About this role
We are looking for qualified and experienced horticulture professionals to join the KAUST Beacon Development team and support the development and maintenance of high-quality indoor and outdoor garden environments.
Positions
- Horticulturalist – Indoor Gardens – 5+ years’ experience
- Assistant Horticulturalist – Outdoor Gardens – 3+ years’ experience
Responsibilities
- Plan and carry out daily horticulture activities across indoor and outdoor garden environments.
- Plant, establish, maintain, prune, propagate, replace, and care for a wide range of plants.
- Maintain trees, shrubs, groundcovers, herbaceous plants, seasonal displays, and indoor plant collections.
- Monitor plant health and identify pests, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, water stress, and environmental issues.
- Implement and support Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies.
- Monitor and manage irrigation, watering, fertilisation, soil/media, and growing conditions.
- Maintain high horticultural, aesthetic, cleanliness, and presentation standards.
- Support seasonal planting and garden maintenance programmes.
- Assist with plant identification, labelling, inventory, collection records, and maintenance records.
- Monitor indoor environmental conditions including light, temperature, and humidity where applicable.
- Maintain and safely operate horticulture tools and equipment.
- Identify and report damaged, declining, hazardous, or poorly performing plants.
- Support routine and preventive horticulture maintenance activities.
- Work collaboratively with horticulturists, gardeners, botanists, landscape teams, irrigation personnel, contractors, and other garden operations teams.
- Maintain clean, organised, and safe horticulture work areas.
- Follow all applicable health, safety, environmental, biosecurity, and horticulture procedures.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture, Botany, Plant Sciences, or a related discipline.
- Horticulturalist – Indoor Gardens: Minimum 5+ years of relevant professional experience.
- Assistant Horticulturalist – Outdoor Gardens: Minimum 3+ years of relevant professional experience.
- Strong practical knowledge of horticulture, plant care, cultivation, and maintenance.
- Experience in indoor gardens, conservatories, glasshouses, botanic gardens, public gardens, nurseries, landscapes, or similar environments.
- Experience with planting, pruning, propagation, watering, fertilisation, mulching, and plant replacement.
- Knowledge of plant identification and plant-health management.
- Experience identifying and managing common pests, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental stresses.
- Knowledge or experience in Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
- Experience with irrigation and water-management practices.
- Knowledge of soil preparation, growing media, fertilisation, and plant nutrition.
- For the Indoor Gardens position, experience managing controlled indoor growing environments including light, temperature, and humidity is required.
- Experience maintaining plant records, inventories, and maintenance documentation.
- Ability to safely use and maintain horticulture tools and equipment.
- Strong teamwork, communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.
- Previous experience in a botanic garden, conservatory, glasshouse, public garden, arboretum, nursery, or major landscape environment is preferred.
- Additional training or professional certification in horticulture, plant health, IPM, irrigation, or related areas is an advantage.
- Master’s degree in a relevant discipline is preferred for the Horticulturalist – Indoor Gardens position.