Senior Associate Urban Designer

InSite are urban designers, planners and landscape architects who share a love for the craft of designing the built environment and consist of a diverse studio of designers from around the world. We are a diverse studio of designers from around the world with studios in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha. InSite is a unique division of KEO International Consultants, a firm with over a half century of delivering projects throughout the Gulf and a proud legacy to match. We engage at the human scale when creating our places. Each is interrogated from a collaborative viewpoint, tailored to client’s needs and ensuring sensitivity to the unique ecologies, cultures and the communities that we engage with.

Our newest opportunity is for a talented, ambitious Senior Associate to join our growing team in Abu Dhabi, leading the delivery of complex, high-profile Master Plans across the region. This position offers the opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping some of the UAE’s most forward-looking developments, from transformative mixed-use destinations to largescale masterplans that define the next era of urban living in the Middle East.

As a Senior Associate, you will act as a design and management lead, guiding multidisciplinary teams through all Master Plan project stages, working under the design direction of our leadership while ensuring that projects align with client vision, local context, and the firm’s design excellence standards.

Responsibilities

We envisage success in this role to include;

• Oversee project delivery, ensuring design integrity, quality control, and adherence to schedules and budgets.
• Foster strong client relationships and represent the firm in meetings in Abu Dhabi, presentations, and workshops.
• Contribute to design visioning, technical coordination, and interdisciplinary collaboration across offices.
• Mentor and support junior team members, reinforcing a culture of creativity, accountability, and professional growth.
• Coordinate with authorities, consultants, and other stakeholders to ensure seamless project progress and compliance.
• Develop and maintain excellent client relationships, acting as a trusted point of contact and project representative.

Qualifications

To be successful in this opportunity, we envision that your career journey to date will include 10-15 years of professional experience in architecture or master planning, preferably with international and regional exposure.

• Strong design and management background, with experience leading large-scale, mixed-use, hospitality, or residential projects in the region, and particularly in Abu Dhabi.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with proven ability to manage teams and client relationships.
• Comprehensive understanding of regional codes, authority processes, and sustainability principles.
• Professional degree in Architecture, Urban Design, or related discipline; registration or chartership requires.

InSite International is a KEO Allied Practice.

KEO is a creative enterprise, where innovation is a way of life. We are uniquely resourced with end-to-end services to take clients from inspiration – through conceptualization – to realization of planning, design or project delivery in the built and natural environments. For over 60 years we’ve led with vision, contributing to many of the world’s most ambitious projects, iconic places, remarkable experiences and prosperous communities.

As a highly integrated and agile AEP/PMCM firm, KEO is recognized by ENR as one of the Top 225 International Design Firms and one of the Top 20 International PM/CM Firms. We are also ranked by World Architecture as the 57th largest global architecture firm and the #1 Firm in the Middle East Region in their 2023 WA100 Survey.

We invite you to join us. Why?

When you join KEO, you’ll discover more than just a job – you’ll find a supportive environment that fosters your professional development through internal global mobility and career development and does so within a culture that supports company-wide health and well-being through on-demand counselling services and regular workplace clinics.

You will be invited to celebrate community events such as sports days, fun-runs, in-house sports teams and beach clean ups. In addition to your competitive package and benefits you will have access to a suite of policies that include hybrid working arrangements, individual athletic sponsorship, study assistance sponsorship, employee referral rewards, mentoring and coaching programs and extensive in-house on demand learning courses.

KEO’s performance is founded upon integrity, results, innovation, safety and our people. We embrace diversity and recognise its’ contribution to client success wherever we work.

We are excited to hear how you can partner with our award-winning team and treat all expressions of interest confidentially.