Executive Operations Manager At UN Development Programme

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Position Information

  • Organization: UNDP Saudi Arabia, through Stars Orbit Consultants and Management Development (SOC).
  • VA No. VA26/159
  • Project: Support to the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites (RCMC)
  • Position Title: Executive Operations Manager
  • Duty Station: Jeddah/Makkah – RCMC Office
  • Duration: 6 Months with possibility of extension
  • National or International Consultant: Saudi National
  • Vacancy Date of Issue: 7 September 2026
  • Vacancy Closure Date: 13 September 2026
  • Expected Starting Date: As soon as possible

Development and Public-Service Context

This assignment forms part of UNDP’s technical assistance to the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites (RCMC), aimed at strengthening institutional capacity and supporting the delivery of sustainable, resilient, and high-quality public services in Makkah and the Holy Sites. Makkah experiences exceptional seasonal population pressures associated with Hajj and Umrah, placing significant demands on urban infrastructure, public services, institutional coordination, and service delivery. By strengthening executive operations, coordination, communication, and follow-through within RCMC, this assignment contributes to improved institutional effectiveness and supports broader development objectives related to urban resilience, sustainable service delivery, and the effective functioning of a city serving millions of residents, pilgrims, and visitors each year.

To review the job description, please click on the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hwoedd4q2tcslW_qm3dOVv47sxco2yaA/view?usp=sharing

Project Description

Makkah City is one of the two holy cities of Islam in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the other being Madinah City. The two holy sites attract millions of Hajj and Umrah pilgrims every year. Indeed, the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages are the backbone of Makkah’s economy. However, the total population of Makkah City over the Hajj period reaches over 4 million, almost doubling the population density and severely straining infrastructure and services. Nonetheless, a key goal of the Saudi Vision 2030 — the Kingdom’s long-term development blueprint launched in 2016 which aims to cut Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil, while promoting new sectors, from manufacturing and financial services to culture and tourism — is to provide quality services to 30 million international Umrah visitors (in addition to ~15 million local visitors) every year by 2040, almost tripling the international Umrah capacity existing today.

The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites (RCMC) was established by Royal Decree as a result of KSA’s commitment to improve the pilgrimage experience within Makkah and to transform the city. Its primary mandate is to improve services in Makkah City and the Holy Sites in a manner that is commensurate with their sanctity, with the overall aim of enhancing, strengthening, and evolving the city of Makkah for the benefit of all. The RCMC’s vision for the City of Makkah is of a polycentric, liveable, cultural, tourist-friendly, resilient, and sustainable city in 2040. A Plan which consists of four Streams: Update of Makkah City’s Development Strategy (Stream A), development of a Spatial Development Framework (Stream B), development of a Detailed Masterplan for the Central Area (Stream C), and finally, development of Al Mashaer Concept Master Plan (Stream D) for the target year of 2040 (Plan) . Stream A covers the entire RCMC boundary (approx. 2700 km2); while taking the entire RCMC boundary, Stream B covers the Haram envelope (approx. 560km2), Stream C the Central Area inside holy Makkah’s second ring road (approx. 6km2), while Stream D covers the Masha’er area along with its recognized buffer zone (approx. 32 km2). Work on this Plan via a selected international consortium of over 10 world-renowned companies has commenced in February 2024.

The RCMC seeks to be an effective contributor to the achievement of the ambitious objectives of KSA Vision 2030 and to provide quality services to 30 million Umrah visitors annually by 2040 as will be stipulated by the Plan. One of the main subject areas to be addressed in the Plan will be Utilities in a comprehensive manner with the aim of plugging in any existing gaps and providing an adequate and integrated utilities network that is efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly towards 2040. The RCMC is the main beneficiary of the Support to the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites Project through which UNDP will provide technical assistance, quality control, advisory services, and capacity development support over a period of 24 months starting from December 2023 to strengthen the capacity of the RCMC to deliver on its mandate, fulfil its responsibilities and achieve its vision for Makkah City and the specific objectives of the Plan while also contributing to the realization of KSA Vision 2030.

Scope of Work

The Royal Commission for Makkah City & Holy Sites (RCMC) is seeking a highly capable, experienced, and proactive Executive Operations Manager to provide dedicated operational and executive support to a senior executive within the RCMC.

The primary purpose of the role is to maximize the executive’s effectiveness by taking ownership of the administrative, coordination, communication, and follow-up activities surrounding their work, enabling greater focus on strategic priorities and decision-making.

This is a high-trust role requiring exceptional organization, accuracy, judgment, written communication, and follow-through. The successful candidate will be expected to operate with a high degree of independence, progressively develop a strong understanding of the executive’s priorities and working context, and take ownership of matters through to closure without requiring continuous direction or follow-up.

Key Responsibilities

a. Executive & Calendar Management

  • Take full ownership of the executive’s calendar administration and serve as the primary focal point for all incoming and outgoing meeting coordination.
  • Coordinate complex schedules across multiple internal and external stakeholders, including identifying availability, issuing invitations, managing changes, and ensuring meeting logistics are handled accurately and efficiently.
  • Obtain sufficient context for incoming meeting requests before presenting them to the executive, including the meeting purpose, agenda, required level of representation, attendees, timing, and other relevant information.
  • Maintain agreed calendar frameworks and recurring requirements, including protected time and other established scheduling parameters.
  • Surface scheduling conflicts and provide the executive with the information required to determine priorities, while retaining substantive prioritization decisions with the executive.

b. Task Management, Monitoring & Follow-Through

  • Maintain a comprehensive and reliable system for tracking the executive’s commitments, delegated actions, requests, approvals, correspondence, deadlines, and other outstanding matters.
  • Proactively identify and capture actions and commitments from emails, correspondence, meetings attended, calls, voice notes, and other day-to-day interactions without relying solely on explicit instructions to track each item.
  • Translate informal or fragmented instructions into clearly structured actions, deadlines, follow-ups, and reminders.
  • Monitor approaching deadlines and outstanding commitments proactively, ensuring that the executive is reminded sufficiently in advance where their action or decision is required.
  • Follow up independently with internal stakeholders, generally up to General Manager level, and relevant external coordinators to obtain outstanding information, deliverables, approvals, or responses.
  • Investigate delays and outstanding actions, coordinate with relevant parties to facilitate resolution, and escalate matters to the executive when their intervention, authority, or decision is required.
  • Maintain closed-loop ownership of assigned matters through completion rather than limiting follow-up to status reporting.
  • Ensure that information received in response to requests is complete against what was requested, identifying missing components or unanswered items before considering an action closed.

c. Correspondence & Written Communication

  • Draft high-quality formal correspondence in Arabic and English, with particular emphasis on excellent professional Arabic writing (إعداد خطابات رسمية).
  • Prepare routine and moderately sensitive emails, formal letters, internal memoranda, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, records of decisions, action summaries, and responses to incoming correspondence.
  • Prepare concise summaries of outstanding matters and actions for executive review as required.
  • Ensure drafts are accurate, complete, professionally structured, and thoroughly quality-checked before submission to the executive for review.

d. Meetings & Action Management

  • Attend selected meetings where operational support, minute-taking, decision recording, action capture, or subsequent coordination and follow-up are required.
  • Produce accurate and concise minutes, action logs, and records of decisions.
  • Capture responsibilities, commitments, and deadlines arising from meetings and incorporate them into the relevant tracking and follow-up systems.
  • Maintain continuity between meeting discussions, subsequent correspondence, actions, and changes in direction.

e. Information & Document Management

  • Maintain an organized and accessible working knowledge of key documents, correspondence, presentations, decisions, and historical records relevant to the executive’s work.
  • Rapidly locate and retrieve historical files, presentations, correspondence, or other information based on contextual requests from the executive.
  • Organize digital records and information in a manner that supports efficient retrieval and continuity.
  • Maintain awareness of evolving matters sufficiently to help identify where relevant information may be located and how it relates to previous discussions, correspondence, or decisions.

f. Executive Support & Operational Coordination

  • Serve as a reliable operational focal point between the executive and relevant internal and external stakeholders.
  • Receive ad-hoc instructions through meetings, calls, and messages and independently organize them into appropriate actions and follow-ups.
  • Apply sound judgment in distinguishing between matters that can be handled independently and those requiring executive input, decision, or escalation.
  • Continuously seek efficient ways to execute tasks and coordinate workflows while avoiding unnecessary processes or demands on other team members.
  • Protect the executive from unnecessary administrative and coordination burden by resolving matters independently wherever reasonably possible within the role’s authority.

Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Strong relevant professional experience, preferably approximately 5–8 years, with demonstrated experience providing direct executive support to senior leaders in a demanding organizational environment.
  • Proven experience in Executive Assistant, Senior Executive Assistant, Executive Office, Executive Operations, CEO Office, or comparable executive-support roles.
  • Experience within Saudi government entities, large organizations, major corporations, or similarly complex institutional environments is preferred.
  • Project management, PMO, project coordination, or similar experience is advantageous but not required.
  • Full professional fluency in Arabic and English, written and spoken.
  • Exceptional professional Arabic drafting capability is essential.
  • Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office, digital scheduling, task-management, and document-management tools.

How to apply

How to apply

  1. CV must be submitted online in PDF format through SOC’s portal via the following link: https://vacancies.my-soc.org/apply/20260907170815/VACANCY-6A9EEF7FE34EB
  2. If the candidate is currently employed by a government institution, he/she must be able to provide an unpaid leave of absence for the duration of the consultancy.
  3. Only candidates who are short-listed will be contacted.
  4. By submitting your application, you have read the Terms of Reference for this position and agree that any false, wrong, or incomplete information might lead to your disqualification in this recruitment process.