Job Description:

The Senior Manager – Upper Plateau Stations is a client-facing role responsible for managing and governing the design process for a series of complex rail stations within a major rail mega project.

The focus of this role is process, coordination, and interface management, not technical design production. You will ensure that the right people, information, approvals, and governance steps are in place so that station designs progress efficiently, transparently, and in line with client expectations, programme, and quality requirements.

You will act as the primary point of contact for the client on all design process matters for the Upper Plateau Stations, coordinating internal teams and external partners, and ensuring a robust, well-documented path from early design stages through to issued-for-construction design.

Key Responsibilities

1. Client & Stakeholder Engagement (Process-Focused)

• Serve as the main client-facing representative for the design process of the Upper Plateau Stations scope.
• Lead regular design coordination and progress meetings, focusing on process status, decision points, approvals, and outstanding actions.
• Clarify and document client requirements, decisions, and changes, ensuring they are properly fed into the design workflow.
• Coordinate with authorities, regulators, and third parties to manage the approval process, submission schedules, and feedback loops.

2. Design Process Management & Governance

• Define, implement, and maintain a clear design management plan for the Upper Plateau Stations, including workflows, gates, and approval stages.
• Establish and manage design review cycles, comment resolution processes, and formal approval steps for all station design deliverables.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary inputs (architecture, civil/structural, MEP, systems, fire & life safety, accessibility, operations) through a structured process, ensuring timely contributions.
• Manage interface processes between station design and other project elements (track, viaducts, systems, public realm, utilities), ensuring information flows and responsibilities are clear.
• Ensure that changes, variations, and design updates follow controlled change management processes and are fully documented.

3. Programme & Resource Coordination

• Develop and maintain the design process schedule, including key milestones, review dates, submission deadlines, and approval timelines.
• Monitor progress of design teams against process milestones, flagging risks and coordinating recovery or acceleration plans where needed.
• Coordinate resource planning for design activities (not line management of designers), ensuring adequate capacity at critical review and submission stages.
• Support commercial teams by providing schedule and process information relevant to change orders, variations, and claims.

4. Quality, Risk & Compliance (Process Perspective)

• Implement and oversee design process governance in accordance with project quality plans and ISO/quality management systems.
• Ensure that design deliverables follow agreed review, check, and approval steps before submission to the client or authorities.
• Maintain a risk register related to the design process (e.g., delayed inputs, stakeholder approvals, interface dependencies) and coordinate mitigation actions.
• Ensure that compliance checks with codes, standards, and regulatory requirements are embedded into the process and completed at the right stages.
• Promote health, safety, and sustainability considerations by ensuring that relevant reviews (e.g., safety-in-design, environmental, accessibility) are formally incorporated in the design process.

5. Coordination with Technical Leads & Construction

• Work closely with discipline leads and technical managers to understand their design requirements, constraints, and review needs, translating these into process steps and timelines.
• Facilitate constructability and operational reviews by organising workshops, review panels, and structured feedback sessions at key design stages.
• Ensure that construction, operations, and maintenance teams are engaged through a defined process, and that their inputs are captured, tracked, and resolved within the design workflow.

6. Documentation, Reporting & Systems

• Maintain clear documentation of design decisions, actions, and approvals, ensuring strong audit trails for the Upper Plateau Stations design process.
• Oversee use of common data environments (CDE), document control systems, and collaboration platforms to support efficient design coordination.
• Produce regular client-facing reports on design process status (milestones achieved, upcoming decisions, risks, and constraints).

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• Professional certification in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) or chartered/professional status is highly desirable.
• 15+ years of experience in project management on large infrastructure, rail, or transit projects, with a strong focus on design process and coordination.
• Demonstrated experience managing design workflows, approvals, and stakeholder coordination on complex, multi-station or mega-project environments.
• Experience in rail/metro station projects (including elevated or plateau stations) is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with design management frameworks, common data environments, and document control systems.
• Understanding of rail industry standards, station design requirements, and regulatory approval processes.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong process management and organisational skills, with the ability to structure complex multi-stakeholder design activities.
• Excellent client-facing communication skills; able to present process status, risks, and options clearly and constructively.
• Proven ability to coordinate across multiple disciplines, organisations, and cultures in a fast-paced mega-project environment.
• Strong planning, scheduling, and risk management competencies, with experience using project management tools and systems.
• Ability to facilitate meetings and workshops, drive decisions, and resolve issues through structured follow-up and action tracking.
• Detail-oriented, with a focus on documentation, traceability, and compliance.

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