About the Role

Parsons Corporation is seeking a Senior Director Event Planning to join our integrated Delivery Partner team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role supports a landmark giga-project client, focused on redefining global standards in destination development, innovation, and visitor experience, in alignment with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The position involves playing a key role in planning, designing, and implementing world-class assets and infrastructure for this pioneering program.

Role Purpose

The Senior Director, Event Planning is accountable for establishing and leading the integrated planning capability for major sporting, entertainment, cultural, and civic events across the client’s city operations. This role translates the strategic event portfolio into executable plans, ensuring that scope, governance, budgets, schedules, operational requirements, stakeholder commitments, and readiness activities are defined, assured, and aligned across City Operations, O&M functions, districts, venues, and delivery partners. The Senior Director acts as the City Operations planning lead and integrator for major events, coordinating citywide operational overlays and dependencies while maintaining clear boundaries with event owners and venue operators.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the major-events planning framework, lifecycle, governance model, standards, and assurance requirements.
• Translate strategic objectives and the event calendar into an integrated multi-year portfolio plan, identifying cumulative demand, shared resources, and operational conflicts.
• Establish clear accountabilities, decision rights, stage gates, escalation routes, and interfaces across all relevant stakeholders and functions.
• Provide executive advice, risk assessments, and recommendations on event scope, feasibility, priorities, and readiness.
• Lead the development and assurance of integrated event plans from concept through detailed planning, readiness, live delivery, decommissioning, and post-event review.
• Define event objectives, scope, operating assumptions, attendance profiles, service levels, milestones, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Integrate functional plans covering mobility, security, crowd management, guest experience, accessibility, logistics, waste, cleaning, public realm, wayfinding, workforce, volunteers, technology, communications, and emergency response.
• Maintain the integrated master schedule, action tracker, dependency map, decision log, and evidence repository for each major event.
• Coordinate planning for concurrent events and destination operations to protect business continuity, asset integrity, and guest experience.
• Lead the development of event operational concepts, venue and citywide operating models, service overlays, and temporary infrastructure requirements.
• Establish and manage a risk-based operational readiness and assurance program with defined evidence, reviews, approvals, and go/no-go criteria.
• Lead tabletop exercises, simulations, test events, venue readiness reviews, and integrated rehearsals.
• Ensure approved plans transition effectively into live event command, control, communications, and reporting arrangements.
• Lead structured post-event reviews, performance assessments, lessons learned, and improvement plans.
• Lead cross-functional planning forums and build effective relationships with event owners, venues, districts, government entities, emergency services, operators, sponsors, promoters, and service partners.
• Develop cost plans, resource forecasts, procurement strategies, and scopes for specialist event advisory, planning, and delivery services.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing event planning team, supported by specialist consultants and delivery partners.

City Operations Accountability

This role specifically focuses on City Operations accountability, encompassing citywide event planning standards, integrated operational overlays, cross-functional coordination, readiness assurance, multi-agency governance, and citywide operational integration, including alignment with O&M services and infrastructure.

Qualifications and Experience

Candidates should possess approximately 25 years of experience, providing senior leadership, strategic judgment, and operational integration expertise for large-scale and high-profile events. Preferred qualifications include:

• Leadership experience supporting Formula One, international football, Olympic or Asian Games, major tennis tournaments, festivals, concerts, exhibitions, or comparable high-attendance events.
• Experience within an organizing committee, major destination, venue cluster, promoter, event consultancy, public authority, or integrated resort.
• Practical exposure to citywide event overlays, temporary infrastructure, command and control, workforce and volunteer planning, accessibility, sustainability, and guest experience.

Application

This role offers an opportunity to contribute to a transformative project shaping the future of Saudi Arabia.