Director Irrigation

About the Role

Qiddiya Investment Company is seeking a Director - Irrigation to lead irrigation planning, design strategy, standards, and the technical assurance framework for Qiddiya’s landscape and public realm portfolio. This full-time role ensures irrigation requirements are integrated from master planning through design development, procurement support, Stage Gate review, and handover readiness. The Director will align these efforts with Qiddiya’s City Framework Plan, sustainability commitments, water stewardship objectives, horticultural performance, smart city integration, and long-term asset outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic direction for irrigation planning and design across Qiddiya’s landscape and public realm portfolio, ensuring alignment with master development objectives, district strategies, water availability, sustainability requirements, and future operational needs.
• Own and maintain Qiddiya-wide irrigation policies, standards, planning frameworks, design criteria, water budgets, hydro-zoning principles, technical guidelines, and compliance processes.
• Provide strategic direction on irrigation demand planning, Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) use, water quality, salinity risk, leaching requirements, drainage interfaces, water allocation, resilience assumptions, and smart irrigation strategy.
• Translate water conservation, sustainability, public realm, and horticultural objectives into clear design requirements, decision frameworks, assurance checkpoints, and performance expectations.
• Monitor applicable regulations, authority requirements, regional practices, international best practice, emerging technologies, and innovation opportunities relevant to irrigation planning and landscape water management.

Design Governance and Technical Authority

• Lead the development, review, governance, and continuous improvement of irrigation design guidelines, specifications, calculation methodologies, assurance processes, and technical review protocols.
• Act as the technical authority for irrigation design submissions, including masterplans, design reports, calculations, drawings, schedules, specifications, and technical studies.
• Ensure submissions are assessed against approved standards, water demand targets, operability requirements, risk controls, and Qiddiya design expectations.
• Establish approval, assurance, and escalation processes for design decisions, departures, non-compliances, technical risks, and cross-disciplinary interfaces.
• Provide strategic guidance on irrigation technologies, central control systems, filtration, fertigation, dosing, metering, sensors, digital asset data, BIM/GIS coordination, and smart irrigation integration.
• Ensure irrigation design is integrated with planting, soils, landscape character, water availability, utility infrastructure, district phasing, access, maintainability, commissioning requirements, and long-term asset performance.

Portfolio Management and Design Integration

• Provide senior oversight of the irrigation planning and design portfolio to ensure projects align with approved strategies, standards, budgets, programmes, quality expectations, sustainability objectives, and future operational requirements.
• Lead irrigation input into procurement strategies, scopes of work, consultant briefs, tender documentation, technical evaluation criteria, design deliverables, cost plans, and programme requirements.
• Direct consultants and specialist advisors responsible for irrigation master planning, design, modelling, standards, technical studies, specifications, calculations, and assurance outputs.
• Review design performance, identify planning and design risks, resolve technical issues, and escalate matters requiring leadership direction with clear recommendations.
• Ensure irrigation requirements are embedded in masterplan reviews, Stage Gate submissions, design reviews, implementation planning, cost planning, risk management, quality assurance, commissioning strategies, handover requirements, and asset information requirements.
• Lead design audits, technical reviews, lessons-learned reviews, and value engineering to improve technical quality, water efficiency, maintainability, resilience, lifecycle value, and operational readiness.

Stakeholder Leadership and Team Management

• Represent Public Realm and Master Development as the senior irrigation planning and design lead in strategic discussions, governance forums, design reviews, technical workshops, consultant engagements, authority interfaces, and cross-functional coordination meetings.
• Align landscape architecture, horticulture, infrastructure, wet utilities, sustainability, smart city, cost planning, delivery, operations, procurement, asset management, and district teams on integrated irrigation design outcomes.
• Lead stakeholder discussions on irrigation strategy, water demand, design standards, resilience assumptions, operational requirements, sustainability, constructability, maintainability, and technical compliance.
• Lead, develop, and manage irrigation planning and design team members and specialist resources, setting clear priorities, accountabilities, and performance expectations.
• Build internal irrigation capability through guidance, templates, review processes, knowledge sharing, lessons learned, and technical standards.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in irrigation planning and design.
• Demonstrated experience in leading strategic direction for irrigation planning and design across large-scale portfolios.
• Proven ability to develop and maintain irrigation policies, standards, and technical guidelines.
• Experience in managing and developing team members and specialist resources.