Engineering Director

About the Role

Sameer Al-Marzouki Engineering Consultants is seeking an experienced Engineering Director to lead all technical work within the firm, including design, construction supervision, and project management. This full-time position is based in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and requires a professional with over 10 years of experience.

Role Purpose and Authority

The Engineering Director serves as the single technical authority within the office, reporting directly to the CEO. This role is accountable for ensuring technical quality, on-time project delivery, and managing project hours against fees, allowing the CEO to focus on client relations, commercial terms, and strategic initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering department, encompassing Directors of all disciplines, project managers, resident engineers, the BD and Projects Coordination Manager, document control, and the surveyor, along with their respective teams.
• Assign project managers and discipline leads to each project and manage workload distribution across all active projects.
• Ensure technical quality by implementing a rigorous review process for all deliverables (drawings, reports, BOQs, specifications), including discipline checks, cross-discipline coordination checks, and formal release by the Director or a delegated authority, with proper record-keeping.
• Maintain project programs and deliverables lists in Odoo, conduct weekly progress reviews, and present delivery status at weekly project meetings.
• Establish hours budgets for each project based on its fee, track hours via Odoo timesheets, and take proactive measures to prevent project delays or budget overruns.
• Define the technical approach, scope, team, and hours estimate for all proposals, and review each technical proposal before submission to the CEO for pricing and signature.
• Act as the senior technical contact for clients and authorities, attending key design reviews and progress meetings, resolving technical disputes, and escalating commercial issues to the CEO.
• Identify scope changes early and prepare technical justifications for variations and time extensions for the CEO's decision.
• Notify accounting in writing upon the delivery and client acceptance of each project milestone.
• Lead authority approvals for design projects.
• Develop and maintain engineering Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), design checklists, and standard templates.
• Initiate hiring requests, conduct interviews, evaluate probation periods, perform staff reviews, and ensure all engineers maintain valid SCE accreditation at the required grade.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Over 10 years of experience in engineering leadership.
• Proven experience with industrial and logistics facilities (factories, warehouses, cold stores, depots) and commercial buildings.
• In-depth knowledge of the Saudi Building Code and local authority approval processes.
• Experience with project control within an ERP system; familiarity with Odoo is an advantage.

Work Location

This position is based in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.