Design Manager - Site - KSA

Role Title: Design Manager – Site

Company: CTS Group

Location: Project sites across Saudi Arabia

Reports To: Project Director (dotted line to Design Director)

Type: Full-Time, Site-Based – Rotational (3 weeks on site / 1 week remote)

About CTS Group

CTS Group is a fast-growing international design and build company specialising in data centre development across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). We combine engineering excellence, innovation, and digital transformation to deliver high-performance, sustainable, and future-ready data centre solutions.

With over 40 nationalities represented across our teams, CTS fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance culture where innovation and technical precision drive every project. Beyond construction, CTS develops digital systems and standardised modular data centre units to meet the evolving needs of hyperscalers, colocation providers, and enterprise clients.

Our proven track record and strong partnerships have established CTS as a trusted industry leader delivering large-scale, complex data centre facilities with speed, efficiency, and excellence.

Role Overview

The Design Manager (Site) is the design lead embedded in the project delivery team on CTS data centre construction sites across Saudi Arabia. The role is the point of design authority on site, ensuring that what is built matches the approved, coordinated design from construction through commissioning and handover.

Reporting to the Project Director, with a dotted line to the Design Director, the role manages RFIs and technical queries, controls design changes during construction, and is the key interface between the site construction team, subcontractors, vendors, the client's technical representatives and CTS's office-based Design & Engineering teams.

The role works on a rotational pattern of 3 weeks on site followed by 1 week working remotely.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the design lead on site and primary interface between the site construction team, subcontractors, vendors, client representatives and the office-based Design & Engineering team.

• Manage the RFI and Technical Query (TQ) process: log, prioritise, resolve or route to the right discipline or consultant, and close out within agreed turnaround times.

• Control design changes during construction, assessing site-driven changes for programme, cost, resilience and compliance impacts and managing them through CTS change control.

• Review contractor and vendor submittals, shop drawings and equipment/material submissions against the approved design intent.

• Ensure site teams always work to the latest approved design revision, managing drawing control and information release on site with document control.

• Carry out site inspections and walk-downs to verify installation against design, raising and closing out design-related non-conformances.

• Coordinate site clash resolution and field changes with the BIM team, ensuring changes are captured in the model and common data environment.

• Support installation interfaces across power, cooling, fire protection, BMS/EPMS and the integration of prefabricated and modular units (e.g. EPODs, modular data centre units).

• Lead design input at site coordination, progress and client meetings, and report design status, open RFIs/TQs and design risks to the Project Director.

• Support testing and commissioning (Levels 1–5 / IST) with design clarifications and resolution of commissioning issues.

• Manage as-built documentation, red-line mark-ups and design handover information for client acceptance.

• Support site inspections and approvals by Balady/municipal authorities, Saudi Civil Defense and the Saudi Electricity Company.

• Promote safety in design on site and uphold CTS HSE standards.

• Feed site lessons learned back to the Design & Engineering team to improve CTS standards and reference designs.

Required Skills and Experience

• Degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering strongly preferred; alternatively Civil/Structural Engineering, Architecture or another relevant technical discipline.

• 7+ years' relevant experience, including at least 3 years in a site-based design management, design coordination or construction-phase engineering role.

• Demonstrable experience on data centre, mission-critical or comparable technically complex construction sites.

• Strong understanding of Mechanical and Electrical systems and their interfaces within mission-critical environments, including resilience topology and Uptime Institute Tier standards.

• Proven track record managing RFIs, TQs, submittals and design change control during construction.

• Experience supporting testing and commissioning through to handover.

• Experience within an EPC/design-build contractor or Design & Engineering consultancy with site delivery responsibility.

• Working knowledge of BIM/digital coordination and common data environments (Navisworks, BIM 360 / ACC) for site coordination.

• Knowledge of Saudi regulations and standards, including the Saudi Building Code (SBC), Saudi Civil Defense fire and life-safety requirements, Balady/MOMRAH municipal permitting and Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) grid-connection requirements.

• Experience designing for high-ambient-temperature and water-constrained environments is advantageous.

• Ability to make timely, sound technical decisions under programme pressure and to work effectively with site teams and subcontractors.

• Fluent English (mandatory); Arabic advantageous.

• Must be available to work a 3 weeks on site / 1 week remote rotation and to be deployed to CTS project sites across Saudi Arabia.

How to Apply

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