Director - Hospitality Design

complex hospitality assets, ensuring that creative vision is translated into distinctive, commercially viable, operationally efficient, and buildable design outcomes. This position works across consultants, hotel operators, internal teams, delivery partners, contractors, suppliers, and authorities to manage design interfaces, resolve risks, maintain quality, and support fully coordinated solutions. The role is central to delivering hospitality assets that meet guest experience expectations, brand standards, technical requirements, and long-term asset value objectives.

Key Responsibilities

* Lead design management for hospitality assets from early-stage briefs through concept, design development, technical coordination, construction support, and delivery.
* Ensure hospitality designs align with guest experience goals, asset positioning, commercial objectives, operator requirements, and project vision.
* Direct design decision-making across projects and guide key decisions that support quality, functionality, buildability, and long-term asset value.
* Manage consultant teams and operator design coordination to deliver integrated, operational, commercially viable, and construction-ready design solutions.
* Oversee design development across all project stages, ensuring adherence to scope, deliverables, programme requirements, review cycles, and approval milestones.
* Drive design quality and integrity across architecture, interiors, landscape, public areas, back-of-house areas, guest touchpoints, and branded hospitality spaces.
* Review mock-up rooms, material selections, finishes, FF&E, OS&E, layouts, specifications, and presentation materials to maintain high design standards.
* Ensure compliance with operator standards, brand requirements, technical criteria, authority regulations, and project design standards.
* Lead design risk management and governance by identifying issues, preparing clear recommendations, and influencing decisions through senior forums.
* Champion innovation, continuous improvement, and benchmarking against global best-in-class hospitality and luxury development standards.
* Coordinate design interfaces across architecture, interior design, landscape, engineering, operations, commercial, procurement, construction, and stakeholder workstreams.
* Support resolution of design conflicts, technical issues, operator comments, authority requirements, and construction-stage design coordination challenges.
* Maintain focus on guest experience by ensuring all design decisions support comfort, flow, service quality, accessibility, brand identity, and operational practicality.
* Guide design teams in balancing creative ambition with cost control, constructability, durability, maintenance, procurement strategy, and commercial performance.
* Lead and mentor internal design management teams, building capability, accountability, collaboration, and consistent delivery standards.
* Develop and refine design management processes, systems, templates, reporting methods, review protocols, and best practices across the hospitality portfolio.
* Support knowledge sharing across assets and contribute to stronger institutional design management capability.
* Coordinate with hotel operators, consultants, contractors, suppliers, project management consultants, delivery partners, and government authorities as required.
* Use design management platforms and project systems to support documentation control, review workflows, coordination tracking, and issue management.
* Provide clear design reports, status updates, decision papers, design narratives, and executive-level presentations for senior stakeholders.

Ideal Profile

* Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Interior Design, or a related discipline.
* Professional membership or recognized certification such as RIBA, AIA, RICS, or equivalent is preferred.
* Minimum 20 years of experience in design management, architecture, interior design, or hospitality design delivery.
* Proven record delivering projects from concept through construction, with strong understanding of technical design, approvals, and execution.
* Strong experience on hospitality, luxury, complex, mixed-use, hotel, resort, or destination developments.
* Experience managing multidisciplinary consultants across complex design and delivery environments.
* Experience working with hotel operators, operator standards, brand requirements, guest experience criteria, and hospitality technical requirements.
* Experience in Saudi Arabia, GCC, or similar large-scale development environments is preferred.
* Strong design judgment with the ability to guide design direction and influence senior-level decisions.
* Strong commercial awareness with the ability to balance design quality, cost, programme, buildability, and asset value.
* Excellent stakeholder management capability across operators, consultants, contractors, suppliers, delivery partners, project management consultants, and authorities.
* Clear communication and design storytelling skills, with the ability to explain design intent, risks, options, and recommendations effectively.
* Able to manage complexity across multiple design stages, disciplines, assets, consultants, and approval pathways.
* Comfortable operating in fast-paced environments with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and high expectations.
* High attention to detail across design quality, documentation, materials, brand standards, and stakeholder requirements.
* Proficient in design management tools such as Aconex, Autodesk Construction Cloud, or equivalent platforms.
* Strong leadership style with the ability to mentor teams, build collaboration, and maintain high standards of accountability.

Skills Set

* Hospitality design management
* Hotel design
* Luxury hospitality
* Mixed-use development
* Architecture
* Interior design
* Guest experience
* Asset positioning
* Operator standards
* Brand standards
* Design governance
* Design development
* Concept design
* Technical design
* Construction design support
* Design coordination
* Consultant management
* Operator coordination
* Stakeholder management
* Architecture coordination
* Interior coordination
* Landscape coordination
* FF&E
* OS&E
* Mock-up rooms
* Material selection
* Design quality
* Commercial awareness
* Buildability
* Value engineering
* Design risk management
* Authority coordination
* Technical requirements
* Design approvals
* Design storytelling
* Design presentations
* Design management systems
* Aconex
* Autodesk Construction Cloud
* Portfolio design standards
* Hospitality portfolio management
* Team mentoring
* Process improvement
* Knowledge sharing
* GCC development experience

Why Join Us

This role offers a senior hospitality design leader the opportunity to guide complex, high-profile hospitality assets in Riyadh from early vision through coordinated delivery. The position provides strong exposure to luxury hospitality design, operator coordination, multidisciplinary consultant leadership, design governance, guest experience planning, FF&E and OS&E review, commercial performance, and large-scale development delivery. It is a strong opportunity for a design director who wants to shape distinctive hospitality destinations and contribute to major development growth in Saudi Arabia.

About the Company

Parsons Corporation is a global engineering, infrastructure, construction management, architecture, and project delivery company supporting major hospitality, aviation, transportation, utilities, urban development, public realm, and mixed-use programmes. In Saudi Arabia, Parsons contributes to large-scale development through design management, technical coordination, construction supervision, project controls, stakeholder leadership, and practical delivery knowledge that help create high-quality, future-ready built environments.