SME Senior Road Expert Highways Design📣 Job Ad

About the Role

Parsons Corporation is seeking a SME Senior Road Expert Highways Design to join its team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time position involves acting as a technical authority and trusted advisor across multiple highway and road infrastructure projects and design stages. The primary objective of this role is to provide independent, senior-level highway engineering expertise, ensuring that all highway designs are technically robust, compliant with applicable standards, safe, constructible, and well-coordinated with other disciplines. The expert will also ensure designs are delivered efficiently to support approvals, construction, and overall program objectives.

Technical Authority and Design Review

• Act as the Client’s Highways Design Subject Matter Expert and technical authority on highway and road design.
• Provide expert advice on highway design principles, standards, and international best practice.
• Support the development, interpretation, and application of highway design criteria, typical sections, standard details, Basis of Design, and technical guidance documents.
• Review and advise on design departures, exceptions, and non-standard solutions, ensuring risks are clearly identified and managed.
• Undertake detailed technical review of highway design deliverables at all project stages, including feasibility studies, Traffic Impact Studies, Concept, preliminary, detailed, and Issued for Construction (IFC) designs.
• Provide guidance on horizontal and vertical alignments, road hierarchy, cross-sections, junctions, interchanges, roundabouts, traffic signs, road markings, pavement design (flexible and rigid), road drainage, road safety, and roadside features.

Standards Compliance and Risk Mitigation

• Ensure compliance with applicable standards, including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia standards (*, CFP, SHC, MOT, MoMRA, SBC) and approved international standards (*, AASHTO, DMRB, where applicable).
• Support Safety in Design processes and road safety reviews, contributing to risk assessments and mitigation strategies.
• Identify design risks related to safety, constructability, cost, and program, and recommend practical mitigation measures.
• Provide technical oversight and challenge to highway design consultants and contractors where required.
• Attend site as necessary to support construction-related design queries and verify design intent.

Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide technical input to resolve interfaces between highway design and traffic and transport planning, utilities and drainage, structures and bridges, public realm and landscape, construction staging, and temporary traffic management.
• Facilitate coordinated, integrated design solutions across disciplines.
• Support the Client in technical engagement with government authorities, approval agencies, plot developers, delivery partners, design consultants, and contractors.
• Attend technical meetings, workshops, and coordination sessions as required.
• Assist in preparing and responding to authority comments and design submission queries.

Project Lifecycle Support

• Support the Client with technical inputs to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and scopes of work.
• Assist in the technical evaluation of tenders, where requested.
• Support the resolution of design-related Requests for Information (RFIs) and construction queries.
• Support value engineering and design optimization initiatives to improve safety, performance, cost, and program.

Candidate Profile and Mentorship

The ideal candidate will possess 5-10 years of experience in highways design, demonstrating a strong background as a Subject Matter Expert in road and highway infrastructure projects. This role requires a proven ability to apply international best practices and ensure technical excellence in design. The expert will also contribute to professional development within the team by:

• Sharing international best practice, lessons learned, and innovative design solutions with the Client’s teams.
• Providing mentoring, coaching, and technical guidance to Client staff involved in highways and infrastructure projects.
• Supporting continuous improvement of highway design standards, procedures, and design review processes.