Director - Health, Safety and Worker Welfare Operations (RE1)

About the Role
This role focuses on leading the development and implementation of health, safety, environmental, and worker welfare governance across City Operations. The successful candidate will translate enterprise requirements into operational standards, contractual obligations, and assurance activities for City Operations-managed assets and services. Key responsibilities include overseeing compliance, audits, incident learning, and corrective action, as well as providing support to the City Command Unit during incidents and ensuring operational readiness and the safe transition of assets into live operations.

Health, Safety and Worker Welfare Governance

• Lead the development and implementation of City Operations health, safety, and worker welfare governance, ensuring compliance with Strategic Delivery Unit (SDU) policies, standards, guidelines, and legal requirements.
• Establish minimum requirements and contractual schedules for health, safety, and worker welfare, ensuring service providers and contractors understand the performance standards.
• Maintain and improve the health, safety, and worker welfare framework as the city asset base, services, and workforce expand.
• Define induction, training, and competency requirements for City Operations employees and relevant service providers.

Operational Compliance and Assurance

• Direct a risk-based assurance programme across City Operations-managed assets, public realm, and operational services, covering compliance reviews, inspections, audits, and follow-up activities.
• Monitor contractor, operator, and service-provider compliance, directing corrective actions through relevant contract and service owners.
• Track performance via incident data, risk registers, permit-to-work compliance, regulatory reporting, leading indicators, and corrective-action status.
• Report material risks, non-conformances, trends, and overdue actions to leadership; escalate issues affecting people, public safety, compliance, or the organization’s reputation.
• Stop unsafe work within the City Operations remit when necessary and coordinate formal corrective action through the accountable contract holder.

Worker Welfare Operations

• Oversee worker welfare conditions for employees and contracted workforces within City Operations, recognizing the public-facing nature of operational workers.
• Establish and monitor welfare requirements covering working conditions, welfare facilities, access to support, and applicable Saudi labour and welfare guidelines.
• Coordinate with workplace, accommodation, contractor, and service-provider teams to address welfare risks and escalate unresolved issues.
• Build internal worker welfare capability through recruitment, development, and knowledge transfer.

Environmental Compliance

• Oversee environmental compliance across City Operations-managed assets, public spaces, and service arrangements, focusing on prevention of harm and adherence to environmental management plans.
• Establish requirements for pollution prevention and control, including oil and chemical storage, waste handling, and noise management.
• Monitor contractors and service providers against environmental requirements, ensuring that incidents, non-conformances, and corrective actions are tracked to closure.
• Coordinate environmental reporting and relevant Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) inputs while distinguishing between environmental compliance and broader sustainability ownership.

Incident Management and Operational Resilience

• Provide health, safety, environmental, and worker welfare subject-matter expertise to the City Command Unit during incidents, crises, and emergency exercises.
• Support the Gold, Silver, and Bronze response structure by advising on technical risks, controls, regulatory requirements, and recovery actions.
• Develop, maintain, and test relevant crisis playbooks in alignment with City Command Unit and Operational Resilience requirements.
• Lead or oversee post-incident and near-miss investigations within remit, ensuring root causes, lessons learned, and preventive actions are embedded.

Asset Readiness and Handover

• Define health, safety, environmental, and worker welfare requirements for new assets and services entering City Operations, working with delivery teams from design through handover.
• Lead readiness reviews from the agreed pre-handover period, validating operational requirements, documentation, controls, and service arrangements before go-live.
• Provide functional sign-off and readiness input for handover and takeover processes, escalating unresolved risks through stage-gate and governance forums.
• Collaborate with City Assets Management and delivery teams to transfer defects, risks, warranties, procedures, and assurance findings into live operations.

Stakeholder and Regulatory Coordination

• Act as the City Operations focal point for health, safety, environmental, and worker welfare matters with SDU, City Assets Management, delivery teams, operational functions, and central stakeholders.
• Coordinate with contract holders and service providers to embed requirements into scopes of work, mobilization plans, procedures, and performance reviews.
• Support engagement with relevant regulators, authorities, and emergency-response stakeholders, ensuring submissions, observations, and actions are coordinated and finalized.
• Maintain constructive relationships while ensuring the ability to challenge unsafe or non-compliant practices.

Capability, Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Lead the development of the Health, Safety, and Worker Welfare team in line with the phased asset handover plan.
• Establish dashboards and management information systems integrating lagging and leading indicators to identify emerging risks and drive improvements.
• Review assurance findings, incident trends, and operational feedback to enhance standards, contracts, procedures, and service-provider performance.
• Promote a proactive culture while ensuring accountability remains with the teams and providers delivering the work.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Health and Safety, Occupational Health and Safety, Environmental Health, Environmental Management, Engineering, or a related field.
• Preferred Education: Master’s degree in Health and Safety, Environmental Management, Engineering, Public Health, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Certifications: Professional certifications or memberships with recognized health and safety, environmental, worker welfare, emergency management, or related professional institutes are preferred; Chartered or equivalent professional standing is advantageous.
• Experience: A minimum of 10-12 years of experience in health and safety, occupational health and safety, environmental compliance, worker welfare, operational assurance, or related fields is required, including relevant leadership experience. Demonstrated experience in leading health, safety, and worker welfare governance and assurance across complex operational, infrastructure, development, or asset environments is essential. Experience should include establishing standards and contractual requirements, overseeing contractor compliance, and managing incident and crisis response; experience across the asset lifecycle and in the Middle East is preferred.