Head of Operations and Maintenance Department

Key Responsibilities:

O&M Strategy and Governance

• Lead the development and implementation of the department’s O&M strategy.
• Establish departmental objectives, annual plans, budgets, KPIs and performance targets.
• Develop and maintain O&M policies, procedures, manuals, workflows and technical standards.
• Establish consistent maintenance and reporting practices across the assigned dam portfolio.
• Develop operating philosophies covering normal, abnormal, emergency, shutdown and restart conditions.
• Define governance arrangements for planning, approval, execution, inspection and close-out of maintenance activities.
• Review O&M practices against recognized international standards and recommend improvements.
• Identify critical assets and establish risk-based maintenance priorities.
• Ensure emergency plans, business-continuity arrangements and operational-response procedures are maintained and tested.

Operations and Maintenance Management

• Direct the operation and maintenance of dams and their associated civil, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, instrumentation and control systems.
• Oversee preventive, predictive, corrective, emergency and condition-based maintenance programs.
• Supervise repair, rehabilitation, replacement, installation, testing and commissioning activities.
• Ensure maintenance plans are aligned with asset condition, operational priorities and available resources.
• Monitor equipment availability, reliability, downtime, failure rates and maintenance completion.
• Review recurring failures and ensure root-cause analyses and permanent corrective actions are completed.
• Coordinate planned shutdowns, isolations, restoration and return-to-service activities.
• Ensure maintenance backlogs are prioritized and controlled.
• Monitor spare-parts availability, critical inventory and long-lead equipment requirements.
• Promote lifecycle asset management and sustainable maintenance practices.

Contract Administration

• Administer O&M contracts and ensure compliance with scope, service levels, specifications and contractual conditions.
• Participate in contractor kick-off, coordination, progress and performance-review meetings.
• Review contractors’ work programs, maintenance plans, method statements, technical submissions and resource schedules.
• Monitor consultants, contractors, engineers and technicians and verify the quality and timeliness of their work.
• Evaluate contractor performance against contractual KPIs and service-level agreements.
• Review variations, claims, additional-work requests and extensions of time in coordination with the Contracts team.
• Confirm that completed work is properly inspected, documented and accepted.
• Monitor defects, non-conformances and corrective actions through to closure.
• Provide technical input to new O&M scopes of work, specifications, bills of quantities and tender documents.

Planning, Budgeting and Cost Control

• Develop annual and long-term O&M plans for the dam portfolio.
• Monitor approved schedules, budgets, commitments, expenditure and forecasts.
• Review actual performance against planned maintenance and project milestones.
• Identify schedule delays, cost variances, resource constraints and delivery risks.
• Develop recovery plans and corrective measures for activities performing below target.
• Coordinate with Planning, Finance, Contracts, Procurement and Project Controls.
• Prioritize expenditure according to asset criticality, safety risk and operational need.
• Review maintenance cost trends and identify efficiency and optimization opportunities.
• Support lifecycle cost assessments and capital replacement planning.

Team Leadership and Coordination

• Lead multidisciplinary O&M managers, engineers, technicians, planners and support staff.
• Define roles, responsibilities, reporting lines and performance expectations.
• Review workforce capacity and identify recruitment, deployment, training and succession requirements.
• Develop technical competencies through coaching, training and knowledge transfer.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Asset Management, Risk, Quality, HSE, Procurement and other departments.
• Promote accountability, collaboration and timely decision-making.
• Ensure department resources are deployed effectively across projects and locations.

Safety, Quality and Compliance

• Ensure all O&M activities comply with Saudi laws, applicable codes, Client procedures and contractual requirements.
• Promote safe systems of work, permit-to-work, isolation and lockout/tagout practices.
• Ensure risk assessments, method statements and emergency procedures are approved and implemented.
• Monitor compliance with quality, environmental and occupational health and safety requirements.
• Participate in audits, inspections, incident investigations and management reviews.
• Ensure lessons learned are communicated and incorporated into procedures and maintenance plans.

Performance and Reporting

• Establish and monitor O&M KPIs, including:
• Asset availability and reliability
• Preventive-maintenance compliance
• Planned versus reactive maintenance
• Equipment downtime
• Mean time between failures
• Mean time to repair
• Maintenance backlog
• Work-order completion
• Contractor SLA compliance
• Budget and schedule performance
• Safety and environmental performance
• Prepare clear daily, weekly, monthly, annual and technical reports as required by the assignment.
• Present asset performance, contract status, operational risks and improvement recommendations to senior management.
• Coordinate with government stakeholders, consultants, contractors and multidisciplinary teams.
• Attend meetings, inspections and site visits anywhere in Saudi Arabia as required.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering or an equivalent relevant discipline from a recognized university.
• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) certification or an equivalent internationally recognized qualification.
• Minimum 16 years of professional experience in operations and maintenance.
• Substantial experience administering and managing major O&M contracts.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering and maintenance teams.
• Strong knowledge of dam, water-infrastructure or comparable asset-intensive O&M requirements.
• Experience managing preventive, predictive, corrective and emergency maintenance programs.
• Advanced capability in SAP maintenance management and project-management systems.
• Experience preparing O&M strategies, procedures, budgets, schedules and management reports.
• Sound understanding of contract administration, service-level management and contractor-performance evaluation.
• Strong leadership, commercial awareness, analytical thinking and stakeholder-management capabilities.
• Relevant experience must be supported by verifiable employment records, project references, reports or studies when requested.