Associate Director Building Services (Mechanical)

About the Role

WSP in the Middle East is seeking a Specialist – Mechanical – Metro stations to join our team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves owning the end-to-end mechanical station fit-out design for rail, metro, and train stations. The successful candidate will manage projects through concept, schematic, detailed/IFC, tender, and construction support phases.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead station HVAC & ventilation design for underground, at-grade, and elevated stations, including cooling/heating load estimates, plant sizing (chilled water/DX/VRF), AHU/FAHU/FCU selection, filtration strategy, and ventilation/pressurization of platforms, concourses, back-of-house, and plantrooms.
• Engineer smoke control & TVS systems, covering fan, shaft, and damper sizing/arrangement; platform & concourse smoke layer management; stair & lift lobby pressurization; PSD heat load coordination; and emergency modes and control logic.
• Manage technical room cooling & resilience, including N+1 redundancy and environmental control for S&T/relay/SCADA/UPS rooms, communications, and data spaces, along with thermal runaway risk checks and alarm set-points.
• Apply high-ambient design principles such as equipment derating, coil selections, corrosion mitigation, airside economizer feasibility, sand-ingress protection, and acoustic and indoor air-quality criteria.
• Oversee digital delivery, including Revit/AutoCAD & Navisworks BIM coordination, clash prevention, interface matrices, structured model reviews, and information exchange (BEP compliance).
• Prepare calculations & deliverables, including Basis-of-Design, detailed calculations, P&IDs/schematics, control sequences, layouts/sections/details, equipment schedules, specifications/BOQs, and performance ERs.
• Conduct analysis & verification, utilizing CFD/FDS for smoke and comfort, SES or equivalent for tunnel/station ventilation where applicable, and participate in egress and fire strategy interface workshops.
• Manage approvals & stakeholders, including KSA authority submissions, multidisciplinary design reviews, value engineering, and risk registers.
• Provide construction support, responding to RFIs, reviewing vendor submittals, witnessing FAT/SAT, and supporting T&C and seasonal commissioning.
• Contribute to team leadership by mentoring engineers/designers, planning workloads, performing QA/QC on deliverables, and contributing to proposals/level-of-effort.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in mechanical design for metro stations.
• Demonstrated experience in HVAC, environmental control, smoke control/TVS, stairwell/room pressurization, cooling of technical spaces, and integration with BMS/SCADA.
• Proficiency in digital delivery tools such as Revit/AutoCAD and Navisworks for BIM coordination.

Preferred Attributes

• Experience with district cooling interface design and energy modelling/optimization for high-ambient climates.
• Familiarity with tunnel ventilation interactions and evacuation scenarios in multi-station corridors.
• Prior approvals experience with Riyadh Civil Defense/SBC.
• Knowledge of RAMS (EN 50126/8/9) and reliability-led design.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, within WSP in the Middle East. The role involves working on significant infrastructure projects, specifically metro stations.

Application Process

Candidates who meet the specified requirements are encouraged to apply for this role.