Senior Manager - Fire, Life Safety Planning

About Qiddiya City

Qiddiya City represents one of the world's most ambitious greenfield entertainment and sports developments. Covering an expansive 366 km² masterplan in Saudi Arabia, it includes intricate infrastructure systems, transportation networks, hospitality venues, entertainment arenas, stadia, mixed-use developments, and residential zones at various stages of planning, design, and construction.

Role Summary

The Senior Manager - Fire, Life Safety Planning serves as a key member of the Master Developer Unit (MDU) Fire & Life Safety (FLS) team. This role involves spearheading specialized fire engineering, reviewing designs, and offering advisory services across city-wide masterplans, infrastructure, and asset projects. The incumbent is accountable for devising and assessing FLS strategies and performance-based fire engineering solutions while guiding internal stakeholders, Lead Design Consultants, third-party FLS experts, and project teams throughout all design and build phases.

Core Responsibilities

• Direct the creation and quality assurance of Fire & Life Safety design approaches for intricate buildings, infrastructure, public spaces, transport interfaces, and extensive masterplanned communities.
• Function as a senior fire safety engineering authority by steering compliance, evaluating design robustness, fire strategy, life safety considerations, and constructability.
• Critically review and challenge fire safety design submissions, including drawings, reports, and calculations prepared by consultants, identifying concerns early and developing effective engineering solutions.
• Innovate and evaluate fire engineering approaches for complex or unique designs, covering alternative techniques, smoke management, evacuation protocols, compartmentation, firefighting access, and provisions.
• Provide expertise on the Saudi Building Code, Saudi Civil Defence mandates, NFPA standards, and relevant international fire engineering practices across all project phases.
• Collaborate with architects, MEP, infrastructure, mobility, operations, and delivery teams to ensure fire safety considerations are integrated throughout the design lifecycle rather than treated as late-stage compliance measures.
• Facilitate engagement with regulatory authorities and third-party fire safety reviewers by articulating clear engineering stances, addressing feedback, and defending design intents as necessary.

Candidate Requirements

• Possession of a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Fire Engineering is highly preferred. Alternatively, degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related engineering fields from accredited institutions are considered.
• Professional certifications such as Membership of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE), Chartered Engineer (CEng), Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS), NFPA certifications, or pertinent training in performance-based fire engineering, CFD modeling, or smoke control are advantageous.
• Project management qualification such as PMP or equivalent is desirable for roles requiring multidisciplinary coordination.
• Extensive professional experience ranging between 8 to 15 years in Fire & Life Safety engineering and design across large-scale mixed-use, infrastructure, hospitality, entertainment, transportation, or giga-project developments.
• Proven track record in formulating, examining, and coordinating Fire & Life Safety strategies across all project phases, including masterplanning, conceptual, schematic, detailed design, and construction support stages.
• Strong technical command of means of egress, smoke control systems, firefighting access, fire water infrastructure, fire alarm and suppression mechanisms, and passive fire protection solutions.
• Expertise in performance-based fire engineering designs, encompassing alternative solutions, smoke simulation, evacuation studies, and complex compliance evaluations.
• Comprehensive knowledge of Saudi Building Code, NFPA standards, International Building Code (IBC), International Fire Code (IFC), Saudi Civil Defence requirements, and other relevant global fire engineering codes and best practices.