Senior Manager: Design & Interface

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Job Description:

Parsons are looking to appoint an experienced Senior Project Manager - Design & Interface to support its growing team!

The Senior PM: Design & Interface is a integrated team-client-facing role for a PMC, responsible for managing and assuring the end‑to‑end design and interface coordination process across multiple disciplines and packages (civil, stations, systems, MEP, rolling stock, etc.). The role has a strong focus on engineering governance, interface management, and safety assurance, rather than operations.

Acting on behalf of the client, the position ensures that all designers, contractors, and systems integrators deliver coordinated, safe, and compliant designs and constructed works that meet employer’s requirements, statutory obligations, and project objectives for scope, time, cost, and quality.

What You'll Be Doing;

• Serve as the primary PMC focal point for design coordination and interface management across the program.
• Represent the client in high‑level design, coordination, and interface meetings with consultants, contractors, systems integrators, authorities, and third parties.
• Ensure that employer’s requirements, technical standards, and safety obligations are clearly communicated, understood, and implemented by all delivery partners.
• Provide independent, objective advice and recommendations to the client leadership on engineering, safety, interface, and program matters.
• Lead and manage the overall multi‑discipline design process (concept, preliminary, detailed, and IFC) across architectural, civil/structural, MEP, rail systems, and other disciplines.
• Review and comment on key design submissions, technical reports, drawings, models, calculations, and specifications to ensure compliance with:
  • Employer’s requirements and project standards
  • Applicable local regulations and authority requirements
  • Relevant international standards
• Chair and coordinate design review workshops, value engineering sessions, and constructability reviews, ensuring that design decisions are robust, buildable, and safe.
• Oversee requirements management and traceability, ensuring that all technical and safety requirements are properly captured, allocated, and verified.
• Monitor and enforce adherence to the project’s technical assurance and design governance processes.
• Establish and manage the project‑wide interface management framework, including processes, tools, and responsibilities.
• Identify, classify, and maintain a register of all key interfaces (civil–systems, stations–MEP, systems–rolling stock, depots, third‑party utilities, etc.).
• Chair interface coordination meetings and interface control working groups, driving resolution of interface issues and avoiding late changes.
• Review and monitor interface control documents, interface matrices, and interface agreements prepared by designers and contractors.
• Ensure that interface assumptions and decisions are documented, communicated, and implemented consistently across contracts.
• Escalate critical interface risks and conflicts to the client with options and recommendations.
• Oversee, from a PMC perspective, the integration of engineering and safety requirements throughout the design and build phases.
• Review and monitor RAMS documentation, safety cases, hazard logs, and risk assessments prepared by contractors and consultants.
• Ensure that design solutions incorporate safety by design, including construction safety, operational safety, and maintainability considerations.
• Coordinate with independent safety assessors (ISA), regulators, and third‑party reviewers, consolidating findings and actions for the client.
• Verify that all required safety approvals, certifications, and authority clearances are planned, tracked, and obtained in line with project milestones.
• Manage alignment between design deliverables and construction methodology/sequencing, ensuring early identification of constructability issues.
• Support the client in assessing and approving design changes, technical deviations, and value engineering proposals, including impact on safety, schedule, cost, and interfaces.
• Ensure consistent application of configuration management across design and construction phases, including version control and change tracking.
• Coordinate closure of design‑related non‑conformances, technical queries, and RFIs, working with designers and contractors to achieve timely solutions.
• Monitor design and interface activities against the integrated master program and key milestones; identify and manage critical path items.
• Maintain and regularly update design and interface risk registers, identifying mitigation measures and contingency plans.
• Provide clear, concise reports, dashboards, and presentations for the client, covering design progress, interface status, safety issues, and key risks.
• Support project controls teams in assessing schedule and cost impacts of design/interface issues and changes.
• Coordinate with internal client stakeholders to ensure that design outcomes meet future operational and business needs.
• Interface with local authorities, utility providers, and other third parties to support approvals, NOCs, permits, and technical agreements.
• Facilitate cross‑discipline alignment among multiple design consultants, contractors, and suppliers to ensure integrated, consistent solutions.
• Lead and mentor a team of design managers, interface engineers, and safety/assurance specialists within the PMC.
• Promote a culture of quality, safety, collaboration, and proactive risk management across all design and interface activities.
• Ensure robust QA/QC processes are applied to design deliverables and interface documentation.
• Capture, document, and disseminate lessons learned in design, interface management, and safety assurance across the program.

What Required Skills You'll Bring;

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, or related discipline).
• Master’s degree in Engineering, Systems Engineering, Project Management, or related field is an advantage.
• Professional engineering registration/chartership CEng, PE) is highly desirable.
• Project management certification (PMP, PRINCE2) and/or systems engineering/safety certifications are advantageous.
• Approximately 15 years’ experience in major infrastructure, rail/transit, or complex multi‑discipline projects, with strong emphasis on design management and interface coordination.
• Significant experience in a PMC, client, or international consultancy role managing design and build contracts.
• Proven track record leading multi‑discipline design teams and managing interfaces between civil, MEP, systems, and third‑party stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience in engineering assurance, safety by design, and RAMS safety case processes.
• Experience working on large programs with multiple contractors and packages, ideally including rail/metro or similarly complex environments.
• Strong technical understanding of multi‑discipline design processes and interfaces across civil, structural, MEP, and systems.
• Solid knowledge of systems engineering principles, interface management, and safety RAMS methodologies.
• Excellent project management, planning, and coordination skills in a complex, multi‑stakeholder environment.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving abilities, with a structured approach to risk and issue management.
• Highly effective communication, facilitation, and negotiation skills, including the ability to explain complex technical issues to non‑technical stakeholders.
• High level of professionalism, integrity, and client‑service orientation.
• Proficiency with standard project management and collaboration tools; familiarity with requirements management systems, BIM/CDE platforms, and document control systems is an advantage.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken); Arabic ideal.

Parsons equally employs representation at all job levels no matter the race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!

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