Stakeholder Lead (UAEN)

Overview

Stakeholder & Authority Engagement Leadership

• Lead engagement with all relevant stakeholders and authorities, including:
• Federal, emirate‑level, and municipal authorities
• Regulators and approval bodies
• Landowners and asset owners
• Utility providers and statutory undertakers
• Adjacent developers and third‑party projects
• Establish and maintain structured stakeholder engagement plans aligned with project stage, approvals strategy, and delivery programme.
• Act as the senior point of contact for authority and stakeholder discussions, ensuring a consistent, professional, and credible position is presented at all times.
• Build strong, trusted working relationships with key UAE authorities and agencies to support timely decision‑making and issue resolution.
• Ensure stakeholder feedback, conditions, and requirements are captured, tracked, and effectively embedded within project design and delivery strategies.

Permitting, Approvals & Regulatory Coordination

• Lead and coordinate approval strategies across the project lifecycle, including:
• Planning and zoning approvals
• Environmental and permitting consents
• Access, traffic, and utility approvals
• Construction permits and NOCs
• Operational readiness and handover approvals
• Define clear approval pathways, responsibilities, and timelines in coordination with design, construction, and commercial teams.
• Monitor, manage, and report on approval status, risks, and dependencies, proactively escalating issues where programme or risk exposure arises.
• Support the preparation and submission of approval documentation, ensuring technical, commercial, and stakeholder requirements are aligned.
• Work closely with legal and commercial teams to ensure approvals and conditions are reflected appropriately within contracts and agreements.

Land, ROW & Third

Party Interface Management

• Lead confirmation and protection of:
• Land ownership boundaries
• Rights‑of‑Way (ROW)
• Easements, access corridors, and third‑party constraints
• Interface with landowners, authorities, utilities, and third parties to secure agreements, protections, and access arrangements.
• Identify and manage risks associated with third‑party land, interfaces, and adjacent assets, ensuring mitigations are implemented early.
• Support negotiations related to land use, access, temporary occupations, and interfaces
• Ensure land and ROW constraints are clearly communicated and embedded within design development and construction planning.

Technical Interface & Issue Resolution

• Act as a key interface between stakeholders, authorities, and the technical delivery team to resolve:
• Authority technical comments and clarifications
• Approval‑driven design changes
• Third‑party technical constraints and requirements
• Coordinate technical queries and responses, ensuring alignment with set objectives.
• Support workshops, meetings, and technical reviews with authorities and stakeholders.
• Ensure stakeholder and authority requirements are translated into clear design inputs, approval conditions, and implementation actions.

Risk Management & Delivery De

Risking

• Identify and actively manage stakeholder, authority, land, and permitting risks.
• Provide input into:
• Project risk registers
• Programme and contingency planning
• Investment and governance submissions
• Proactively resolve or mitigate issues that may impact schedule, cost, constructability, or bankability.

Governance, Reporting & Internal Alignment

• Provide clear, timely reporting on stakeholder and approval status to senior management
• Support internal approvals, investment committee papers, and board submissions

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant subject, including but not limited to; civil engineering, construction management or, project management (not critical)

Competencies

• Minimum of 10 years’ of highly relevant and direct experience in stakeholder manager activities, relating to infrastructure or major project environments, in the UAE (mandatory).
• Demonstrated experience leading complex stakeholder and authority interfaces within UAE infrastructure projects (mandatory).
• Strong understanding of UAE regulatory, approval, and governance environments.
• Confident communicator with the credibility to engage at senior government and executive levels.
• Pragmatic, structured, and solutions‑focused approach to issue resolution.
• Commercially aware, balancing stakeholder outcomes with programme, risk, and value objectives.
• Collaborative leadership style suited to multifaceted, multi‑party project environments.