Information Technology Jobs Report Prepared By: Hend S. Al-Khalifa Professor at the IT department, CCIS, KSU

1. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
Release Date: Saturday, April 01, 2017
Information Technology
Jobs Report
A Survey of IT Jobs in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia 2017
Prepared By: Hend S. Al-Khalifa
Professor at the IT department, CCIS, KSU
Hendk@ksu.edu.sa
*(Image Courtesy ICT workforce report 2015)

2. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Information Technology (IT) Department would like to acknowledge the hard work of its
graduates: Ms. Amal Al-Abdulakarim and Ms. Sara Al-Tawijri for their efforts in conducting this
study and collecting the data.

3. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary .........................................................................................................4
2. Screening Jobs Websites ..................................................................................................5
2.1 IT Jobs by source........................................................................................................5
2.2 Main IT areas.............................................................................................................6
3. IT Graduates Survey.........................................................................................................7
3.1 Demographics ...........................................................................................................7
3.2 Jobs Type..................................................................................................................8
3.3 Jobs Providers .........................................................................................................10
3.4 Jobs Sectors ............................................................................................................10
3.5 IT Certificates and Programming languages.................................................................11
3. Outlook........................................................................................................................13

4. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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1. Executive Summary
Information Technology (IT) sector is of vital importance to Saudi Arabia (SA) to proceed with its
plans to diversify the economy and create new job opportunities for youths as well as achieve
the ambitious goals of SA National Transformation Program (2020).
In a previous report by the Commutations and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in
20151
, the report highlighted the main ICT workforce in SA. Further to ICT report, this report is
intended to define the main Saudi Arabia’s market needs for IT professionals.
The key objective of this study is to conduct an exhaustive survey of all IT jobs in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia by employing two data collection approaches: screening job advertisement
websites and surveying newly employed IT graduates.
Therefore, the findings of the report are based on the data collected from popular jobs
advertisement websites as well as an online survey. The key findings of the report are
summarized below:
1) The demand on IT developers is starting to emerge as new startups are created in the
local market.
2) There is a need for IT graduates with business skills.
3) Network and Security are two areas that are in need in the current market.
4) The shift from government jobs to private sector jobs has increased in the past couple of
years.
5) New IT market requires professionals with International certificates and mastery of
specific programming languages.
Disclaimer: By no means is this report to be considered complete of the entire IT jobs market
landscape, yet, it can be considered as a first step to shed the light on the current and future
directions of the IT jobs market.
1
ICT Workforce Report 2015

5. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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2. Screening Jobs Websites
The job offers that were posted in popular Jobs websites are those that were published at the
end of 2016 and more precisely in November and December 2016. We screened the following
websites for job postings:
 Linkedin.com
 Bayt.com
 Gulftalent.com
 Saudiemp.com
2.1 IT Jobs by source
As Figure 1 shows, Bayt was the largest place for posting IT jobs (36%), LinkedIn was second
(33%) and GultTalent third (18%) and finally Saudi Employment (a newly established website)
was fourth (13%).
Figure 1: IT Job advertisement by source

6. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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2.2 Main IT areas
Based on the collected IT jobs advertisements, we can see (as in Figure 2) that the main IT job
areas are (in descending order):
• Business Solutions (26%). This includes: enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer
relationship management (CRM) software, business intelligence and reporting tools.
• Networking/ Security/ Quality (24%). This includes: mobile security solutions and
advanced security solutions.
• Software Development/ Engineering (20%). This includes: website development,
maintenance and administration, mobile applications development, software quality
assurance, etc.
• Management (16%). This includes: content creation and social business/media specialist.
• IT Systems (11%). This includes: cloud computing and social enterprise technology.
• Databases (3%). This includes: datacenters, cloud computing, big data and analytics.
Figure 2: IT jobs main areas

7. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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3. IT Graduates Survey
A survey was distributed mid-January 2017 till the first week of February 2017. The survey
collected 125 responses, with the following results.
3.1 Demographics
As one would expect, the IT workforce in Saudi Arabia is relatively young. Roughly 60% of the IT
professionals (from 2017 till 2013) in the surveyed market are recently employed (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Graduation Year
Furthermore, Figure 4 shows that 81% of the IT professionals in the market are Bachelor holders.
Figure 4: Academic Certificate
0
5
10
15
20
25
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Count
Years
5%
81%
12%
2%
Diploma
Bsc
Msc
PhD

8. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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3.2 Jobs Type
As for the job type, Figure 5 illustrates the distribution of jobs in the Saudi IT market. The most
prominent jobs are "Developer", "System technical support" and "Academic". Table 1 lists the
specific job titles provided by the participants.
Figure 5: Jobs Type
Table 1: Job titles provided by participants
Solutions Developer Business Systems Analyst ‫محاضر‬
iOS Developer Senior programmer Analyst
Assistant Software
Engineering
Social care specialist Business Operations
IT specialist System Testing Engineer ‫اآلت‬ ‫صيانة‬ ‫فني‬
Web Developer Network specialist Programmer
Administrator assistant Researcher System Engineer
Quality Assurance Engineer ‫مديرة‬‫إدارة‬‫تحقيق‬‫األهداف‬‫المنتج‬ ‫وتحسين‬ ‫مشروع‬ ‫منسق‬
HR Administrator System Engineer ‫برمجيات‬ ‫اختبار‬ ‫مهندس‬
Information security specialist Oracle Apps Developer ‫نظم‬ ‫محلل‬
Developer Web developer ‫نظم‬ ‫محللة‬
23%
10%
10%
4%
7%
9%
5%
9%
15%
2%
2%
2%
2%
Developer
System Analyst
Systems technical support
Administrator
Quality Assurance
Other
Security Analyst
Project Manager
Academic
Database Administrator
Business Analyst

9. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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content creator Project coordinator IT Security Analyst
Projects manager ‫إداري‬‫شبكات‬ It responsibility
TA ‫مراقب‬ ‫مبرمج‬‫أو‬‫برامج‬ ‫مطور‬
Project Manager ‫تطبيقات‬ ‫مطور‬ ‫ناشئة‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫لشركة‬ ‫تنفيذي‬ ‫مدير‬
Head of Development ‫حو‬ ‫اختصاصي‬‫سحابية‬ ‫سبة‬ TPM
‫مدقق‬‫إجراءات‬ ‫مبرمجة‬ BA
Systems Engineer ‫متعاون‬ ‫محاضر‬ Academic
Developer ‫أخصائية‬‫برمجيات‬ ‫جودة‬ System analyst ass
Systems Engineer IT unit manager Software test engineer
IT Project Management
Officer
Senior mobile application
developer
Developer
Software and system
developer assistant
Quality Eng Research application
Specialist
‫مسئول‬‫حاسب‬ Researcher ‫معلمة‬
‫مساعد‬ ‫نظم‬ ‫محلل‬ Quality assurance specialist ‫مساعد‬ ‫أستاذ‬
‫معيد‬ ‫محاضر‬ ERP application manager
Assistant system engineer ‫ن‬ ‫محلل‬‫ظم‬ Systems Engineer
‫معلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫منسق‬ Manager Computer Trainer
‫تقنية‬ ‫مشرفة‬ ‫منسق‬‫إداري‬ Computer Trainer
System admin - Customer
care rep.
‫نظم‬ ‫محلل‬ Ui/UX Developer
full stack developer ‫محاضر‬ ‫نظم‬ ‫ومصمم‬ ‫محلل‬
Full stack developer Computer Engineer Assistant professor
Programmer ‫مصممة‬ database administrator
software developer Web programmer Business Analyst
‫أستاذ‬ Teaching Assistant ‫مسئولة‬‫حاسب‬
Junior Developer ‫برمجيات‬ ‫مطور‬ Web developer
‫مبرمج‬ ‫محلل‬ ‫حاسب‬ ‫مدرب‬ ‫متعاونة‬
‫مختبر‬ ‫فني‬ Software engineer ‫مسئول‬‫تدريب‬ ‫برامج‬
Oracle HRMS specialist ‫فني‬ ‫دعم‬ ‫إدارة‬‫قانونية‬

10. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
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3.3 Jobs Providers
As Figure 6 shows, Government jobs are the most dominant with 33%, followed by Semi-
Government jobs (25%). Interestingly, we started to see the emergence of the private sector
(Startups, Mid-size International Companies, and Mid-size National Companies) as well as
Charities.
Figure 6: Jobs by providers
3.4 Jobs Sectors
The biggest two sectors that employs IT graduates (Figure 7) are IT solutions and Education (32%
and 24%, respectively). However, new sectors are flourishing such as Health (10%), IT services
(8%), and the rest (34%) are distributed among: Banking, eCommerce, Petroleum, Charity as well
as Security.
25%
11%
11%
16%
33%
1% 2% 1%
Semi-Government
Startup
Mid-size International Company
Mid-size National Company
Government
Charity
International Startup
Freelancer

11. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
11
Figure 7: Jobs Sectors
3.5 IT Certificates and Programming languages
Although 78% of the participants said that their employers did not ask for an IT certificate to get
the job, yet, the rest 22% of the participants indicated the need of the following certificates as
shown in Figure 8.
32%
8%
7%
3%7%
2%
24%
3%
10%
3%
1%
IT solutions
IT services
Banking
Security
Charity
Petroleum
Education
eCommerce
Health
Government
Communication

12. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
12
Figure 8: Required IT Certificates
On the other hand, the needed programming languages used in the current IT market are shown
in Figure 9. PHP and C# are the most used (32% cumulatively), Microsoft .Net (14%), C++ (10%)
and Python (9%).
3%
13%
3%
7%
3%
10%
10%
3%
10%
7%
6%
6%
10%
3%
6%
Systems Security Certification
Consortium (CISSP)
Project Management
Professional (PMP)
Information Systems Audit and
Control Association (ISACA)
Apple (ACSP)
Apple (ACTC)
Cisco (CCNP)
Cisco (CCNA)
Cisco (CCiE)
17%
17%
5%
10%14%
5%
0%
9%
1%
18%
1%
1% 1%
1% php
C#
C,
C++
Microsoft .Net
swift
objective-c
Python
R
HTML
JS
Ruby
Perl

13. ‫املعلومات‬ ‫تقنية‬ ‫قسم‬-‫واملعلومات‬ ‫احلاسب‬ ‫علوم‬ ‫كلية‬
Information Technology Department
13
3. Outlook
The demand of IT professionals in the Saudi Market is rapidly growing especially with the new
Kingdom 2030 vision where diversifying the economy is vital for its sustainability. Capitalizing on
new IT professionals equipped with the required skills to drive the next transformation of the
Kingdom is becoming a necessity. Thus, the required role of academic institutions is to adapt to
the dynamic change of local market demands and equip its graduates with necessary IT skills.