Project Manager – Water and Wastewater

About the Role
The company is looking for a Project Manager – Water and Wastewater to join its Water team in Dubai. This role combines technical oversight of water and wastewater infrastructure with project management responsibilities across all phases, including feasibility, design, construction supervision, commissioning, and handover. The successful candidate will collaborate with the Project Director and multidisciplinary teams in regional offices, serve as the main point of contact for clients and authorities, and contribute to the growth of the Water business in the region. This position is ideal for an experienced water engineer who can integrate technical judgment with comprehensive project delivery responsibilities.

Responsibilities
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
Engineering & Technical

• Providing technical oversight of the design development for water and wastewater treatment plants, desalination plants, pumping stations, potable water systems, stormwater drainage, sewerage, and treated sewage effluent networks while agreeing on the design basis and performance criteria with the project team.
• Reviewing key design deliverables, including basis of design reports, calculations, drawings, and specifications, ensuring compliance with client requirements and applicable standards.
• Participating in design reviews, constructability reviews, technical sessions, and workshops.
• Preparing and reviewing technical reports, including feasibility studies and supervision reports.
• Offering technical support during construction and commissioning, reviewing contractor submittals and technical queries.
• Acting as a technical adviser to clients and authorities, presenting technical solutions, and supporting authority submissions.

Project Delivery and Management

• Managing water infrastructure projects or work packages from feasibility and design through procurement, construction supervision, commissioning, and handover.
• Defining project objectives, scope, delivery strategy, and success measures in collaboration with the client and Project Director.
• Preparing project execution plans, budgets, programs, and resource plans.
• Identifying delivery risks early and directing mitigation and recovery actions.
• Managing changes to scope, schedule, and cost, and monitoring performance against agreed KPIs.
• Monitoring program and cost performance against the baseline and reporting variances.
• Preparing regular progress and performance reports for clients and internal management.
• Serving as the main point of contact for clients, government authorities, development partners, contractors, and subconsultants.
• Applying the company quality, environmental, health and safety policies, and promoting health, safety, and wellbeing throughout project delivery.

Team Management

• Coordinating multidisciplinary teams, including civil, structural, process, mechanical, electrical, environmental, planning, commercial, and digital specialists, and resolving interface issues between disciplines.
• Collaborating with regional and international technical teams, working across different offices and managing remote team members.
• Mentoring and coaching junior engineers, promoting technical excellence and knowledge transfer.
• Supporting continuous improvement, lessons learned, and effective use of digital tools and data.

Business Development

• Assisting in proposal preparation, including technical approach, methodology, resource plans, and fee inputs.
• Building and maintaining relationships with clients, delivery partners, contractors, and regulators.
• Identifying new project opportunities from ongoing assignments and collaborating with the business development team to follow up.

Qualifications
Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Water, Mechanical, Chemical or Environmental Engineering, or a related discipline (Master’s degree preferred).
• 12-15 years of experience in water and wastewater infrastructure design and delivery, preferably within an engineering consultancy.
• Professional registration or chartered status with a recognized engineering body, such as P.Eng, CEng, or equivalent.
• Experience managing consultancy assignments across feasibility studies, design, tender preparation, construction supervision, and commissioning of water and wastewater treatment plants and networks.
• Solid understanding of water and wastewater treatment processes, engineering design principles, and relevant local and international standards.
• Proven experience managing projects or substantial work packages within water infrastructure, delivering against time, cost, quality, and safety objectives.
• Practical understanding of project controls, including program, cost, forecasting, risk, change, and performance reporting.
• Proven ability to act as the main point of contact for clients and key stakeholders, and to build effective relationships with clients, contractors, and delivery partners.
• Commercial awareness with the confidence to identify, manage, and escalate delivery and contractual risks.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, including technical report writing and client presentations.

Preferred

• Experience delivering water projects in UAE or the wider GCC, with knowledge of local authority requirements and approval processes.
• Detail-oriented approach with a strong ability to review technical documentation and identify design risks, inconsistencies, or improvement opportunities.
• Willingness to travel to client offices and project sites across the region.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multidisciplinary teams, coordinate multiple stakeholders, and work with remote and international teams.
• A recognized project management qualification or progress toward professional accreditation.

Contract and Benefits

• Business Line: Energy and Sustainable Cities
• Type of contract: Permanent contract
• Service Line: Water and Energy
• Region: Middle East and South Asia
• Job Family: Project Management - Engineering