Job Summary
The Lead Urban Planner and Designer leads the delivery of urban development and urban regeneration projects of medium to high complexity. The role works closely with a multidisciplinary team to develop graphic deliverables, including 3D views, animations, maps, sections, plans, and sketches. These deliverables reflect urban planning and design principles while considering natural, social, economic, and built-environment characteristics, as well as the relevant cultural, political, institutional, and administrative contexts.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop conceptual design alternatives, including conceptual land use, transportation, morphology, road design, parcellation strategy, green-network design, water and sewage networks, and power and telecom networks for medium complexity projects.
- Develop comparative analyses between proposed design alternatives, prepare reports outlining their comparative impact and SWOT analysis, and refine selected alternatives for medium complexity projects.
- Lead the production of detailed preliminary and final thematic maps, including land use, road networks, density, green networks, parcellation, pedestrian networks, building height, and built-up area distribution for medium complexity projects.
- Work closely with specialists on market and socio-economic surveys and on developing preliminary feasibility and benchmarking studies for medium to high complexity projects.
- Support site analysis, including land use, infrastructure networks, morphology, views, density, and site accessibility.
- Support natural-environment analysis, including topography, hydrology, soil, geotechnical conditions, and meteorology.
- Support preliminary transportation analysis, including accessibility, traffic impact, pedestrian mobility, and parking.
- Identify project development constraints and opportunities based on conducted analyses.
- Develop detailed reports and presentations outlining site analyses and project programs, and participate with Project Managers in client presentations and workshops for medium complexity projects, as needed.
- Coordinate the development of road designs and traffic impact studies with transportation teams.
- Coordinate the design of wet utilities, power supply, and telecom networks with the respective teams.
- Work closely with specialists on the development of Environmental Impact Studies, as needed.
- Work closely with specialists on final statistical analyses, financial analyses, and feasibility studies.
- Refine approved master plans, including coordination of parcellation, road designs, wet-utilities networks, power and street-lighting networks, and landscape design for medium complexity projects.
- Develop final detailed reports and provide input for infrastructure and landscape specifications and BOQs for medium complexity projects, as needed.
- Guide the production of final 3D views, animations, and other marketing materials, as needed.
- Produce detailed development briefs at plot and zoning scale.
Required Qualifications, Experience, and Skills
- Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, Urban Planning/Design, or Landscape Architecture
- Master’s Degree in Urbanism / City Planning / Urban Design
- Minimum 5 years of industry experience in urban design or urban planning within an engineering consultancy firm.
- Industry experience within the GCC and the MENA region
- Solid knowledge of urban design principles.
- Exposure to large-scale development projects.
- Exposure to transport planning and traffic impact studies.
- Experience with natural-environment impact analysis.
- Experience with infrastructure design coordination.
- Knowledge of land-use planning, urban morphology, density distribution, service distribution, design guidelines, and urban regulations.
- Familiarity with sustainability approaches, with LEED or equivalent preferred.
- Experience with market assessment, financial analyses, and feasibility studies.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Good communication, presentation, interpersonal, and organizational skills.
- Proficiency in written and spoken English and Arabic
