Director of Waste (Q - CO)

Job description

the employer (the employer) is a leading Joint Venture between Public Investment Fund (PIF), Jacobs, and Saudi Aramco, established to deliver world-class program management services across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. the employer plays a key role in supporting the realization of Saudi Vision 2030, particularly in delivering giga-projects and large-scale infrastructure developments. We are seeking a Director of Waste to join the employer The Director - Waste Management provides strategic asset management leadership for City’s integrated waste management portfolio, ensuring waste assets, infrastructure, systems, service models, and commercial arrangements are planned, governed, optimised, and assured across the full asset lifecycle. The role defines the long-term strategy, value framework, lifecycle standards, investment requirements, regulatory assurance model, and performance management approach required to enable safe, sustainable, cost-effective, and future-ready waste management services at city scale. The Director is accountable for developing and governing a circular, digitally enabled, and commercially robust waste asset management system covering municipal solid waste, recyclables, organics, construction and demolition waste, event waste, hazardous waste, special waste streams, transfer stations, treatment facilities, recycling infrastructure, digital platforms, and final disposal interfaces. The role sets the strategic direction for waste asset planning, lifecycle investment, asset information, service procurement strategy, operational readiness assurance, risk management, stakeholder alignment, resource recovery, and continuous improvement, ensuring alignment with asset management framework, sustainability ambitions, Saudi regulatory requirements, Vision 2030 priorities, and international best practice. Key Responsibilities 1. Strategic Leadership, Governance & Operating Model · Set the long-term waste management vision, strategy, roadmap, and operating model for City. · Own waste governance frameworks, policies, technical standards, procedures, assurance controls, and performance reporting. · Translate sustainability, ESG, circular economy, and smart city ambitions into practical waste management programmes. · Provide executive-level recommendations, decision papers, business cases, risk reports, and performance dashboards. · Ensure waste management requirements are embedded into master planning, design reviews, asset handover, operations readiness, and event planning. 2. Waste Asset Strategy, Planning & Service Model · Develop and maintain the waste asset management strategy, including asset vision, service outcomes, asset hierarchy, criticality framework, lifecycle objectives, demand forecasts, and future capacity requirements. · Translate city masterplan growth, visitor volumes, resident populations, event profiles, tenant requirements, and precinct phasing into long-term waste infrastructure, service, and investment requirements. · Define target levels of service for waste assets and service interfaces, including availability, resilience, capacity, customer experience, environmental performance, accessibility, scalability, and cost-to-serve. · Lead strategic options analysis for future service models, including in-house capability, outsourced providers, framework contracts, concessions, public-private partnerships, and integrated city-wide service platforms. · Establish waste asset planning requirements for new developments, precincts, venues, events, hospitality zones, retail areas, public realm, residential communities, and back-of-house logistics corridors. · Set standards for asset design, maintainability, operability, safe access, storage capacity, segregation infrastructure, collection interfaces, transfer facilities, treatment interfaces, and digital connectivity. · Develop lifecycle investment plans covering renewal, replacement, upgrade, expansion, obsolescence, risk mitigation, technology refresh, and resilience improvements across the waste asset portfolio. · Ensure waste asset strategies are integrated with facilities management, utilities, transport, logistics, real estate, sustainability, development delivery, HSE, security, events, and commercial planning functions. · Provide strategic assurance that proposed assets, systems, contracts, and service models remain fit for purpose across phased opening, growth, peak demand periods, and long-term operating horizon. 3. Sustainability, Circular Economy & Resource Value Strategy · Define waste hierarchy strategy, circular economy roadmap, and resource value framework, prioritising prevention, reduction, reuse, segregation, recycling, recovery, and responsible disposal. · Develop material flow strategies for municipal solid waste, recyclables, organics, food waste, construction and demolition waste, hazardous waste, event waste, landscape waste, and special waste streams. · Set long-term diversion, recovery, contamination reduction, reuse, carbon reduction, and circularity targets aligned with ESG commitments, Vision 2030 priorities, Saudi regulations, and international best practice. · Identify strategic resource recovery opportunities, including recycling markets, organics processing, composting, anaerobic digestion, waste-to-energy, material recovery facilities, reverse logistics, and producer responsibility partnerships. · Lead business case development for circular economy infrastructure, assessing whole-life cost, environmental benefits, commercial returns, regulatory implications, technology maturity, land requirements, and operational interfaces. · Establish policies, standards, and performance requirements for segregation at source, tenant waste management, public realm recycling, event waste planning, construction waste recovery, and contractor reporting. · Create mechanisms to track resource value, including recovered material volumes, avoided disposal cost, revenue potential, carbon impact, contamination levels, market demand, and contribution to sustainability reporting. · Partner with development, procurement, commercial, design, tenant management, events, hospitality, and sustainability teams to embed circular economy principles into assets, leases, vendor requirements, and operating standards. · Provide strategic advice on emerging waste technologies, policy changes, circular economy partnerships, innovation pilots, and investment opportunities that improve long-term resource productivity and environmental outcomes. 4. Asset Information, Smart Systems & Digital Strategy · Define the waste asset information strategy, ensuring all assets, systems, facilities, equipment, digital devices, service interfaces, and treatment/disposal links are captured within a structured asset register and aligned to the enterprise asset management framework. · Establish data standards for asset hierarchy, location, ownership, condition, criticality, life

Requirements

• · Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Waste Management, Environmental Science, Sustainability, Facilities Management, or a related discipline
• · Master’s degree in Environmental Management, Sustainability, Business Administration, Engineering Management, or a related field preferred
• · Professional certifications desirable, such as ISO 14001 Lead Auditor, ISO 55001 awareness or practitioner training, NEBOSH/IOSH, CIWM/SWANA or equivalent, PMP/PRINCE2, or relevant waste management credentials
• · Strong understanding of Saudi environmental legislation, MWAN licensing and permitting requirements, ESG principles, and circular economy frameworks
• · 20+ years’ progressive experience in waste management, environmental services, utilities, infrastructure operations, facilities management, or city-scale service delivery
• · Minimum 8 years in a senior leadership role overseeing multidisciplinary teams, contractor-led services, operating budgets, regulatory interfaces, and complex stakeholder environments
• · Demonstrated experience with municipal solid waste, recycling, construction and demolition waste, organics, hazardous waste, transfer stations, treatment facilities, and disposal interfaces
• · Experience leading waste strategy, procurement, operational readiness, service mobilisation, performance management, audits, and improvement programmes
• · Experience in Saudi Arabia, GCC, mega-projects, giga-projects, new cities, entertainment destinations, or major event environments strongly preferred
• Ø Municipal and industrial waste systems
• Ø Recycling and recovery programmes
• Ø Waste treatment technologies
• Technical Competencies
• · Expert knowledge of integrated waste management systems, waste hierarchy principles, regulatory compliance, waste classification, collection logistics, treatment technologies, and disposal controls
• · Strong understanding of MWAN requirements, Saudi environmental regulations, permitting, manifests, audit evidence, and licensed waste chain-of-custody expectations
• · Ability to develop strategies, policies, standards, operating manuals, risk registers, business cases, dashboards, and board-level reports
• · Experience with smart waste technologies, IoT-enabled assets, route optimisation, GIS, digital twins, command centre integration, data analytics, and performance reporting
• · Commercial capability across procurement, contract management, OPEX/CAPEX planning, lifecycle costing, service provider performance, and value recovery
• Ø Waste-to-energy systems
• Ø Recycling technologies

Skills