability, and smart building outcomes. The role also focuses on optimizing value, managing performance, and supporting stakeholder approvals from concept through to construction-ready delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Champion safety, ensuring compliance with HSE standards and fostering a positive safety culture.
• Manage end-to-end project delivery, maintaining quality systems and supporting senior leaders to achieve program milestones.
• Oversee budgets, risks, and ethical governance to contribute to long-term business sustainability.
• Lead collaborative project teams, driving performance, stakeholder engagement, and innovation across all project phases.
• Provide MEP leadership to design teams, managing designs and coordinating technical, procurement, commercial, risk, and opportunities across MEP systems and interfaces.
• Support design teams in undertaking technical design reviews to ensure compliance with project requirements, strategy, and briefs.
• Coordinate with external consultants through design stages, ensuring conformity to project objectives and providing recommendations.
• Review outputs of design consultants, including documentation, for compliance with project requirements.
• Manage coordination between development, delivery, construction, consultants, contractors, and authorities to identify design risks and propose mitigating strategies.
• Ensure design and development teams maintain strict compliance with industry standards, codes, regulations, and COBU design guidelines.
• Assess consultant and contractor MEP submittals for conformity to specifications, processes, and procedures.
• Manage functional MEP review and reporting on the progress of design/engineering deliverables based on agreed milestones.
• Act as the MEP technical liaison for design matters related to contracting, procurement, and requisitions.

Qualifications and Experience

• 10-15+ years of MEP management experience, including senior design leadership on large-scale commercial office or mixed-use developments.
• Demonstrated experience in leading a design team to deliver projects on program, balancing competing requirements such as cost, time, and quality.
• Expert knowledge of local and international design standards, codes, and regulations.
• Previous experience in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East is preferred.
• Track record of delivering BCO Grade A/investment-grade office towers or business park products from concept through to handover.
• Strong command of design review processes, authority approval pathways, and international best practices in commercial office design.
• Experience managing multi-disciplinary international consultant teams (architecture, structure, MEP, facade, sustainability).
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive presentation skills, with comfort operating in a fast-paced, giga-project delivery environment.
• Experience in major program management, including handling multiple projects, conflicting priorities, and diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to support teams through periods of business change.
• Strategic oversight and guidance in managing and prioritizing workload, with an ability to optimize workload under deadline pressure.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills in English, capable of articulating ideas, strategies, and project performance to various audiences and influencing at senior levels.
• In-depth knowledge of enterprise-level digital design solutions and applications.
• Strong leadership skills to inspire diverse teams and deliver results.
• Strategic thinker with excellent leadership skills and the ability to guide the function's direction, endorsing or opposing practices as needed.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, working on one of the largest programs in Saudi Arabia. The role requires leading integrated teams across various project phases within a dynamic environment.