Planning Director📣 Job Ad

About the Planning Director Role

Parsons Corporation is seeking a Planning Director to join their team in Riyadh. This full-time position requires over 10 years of experience in digital infrastructure planning and related fields.

Role Purpose and Context

The primary purpose of this role is to translate the city-wide Digital Infrastructure Masterplan into actionable, phased implementation and planning packages. This involves defining strategic planning horizons and ensuring alignment across various infrastructure components and stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Define short-, mid-, and long-term planning horizons for fiber, mobile, data centers, and smart systems.
• Chair planning review boards and enforce compliance with standards and masterplan objectives.
• Align capacity, resilience, and cybersecurity planning with the overall project.
• Lead demand forecasting and capacity modeling for fixed, mobile, and data center infrastructure.
• Develop fiber routing and tower siting strategies, and validate district connectivity plans.
• Coordinate data center and edge computing siting and phasing plans.
• Review and approve networks for data centers, MMRs/POPs, duct banks, and right-of-way allocations.
• Integrate planning with utilities such as SEC power, NWC water, and district cooling.
• Provide planning baselines for design and construction teams and monitor adherence.
• Manage change requests, planning deviations, and phasing adjustments.
• Support constructability reviews, sequencing, and co-build opportunities.
• Track delivery progress against planning baselines and report variances.
• Ensure planning compliance with standards for critical facilities.
• Integrate sustainability targets, such as LEED and PUE, into planning milestones.
• Coordinate planning approvals with authorities including CST, SEC, NWC, MOMRAH, and SDAIA.
• Engage with MNOs, TowerCo, FiberCo, and DC operators for alignment of capacity and rollout plans.
• Represent planning scenarios in client/owner steering committees and governance forums.
• Ensure O&M requirements are embedded into planning, including access corridors and redundancy.
• Support Operational Readiness by aligning phasing with training, spares, and operations setup.
• Provide planning input for commissioning, IST schedules, and phased handovers.
• Build and lead planning teams for fiber, mobile, and data centers.
• Mentor planners and establish best practices, planning methodologies, and a knowledge-sharing culture.
• Foster collaboration with designers, construction managers, and external consultants.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s degree in engineering, ICT, Telecoms, Digital Infrastructure, Urban/Infrastructure Planning, or Project Management.
• PMP/PRINCE2/Chartered status is preferred.
• 20+ years of experience in ICT, telecoms, fiber deployment, smart city, data center, utilities, and critical infrastructure planning.
• Experience is preferably on city-wide, giga-project, mixed-use, campus, or large infrastructure programs.
• Proven leadership in digital infrastructure planning, covering masterplans, phased implementation plans, planning horizons, fiber/mobile/DC/smart systems, demand forecasting, capacity modeling, and district connectivity planning.
• Strong multidisciplinary coordination experience, including integration with design, construction, utilities, SEC, NWC, district cooling, authorities, MNOs, tower companies, fiber operators, DC operators, consultants, and contractors.
• Strong planning governance and delivery-control capability, including planning review boards, baseline management, change control, phasing adjustments, progress tracking, and risk management.

Work Location and Type

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh.