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Job Description:

Parsons is looking for an amazingly talented Senior Engineer, Fire & Life Safety (Saudi National) to join our team! The Senior Engineer, Fire & Life Safety is responsible for fire and life safety assurance across the client’s portfolio of city assets. The role applies international fire engineering practice, SBC 201 and SBC 801 (2024), Saudi Civil Defense requirements and relevant NFPA standards to protect guests, employees, contractors, infrastructure and business continuity throughout the asset lifecycle.

Operating across the full lifecycle – design, construction, commissioning, handover and buildings in use – the role provides competent technical judgement on fire strategies, fire risk assessment, fire and life safety inspections, life safety systems performance and deficiency management.

The position also forms part of the Fire & Life Safety duty rota and discharges tactical (Silver) command responsibilities during fire, evacuation and life safety incidents, interfacing with the City Command Unit (CCU) and Saudi Civil Defense.

What you'll be doing:

1. Fire Risk Assessment and Risk Management

• Plan, conduct and document suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments across operational, back-of-house, event, temporary and construction-phase premises, using recognized structured methodologies.

• Identify fire hazards, ignition sources, fuel loads, occupancy characteristics, vulnerable occupants and adequacy of means of escape; assign risk ratings and proportionate control measures.

• Produce clear, prioritised significant findings and action plans with defined owners, target dates, interim controls and escalation triggers.

• Maintain the fire risk assessment programme and review cycle, ensuring reassessment following material change, alteration, occupancy change, incident or near miss.

• Populate and maintain the City Fire Risk Register, tracking residual risk, overdue actions and risk acceptance decisions for reporting to Fire & Life Safety leadership.

• Undertake fire safety risk analysis for special risks including crowd-loaded venues, high-rise buildings, atria, tunnels, car parks, energy storage, hazardous materials storage, kitchens, back-stage areas and ride systems.

2. Fire and Life Safety Inspections, Audits and Compliance

• Deliver a planned, risk-based programme of fire and life safety inspections and technical audits across assets in use, under construction and approaching handover.

• Inspect means of escape, compartmentation, fire stopping, structural fire protection, signage and emergency lighting, fire doors, smoke control, suppression, detection and alarm systems, firefighting access and fire water provision.

• Verify statutory and contractual inspection, testing and maintenance regimes against NFPA 25, NFPA 72 and manufacturer requirements; challenge impairment management and system isolations.

• Record deficiencies with clear code and standard references, photographic evidence, risk ranking and required corrective actions; verify close-out before sign-off.

• Audit tenant, operator, contractor and event fit-outs against client fire and life safety requirements and Minimum Operating Protocols; withhold acceptance where life safety is compromised.

• Monitor hot work, temporary works, fire watch, impairment and construction fire safety permit regimes, and assess compliance in the field.

3. Operational Response and Incident Command (Silver Level)

• Act as a rostered tactical (Silver) commander for fire, evacuation and life safety incidents, assuming command of the tactical response, supporting the tactical plan and directing operational (Bronze) resources on scene.

• Translate strategic direction from Gold command into deliverable tactical objectives, prioritising life safety, incident stabilisation, property protection, business continuity and guest experience.

• Establish and operate incident command arrangements, including command point set-up, sector allocation, resource deployment, cordons, safety officer function and analytical risk assessment.

• Interface with Saudi Civil Defense on arrival, hand over command as required, and provide building intelligence, fire strategy information, system status, isolations and access arrangements.

• Coordinate with the City Command Unit (CCU) for alarm verification, escalation, resource mobilisation, mass notification and multi-agency communication.

• Direct phased, progressive horizontal and total evacuation, refuge management, personal emergency evacuation plan activation, roll call and re-occupation decisions.

• Maintain a contemporaneous decision log, provide situation reports at defined intervals and lead structured post-incident and hot debriefs.

• Support the design, delivery and evaluation of tabletop exercises, live evacuation drills, integrated rehearsals and multi-agency exercises to validate response arrangements.

4. Design and Construction Fire Assurance

• Review fire strategies, performance-based designs, fire engineering reports, modelling assumptions and derived acceptance criteria, and provide documented technical comments.

• Provide operational fire and life safety input at masterplan, concept, detailed design and construction stages, ensuring maintainability, operability and response requirements are incorporated.

• Review shop drawings, hydraulic calculations, cause-and-effect matrices, occupant notification sequences and fire alarm zoning for compliance and operational fitness.

• Assess and make recommendations on departures, waivers, alternative solutions and operational equivalencies, defining any compensating measures required in use.

• Support structured construction fire safety audits addressing site fire prevention, temporary means of escape, hot works, storage and site fire water provision.

5. Commissioning, Handover and Operational Readiness

• Witness and verify commissioning and integrated system testing of detection, alarm, voice alarm, suppression, smoke control, fire pumps and fire water systems.

• Verify life safety compliance against Minimum Operating Protocols prior to asset handover, activation and public opening, and confirm readiness evidence is complete.

• Review operation and maintenance documentation, as-built fire strategies, emergency response plans, asset registers, training records and building fire information for adequacy at handover.

• Track deficiency and snag close-out, define interim mitigation where residual defects exist, and advise on go/no-go recommendations.

• Support the transition of assets into operational fire and life safety management, including emergency plans, response arrangements and system monitoring.

6. Investigation, Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Investigate fire incidents, near misses, unwanted fire signals, system failures and evacuation performance, establishing root causes and contributory factors.

• Produce concise, evidence-based investigation reports with corrective and preventive actions, and verify implementation.

• Analyse inspection, assessment, alarm and incident data to identify trends, systemic weaknesses and improvement priorities; support unwanted alarm reduction programmes.

• Prepare technical reports, performance dashboards and assurance briefings for Fire & Life Safety and City Operations leadership.

• Embed lessons learned into standards, procedures, design requirements, procurement scopes and training content.

7. Regulatory, Stakeholder and Technical Interface

• Support the technical interface with Saudi Civil Defense on inspections, approvals, permitting, licensing and compliance matters.

• Coordinate with consultants, designers, contractors, commissioning agents, insurers, third-party certifiers and asset operators on fire and life safety matters.

• Provide competent technical advice to project teams, venue operators, tenants and event organisers, resolving technical queries with clear code justification.

• Represent Fire & Life Safety in technical workshops, design reviews, readiness reviews and operational forums.

8. Training, Competence and Safety Culture

• Support delivery of fire safety training, fire warden and marshal competence, evacuation drills and awareness campaigns for staff, tenants and response teams.

• Provide technical coaching and mentoring to fire and life safety engineers, inspectors and operational personnel.

• Promote a proactive life safety culture that goes beyond minimum compliance, encouraging reporting, constructive challenge and ownership.

• Maintain personal technical currency in codes, standards, guidance and incident command practice, and maintain operational fitness and command competence for the Silver role.

• Act as a mentor as part of the Saudization initiative for City Operations.

Role Scope Boundary

Fire & Life Safety accountability:

• Fire risk assessment, fire and life safety inspection and audit, and technical fire assurance across design, construction and buildings in use.

• Readiness verification prior to handover and activation.

• Tactical (Silver) command of the fire and life safety response during incidents.

Asset owner, venue and operator accountability:

• Day-to-day implementation of fire safety controls.

• Planned maintenance and testing of life safety systems.

• Staff competence and delivery of corrective actions within controlled areas and contracted scopes, aligned to approved client fire and life safety requirements.

What required skills you'll bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Fire Safety Engineering, Fire Engineering, Building Engineering, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, Leadership and Sustainability, or a related discipline.

• Minimum 6 years of progressive experience in fire and life safety, fire engineering, fire safety inspection or fire and emergency response operations, including significant experience in a senior technical role.

• NEBOSH Certificate or Diploma in Fire Safety, or equivalent recognized international fire safety qualification.

• Demonstrable experience completing and signing off fire risk assessments for complex, high-occupancy or high-consequence premises.

• Proven experience delivering fire and life safety inspection and audit programs, and driving deficiency close-out to completion.

• Practical operational response experience with assessed competence at tactical or Silver command level, including live incidents, exercises or drills.

• Experience across the asset lifecycle including design review, construction assurance, commissioning witnessing and operational readiness.

• Background in a fire and rescue service, industrial or aviation fire service, fire safety regulator or enforcing authority, combined with consultancy or client-side experience.

• Exposure to major event fire safety, temporary demountable structures, pyrotechnics, special effects and crowd safety.

• Experience with performance-based design, fire and evacuation modelling review, and alternative solutions in a regulated environment.

• Familiarity with theme park and attraction fire safety, ride evacuation, and back-of-house and show production risk.

Technical and Functional Expectations

• Strong knowledge of SBC 201 and SBC 801 (2024), Saudi Civil Defense requirements, NFPA standards including NFPA 1, 101, 72, 13, 20, 25, 1660, 1750.

• Competence in fire risk assessment methodology, risk rating, control selection and significant findings reporting.

• Experience in fire and life safety inspection, audit, deficiency management, impairment control and permit-to-work regimes.

• Strong understanding of fire strategies, compartmentation, means of escape, smoke control, suppression, detection, alarm and fire water systems.

• Competence in incident command at tactical or Silver level, analytical risk assessment, sectorization, evacuation management and multi-agency liaison.

• Experience in emergency planning, exercising, business continuity and post-incident investigation.

• Clear technical report writing skills, evidence management, dashboard reporting and use of digital inspection tools, CAFM and document-management systems.

Key Competencies

Technical Competencies

• Fire risk assessment and risk analysis

• Fire and life safety inspection and audit

• Fire strategy and design assurance

• Systems commissioning and verification

• Codes, standards and regulatory application

Operational Competencies

• Tactical (Silver) incident command

• Emergency planning and exercising

• Evacuation and crowd life safety

• Investigation and root cause analysis

• Operational readiness assurance

Behavioural Competencies

• Sound judgement under pressure

• Technical rigour and attention to detail

• Clear, concise communication

• Collaboration and partnership

• Integrity, ownership and continuous improvement

What desired skills you'll bring:

• Recognized fire risk assessor certification or listing on a third‑party register is desirable.

• Incident command qualification at tactical or Silver level, or equivalent operational command training and assessed competence, is strongly preferred.

• Experience within large-scale mixed-use developments, theme parks, stadia, entertainment destinations, giga-projects or comparable environments is strongly preferred.

• Experience in Saudi Arabia or the wider GCC, including interface with Saudi Civil Defense, is strongly preferred.

• Master’s degree in Fire Safety Engineering or a relevant discipline is preferred.

• Professional membership of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) at Member grade, or working towards it, or equivalent, is strongly preferred.

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: Confidential

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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