Hire an Executive Assistant in Saudi Arabia: Cost, Visa & Sourcing Guide

Executive Assistant Demand in the Kingdom

Demand for high-calibre Executive Assistants in Saudi Arabia has climbed sharply, and the cause is the same structural shift reshaping the rest of the corporate market: the Regional Headquarters Programme that now requires multinationals to base their MENA HQ in Riyadh to remain eligible for Saudi government contracts (the rule took effect on 1 January 2024 and has drawn hundreds of companies to relocate or establish regional headquarters in the capital), plus the rapid growth of Public Investment Fund (PIF) portfolio companies. Every new regional HQ and every scaling PIF-backed company needs senior support staff to run the offices of newly-appointed C-suite executives, and the supply of trusted, discreet, GCC-experienced EAs has not kept pace. Family offices and the founding families behind large local conglomerates such as the Olayan, Al Rajhi and Alturki houses are a second, premium source of demand, paying significantly above corporate norms for an EA they trust.

The candidate pool is mixed and quality-stratified. There is a broad regional supply of administrative and PA candidates, but genuinely senior EAs who can manage a CEO's diary, board materials, travel, confidential matters and stakeholder relationships at pace are scarce and command a premium. Who is hiring? PIF portfolio companies, multinational regional headquarters, family offices and family conglomerates, law and consulting firms, banks and the giga-projects (NEOM, Red Sea Global, Qiddiya, ROSHN, Diriyah) staffing out their executive offices. For government-linked and local-family employers, Arabic is a meaningful advantage. The geography of demand is also concentrating: Riyadh dominates because of the Regional HQ mandate and the relocation of head offices, while Jeddah and the Eastern Province (Dhahran/Al Khobar, home to Aramco and the energy cluster) carry the second and third tiers of executive-office hiring. A growing share of EA mandates now expect the candidate to act as a chief-of-staff-lite, handling light project coordination, expense governance and board-calendar logistics rather than pure diary management, which lifts the seniority bar and narrows the genuinely qualified field still further.

How the Kingdom Differs for This Hire

People-facing roles in Saudi Arabia are where Saudization is strictest: many administrative, HR and remote customer-service occupations are reserved for Saudis outright. For these posts the realistic question is not whether to hire a Saudi but how to find, train and keep one — Jadarat, HRDF (Hadaf) wage support and graduate programmes are the usual tools.

What an Executive Assistant Costs You in Saudi Arabia

We don't publish a Saudi salary band for this role yet, so we won't quote one. Use the live market data on this page and current offers in your network for the base-pay figure.

Then the fixed government charges for sponsoring a non-Saudi. The expat levy is SAR 800 a month while expats outnumber Saudis in your establishment and drops to SAR 700 once they don't — another reason Saudization and cost planning are the same exercise. Every expat also needs a SAR 100 annual work permit and an iqama costing about SAR 650 a year (a secondary-source figure; Absher and Muqeem show the live fee). Licensed industrial establishments stopped paying the levy after a December 2025 Cabinet decision. If the executive assistant brings family, each dependant costs SAR 400 a month, normally borne by the employee.

GOSI is the other line. For an expat the employer pays 2% (occupational hazards) and the employee pays nothing. For a Saudi executive assistant who first joined GOSI on or after 3 July 2024, the employer pays 12.75% and the employee 10.75% on 1 October 2026 (the annuity part rises 0.5 points every 3 July until 11% in 2028); under the old system it is 11.75% and 9.75%. The base is basic plus housing, floored at SAR 1,500 and capped at SAR 45,000 a month.

Accrue the end-of-service award from day one. Saudi law pays half a month of actual wage per year for the first five years and a month per year after that; resignation reduces it (none before two years, a third up to five, two thirds up to ten).

Saudization Check: Is Your Executive Assistant Contract on the Reserved List?

Executive Assistant is not on the Saudized-professions list we track (reviewed 1 October 2026): no ministerial decision we know of reserves a fixed share of executive assistant posts for Saudis. That does not make the hire neutral. Every expat you add still lowers your establishment's weighted Saudi percentage in Nitaqat, and Nitaqat decides whether you can issue visas and renew iqamas.

Secretary and administrative-assistant titles are among the administrative roles reserved 100% for Saudis. An executive-assistant contract registered under one of those occupation codes would be Saudi-only, so check the code before advertising to expats.

Nitaqat Weighting for This Hire

Whatever the profession rules say, Nitaqat is the ratio Qiwa checks before it lets you issue a visa, renew an iqama or accept a transfer. It is a points system. A Saudi employee paid SAR 4,000 or more a month is worth one point; one paid less is worth half. A Saudi employee with a documented disability is worth 4 points, but only up to a tenth of your headcount. Expats are not points at all — they only add to the total you divide by.

Two practical consequences for a executive assistant hire. First, a Saudi executive assistant on a contract that is not documented on Qiwa scores nothing: since 15 April 2026 undocumented contracts are ignored. Second, the band each percentage buys is set per activity and company size by formulas HRSD keeps unpublished, so the only reliable check is Qiwa's own calculator, run before you sign an expat offer.

Qualifications and Certifications

There is no licence, registration or mandatory qualification required to work as an Executive Assistant in Saudi Arabia. Unlike accountants (who effectively need SOCPA — Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants — membership to practise) or engineers (who need Saudi Council of Engineers registration), the EA role is not licence-gated at all. What gates this role is discretion and trust, not certification: the EA handles confidential board, financial and personal matters for senior executives, so judgement, reliability and the ability to keep confidence are the real screening criteria. Employers look for a strong track record supporting C-suite or director-level principals, excellent written and spoken English, polished communication, calendar and travel-management mastery, and increasingly Microsoft 365 and digital-tooling fluency. Arabic is a meaningful plus for government-linked employers and local-family offices, where correspondence and stakeholder relationships are often conducted in Arabic and where the EA may need to liaise with ministries, banks and government-relations (GR) staff in Arabic. Any foreign degree may need attestation through the Saudi cultural attaché and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of an expat work-permit application, but no specific degree is mandatory for the role itself. Optional credentials that signal seriousness — though never required — include recognised administrative-professional certifications and structured project- or office-management training; in practice a clean confidentiality record and verifiable C-suite references outweigh any certificate.

Arabic-Language Expectations

These roles deal with Saudi staff, visitors, candidates or government portals all day, so Arabic is close to essential — and most of them are on, or next to, the Saudized lists. English is the second test, not the first.

Sponsorship Paperwork, Probation and Notice

The paperwork order for an executive assistant hire in the Kingdom:

1. Offer and visa route: a candidate already in the Kingdom can move to you by service transfer on Qiwa; an overseas hire needs a work-visa allocation issued through Qiwa against your Nitaqat standing
2. Arrival and iqama: after entry, the medical check and iqama issuance run through Muqeem/Absher; keep the iqama and work permit valid for the whole contract
3. Contract on Qiwa: the employment contract is documented on Qiwa — and only Qiwa-documented Saudi contracts count for Nitaqat
4. GOSI registration: register the employee with GOSI from the start date

Contract terms to get right: a probation clause of up to 90 days (180 only with a written extension), notice on an indefinite contract of 30 days from the employee or 60 days from you under the 2025 amendments, 21 days' annual leave (30 after five years) and the statutory sick-leave scale of 30 days full pay, 60 days at three-quarters and 30 unpaid.

Sourcing Channels in the Kingdom

Most employers run a blended sourcing approach:

• Niche regional job boards such as MenaJobs, which concentrate GCC-based, work-authorised candidates and cut the irrelevant-overseas-applicant noise of global boards.
• LinkedIn for active and passive sourcing of senior EAs and PAs, often the primary channel for this role.
• Jadarat / Taqat (the Saudi national employment platform and the HRDF/Hadaf Taqat programme) for sourcing Saudi nationals, which directly supports your Nitaqat band and can attract wage subsidies for qualifying Saudi hires.
• Bayt and other established regional boards for broad reach across the Kingdom and the wider GCC.
• Specialist and confidential recruitment agencies for chairman's-office, family-office and CEO-level mandates, where discretion is essential; expect a placement fee as a percentage of annual salary.

Lead with a tightly written job description stating the seniority of the principal, the confidentiality expectations, the language requirements and the iqama/transfer expectations to filter early. For the most sensitive chairman's-office and family-office searches, many employers deliberately run a quiet, referral-led process rather than a public posting, using a trusted agency or internal network to protect confidentiality and reach passive candidates who would never apply to an open advert.

Sample Executive Assistant Job Posting That Converts (Saudi Arabia)

Job title: Executive Assistant to the CEO - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

About the role: A [industry] organisation in Riyadh seeks a highly discreet, experienced Executive Assistant to support our CEO, manage a complex calendar, coordinate board materials and travel, and act as a trusted gatekeeper to the executive office.

Key responsibilities:

• Manage the CEO's calendar, meetings, correspondence and complex international travel.
• Prepare board packs, presentations and confidential reports.
• Act as the primary point of contact between the CEO's office and internal/external stakeholders.
• Handle confidential and personal matters with absolute discretion.

Requirements: 5+ years supporting C-suite or director-level principals; excellent English (Arabic a strong plus, especially for government-linked liaison); proven discretion and judgement; Microsoft 365 fluency; transferable iqama or Saudi national preferred.

What we offer: Competitive tax-free salary (SAR [X]-[Y]/month) plus housing and transport allowance, medical insurance for you and dependants, employer-sponsored iqama where applicable, and end-of-service gratuity.

Tip: state the seniority of the principal, the confidentiality expectation and the iqama expectation in the post - this single change sharply cuts unqualified applications.

Executive Assistant Screening Checklist

• Work authorisation: Saudi national, transferable iqama, or overseas candidate you are willing to sponsor and budget for (including the expat levy and dependant fees).
• Discretion and trust: Reference-check confidentiality and judgement directly with prior principals - this gates the role more than any credential.
• C-suite track record: Verified experience supporting CEO/chairman/director-level executives.
• Languages: English fluency tested; Arabic ability confirmed where the role requires it.
• Core competencies: Calendar, travel, board-material and stakeholder management tested with scenario questions.
• Notice period: Confirm the candidate's current notice — on an indefinite Saudi contract, 30 days when the employee resigns — and whether a Qiwa service transfer is possible.
• References: Verify last two principals, scope of the office supported and reason for leaving.