POSITION
Title: Head of Design and Technical Office
Department: Design and Technical Office
Reports to: Executive Director
Reports: 15, across five functions
Location: Riyadh
Type: Full time, permanent
WHAT THE DEPARTMENT DELIVERS
Concept and schematic interior design, space planning and zoning · design development including layouts, ceilings, elevations, finishes, joinery and furniture · mechanical, electrical and low-current design and coordination for fit-out scope · construction and shop drawings, and joinery and production drawings for our own factory · material and finish specification and schedules · three-dimensional visualization and client presentation material · technical support to site during construction · as-built records at closeout.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
- The department — resourcing, workload, standards and competence. Appoints a named design lead on every project, in writing, before design starts.
- The design program — agrees it with the project manager on every project and holds it. Raises in writing, before work continues, where the brief, the budget and the schedule cannot all be met.
- Review and issue — reviews and signs every drawing, schedule and specification before it leaves the department. Makes sure every design is checked by someone other than the person who produced it.
- Buildability — makes sure we design what Lujain can actually build. Any detail beyond the factory's or the site's capability is agreed with the factory and the project manager before issue.
- Standards — one set for the whole department: drawing coding, title block, layering, finish codes, drawing levels. No project invents its own.
- External designers — appoints, briefs and reviews them to our standards. We use external design services often; appointing one does not transfer our responsibility for what is issued.
- Cost — designs to the budget, and leads value engineering when a price returns above target while protecting the design intent.
- Change control — nothing actioned on a verbal instruction. Changes recorded, priced where they carry cost or time, re-issued under a new revision.
- Site support — answers technical queries and RFIs within the agreed response time, and owns the as-built record at closeout.
- People — assesses every member of the department against the capability register, with a named action and a date against every gap.
AUTHORITY — this is the point of the position
The appointee has the authority to:
- Hold an issue, reject a drawing or require a re-check where it does not meet the design policy, including where a project deadline is pressing
- Stop a design going to the Client or to the site where it does not meet the standard
- Appoint the design lead on each project and allocate the department's resources
- Recommend the appointment of external design consultants and reject their output
Where holding an issue affects a commitment made to a Client, the appointee escalates to the Executive Director the same day.
QUALIFICATIONS — ESSENTIAL
- Bachelor's degree in Architecture, Interior Architecture or Interior Design. Engineering acceptable where supported by substantial interior fit-out experience
- 10 to 15 years in fit-out or interior contracting, including at least 5 years leading a design or technical office team
- Must come from a design-and-build fit-out contractor, not a pure design consultancy. This is the filter that matters most. A consultancy designer has never been accountable for what a factory and a site can actually deliver, and that is most of this job. A strong portfolio from a consultancy background will look convincing and will not survive the role — please treat this as essential, not preferred
- Proven across the full chain: concept, design development, construction drawings, factory production drawings, site technical support, as-built
- Able to read and coordinate MEP services against ceilings and structure, and to challenge a coordination that does not work. Need not be an MEP engineer
- Experience appointing and managing external design consultants and holding them to a standard
- Saudi market experience, Riyadh preferred. Saudi Council of Engineers registration
- Arabic and English, both at working level
- AutoCAD
PREFERRED
- Revit or another BIM platform, and the ability to lead the department into modelled delivery
- SketchUp or equivalent three-dimensional awareness
- Corporate and workplace fit-out, hospitality, or both
- Exposure to joinery manufacture
- Experience working to a documented design procedure set
- Familiar with Autodesk Forma or alternative.
