Director Urban Realm and Landscape Hospitality📣 إعلان

About the Role

Qiddiya Investment Company is developing a landmark destination that redefines entertainment, culture, and hospitality in the Kingdom. The Hospitality Business Unit is seeking an experienced Director - Urban Realm and Landscape to lead the design agenda across its portfolio of hotel assets. This role is crucial for delivering these assets to the highest standards of design quality, guest experience, and commercial performance.

Role Overview

In this position, you will be responsible for defining the urban realm and landscape design for the hospitality portfolio. This includes shaping landscape narratives, arrival experiences, and external spaces across all hotel tiers. The objective is to create distinctive and experiential outdoor environments that align with Qiddiya’s vision, ensuring seamless connectivity and integration across ground planes and adjacent zones. The role is based in Riyadh, Riyadh Province, and is a full-time position requiring over 10 years of experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the creative definition of urban realm and landscape for hospitality environments from brief to approved design direction, ensuring distinctive, emotive, and commercially viable external spaces.
• Develop compelling narratives, visuals, and presentations to secure alignment and timely outcomes across governance stages.
• Define urban realm and landscape principles, planting strategies, material palettes, and signature elements for each hotel tier, establishing consistent design baselines.
• Oversee consultant briefing and scope definition, validating design scope and specialist inputs against development briefs, design intent, and Operator standards.
• Govern visualization and design communication strategies to ensure clear articulation of concepts aligned with narratives and stakeholder expectations.
• Lead and govern landscape and specialist consultants, overseeing their appointment, scope, deliverables, performance, quality, and creative alignment.
• Provide functional governance to project-embedded design management teams, reviewing and endorsing urban realm and landscape deliverables.
• Lead structured reviews of design submissions across key milestones, providing clear feedback and endorsement.
• Provide technical input to development briefs and coordinate across disciplines to embed cohesive external environments.
• Drive integration across architecture, interiors, and masterplanning to ensure seamless connectivity between ground planes and zones.
• Oversee landscape FF&E and OS&E strategies, ensuring alignment with design intent and commercial requirements.
• Lead mock-ups and prototyping for planting and materials, ensuring quality through to landscape freeze.
• Provide creative and technical design oversight through design and construction, resolving interfaces and deviations.
• Guide value engineering and design optimization, balancing design intent with performance, guest experience, cost, and operational requirements.
• Champion innovation in guest experience, materials, and sensory design, embedding ESG and Vision 2030 priorities.
• Mentor teams and drive continuous improvement of design processes, standards, and best practices.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, or a related discipline.
• Professional membership or recognized certification is preferred (*, CMLI, ASLA, or equivalent).
• A minimum of 10 years of experience is required, with 15+ years preferred in design management, architecture, or interior design.

Required Skills and Attributes

• Strong landscape and urban realm design literacy, with the ability to operate from masterplan scale to detailed external environments.
• Deep understanding of hospitality outdoor design, including arrival sequences, spatial flow, planting strategies, materials, and external guest experience.
• Strong creative and spatial thinking, with the ability to translate landscape narratives into compelling concepts and coordinated design outputs.
• Proven ability to manage landscape consultants and influence design outcomes across multiple disciplines.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to articulate landscape intent to secure alignment and drive decision-making.
• Commercial awareness of landscape construction, FF&E budgets, program constraints, and value engineering impacts.
• Good understanding of climate-responsive design, planting, irrigation, and environmental systems relevant to KSA/GCC contexts.
• Proficiency in design and coordination tools such as AutoCAD, Rhino, Adobe CC, and BIM/CDE platforms.

Preferred Background

• Experience in a senior landscape or urban realm leadership role (Design Director, Principal, or equivalent) within a design practice or developer environment.
• Proven track record delivering hospitality or resort landscape environments from concept through construction.
• Experience managing external landscape consultants and specialist sub-consultants (*, water features, lighting).
• Experience working across multi-disciplinary teams, integrating architecture, interiors, and masterplanning.
• Experience developing and delivering landscape mock-ups, prototyping, and material validation.
• Strong experience presenting landscape concepts and external environment strategies to senior stakeholders.
• Experience working with hospitality Operators and understanding external amenity requirements.
• Experience in KSA/GCC or similar large-scale development environments is preferred.