Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

I am looking to move out to ME as plenty of opportunities in Rail I hear and see in news in KSA, DOHA and UAE. My preference is KSA purely because I am familiar with the culture due to have been raised and educated there as a child.

Can someone on this forum please tell me where to start from. How to get the job and how long could it take from the time of me accepting the job offer to the time I can actually move out.


Also, if someone in this forum can point out on where to look for expat only jobs (from UK) in the above countries, I would appreciate it very much.

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

Lots of stuff happening/about to kick off out here but you need good experience to get a decent salary, what's your background?

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

Just saw from your other posts that you have 6+ years in rail and Certification Engineer experience. Is that rolling stock, pway, MEP, signalling? It's a bit light experience-wise but you might be lucky for a junior role if you have a needed specialisation. Best site for ME expat rail jobs is railwaypeople.com in my experience. Also try railpersonnel.com and justrail.net. If there's nothing there right away, you can contact most of the main recruitment agencies via Railway People and send them your CV. For Saudi, also try SRO/SRC in Dammam and SAR in Riyadh. For UAE try ERDB either direct or via DB Schenker at Toton, or RTA, Serco or Alstom in Dubai. In Qatar, there's QR and DB. Serco have nearly finished up in Doha so no point them. Oman is only just starting. Engineers/PMCs like Systra, Parsons and Aecom have fingers in pies right across the region. Otherwise, plenty of grunt work around for less money if your heart's set on Saudi.

A lot of vacancies go unadvertised - in fact I'd say more than not in the Middle East rail sector. Either an agent approaches you, which is most common, or it's word of mouth. You need to get more experience, realistically, first though.

Time to land a job can be anything from relatively quick (took me just under 3 months from seeing ad to start date for this one) to dragged out/never (still in the frame for a job I was approached for 14 months ago).

Just a question of plugging away till something comes up. Good luck.

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

Standanista, many thanks for important pieces of advice. My 7 year experience is in rolling stock (depot, management, and more recently certification consultant). By review of job adverts for ME, I appreciate 7 years is light but I don't want to wait until I have 10+ experience as the vacancies that are hot now may not be around then, more so the competition will be high as things will stabilize etc.


KSA is the preference purely because of the savings I can make there. How would you rate UAE and Qatar against KSA in terms of overall packages.
Also, how much is 'less money' in KSA. I applied for a position with a German Rail company in Jeddah and first question they have asked me is about my salary expectation? I am not sure what shall I respond with? can you guide please

Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

hi,
I applied for a vacancy with a German company in Jeddah, KSA. As part of the screening, they have asked me what are my salary expectations for this role.


Frankly, I have not a clue. I am currently earning £45k in UK however I am not sure whether I will be offered this much in KSA due to somewhat 'light' experience.

Can experienced members please help me urgently so that I can respond back to them.

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

No worries.

In general, management-level rail jobs in Saudi, Qatar and Abu Dhabi pay better than Dubai. I'd say Saudi and Qatar are currently pretty similar money-wise for rail.

To give you a few markers, and for the benefit of anybody else looking at rail jobs in the region, this is what I know:

I have a couple of mates in the Dubai rail industry with your level of experience and they're making AED 30k-40k/month plus medical, annual flight home and 30k p.a. towards accommodation but no other benefits. That's Dubai though. You'd get more in Abu Dhabi or Riyadh with your experience, working for somebody like TUV. I heard SAR 60k/month for a relatively junior consulting role in KSA in railway systems assurance but that's probably towards the top of the bracket for someone with 7 years under their belt plus it's a niche position.

Further up the scale, for 15+ years seniority, Qatar Rail are currently paying a couple of other mates QAR 65k-70k/month plus 15k/month accommodation plus flights. For a consultancy role in Saudi, placed into the public sector, I was quoted SAR 87.5k/month lump sum on an initial 12 month contract for a job wanting a minimum 15 years in the industry. Some of the more senior Qatar and KSA roles are well into 6 figures per month.

For the German/Jeddah role, if you give me more info on the exact position I might be able to help further. I'm presuming either TUV or DB/Jeddah Metro shadow operator bid or Haramain High Speed?

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

Thanks again for useful info. Please see PM.

Re: Railway Jobs in Saudi Arabia
 

Sorted. ;)

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

It would help if you say what you're applying for

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

And REFRAIN FROM SHOUTING. It is rude.

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

Apologies, the role is of a testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock), typical JD that you find in West.



What do you mean?

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

2-2.5x times current plus housing.

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

thanks Millhouse :thumbsup:


do I quote a figure for housing or just mention 'plus housing'

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

I think that's ambitious.

re: Salary expectation for testing and commissioning engineer (rolling stock) in KSA
 

What would be a sensible offer in your opinion please?