Dhahran, Eastern, Saudi Arabia
With over 20 years of international experience across the Middle East and Pakistan, I help organizations design and operationalize Total Rewards strategies that actually work – controlling cost while improving retention, engagement, and pay-for-performance culture. What I do differently: I don’t just benchmark salaries. I build end-to-end frameworks – from job evaluation (Hay/Mercer) and grading structures to short-term incentives (STI), long-term incentives (LTI), executive compensation, M&A rewards integration, and HRMS implementation (SAP, SuccessFactors, Oracle, Hyperion). Recent impact in GCC, Europe, & Pakistan: • Led Total Rewards globally for a leading oilfield services company (TAQA) • Integrated acquired companies onto a single rewards platform post-M&A • Developed and presented briefs for Board Remuneration Committees on executive pay, merit cycles, and transformation projects • Designed retention and sales incentives that improved productivity and reduced voluntary turnover Certified Global Remuneration Professional (GRP®) | Trained in Hay Group job evaluation | Experienced in both mature and high-growth markets. Open to: • Project-based consulting (rewards strategy, job evaluation, incentive design, benefits harmonization) • Fractional / interim Total Rewards leadership • Training HR teams on compensation fundamentals Based between UAE, KSA & Pakistan. Available for onsite or remote engagements. Recent examples (anonymized): ✔ Integrated 4000+ employees from acquired entities onto parent company rewards platform – zero disruption. ✔ Designed LTI framework for C-suite in Oil & Gas – improved retention of key executives by 40%. ✔ Led Hyperion manpower planning tool implementation – reduced budgeting cycle time by 30%. Engagement models: • Project-based (fixed fee) • Daily advisory • Fractional/part-time Total Rewards lead • Training workshops Why me: 20+ years | GRP certified | UAE, KSA & Pakistan ground presence | Board-level experience | Hands-on with HRIS
- Led end-to-end rewards integration for multiple acquired companies, harmonizing grades, salary ranges, benefits, STI/LTI, performance management, and HRIS onto parent company platform - Prepared and presented to Board Remuneration Committee on merit increase, executive hiring, promotions, and HR transformation; all approved - Led global job analysis and job evaluation (HAY methodology) for 5,000+ roles across KSA, UAE, Pakistan, Europe and North America; established a single-factor evaluation governance model ensuring cross-functional equity - Designed executive remuneration framework linking pay to performance; benchmarked against industry norms for CEO and N-1 levels - Designed, deployed and managed a unified global grading structure with 15 job grades, complete with salary ranges (minimum, midpoint, maximum) and salary zone differentials by country, achieving internal parity and external competitiveness - Developed country-specific salary ranges for 12 locations, incorporating cost-of-labor and cost-of-living indices; aligned with market data including but not limited to Mercer and Willis Towers Watson, saving an amount of around SAR 12 million - Harmonized job titles, job families, and career ladders post-M&A, enabling transparent progression paths and consistent salary treatment across legacy and acquired entities - Developed, modified and administered STI, LTI, retention bonus, and transaction bonus schemes, increasing retention of critical talent by 90% - Managed people cost (manpower budgeting) and headcount planning across global operations and delivered annual people cost forecast within 2% accuracy - Led the annual merit and bonus cycle for 5,000+ employees across global operations, ensuring budget adherence (±2%) and pay equity compliance - Designed sales and operations incentive schemes, improving operational efficiency by 22%
- Contributed at both operational and strategic levels to cultivate a vibrant culture as the business continues to grow regionally to ensure attraction/ retention and motivation of qualified staff in order to increase the return on investment over C&B budgets - Designed, delivered and measured compensation and benefit programs across consumer division - Aligned compensation & benefit practices with the region’s compensation and Benefits dynamics - Assessed current compensation and benefit programs and recommended changes and improvements for compliance and competitiveness - Partnered with operating companies, line manager, functional heads, legal department to develop, adapt and implement compensation and benefits programs - Coached Operating Companies HR and divisional heads on compensation and benefits philosophy, positioning and industry practices - Managed base salary, benefits and incentives programs - Conducted studies of compensation practices and market rates and analyzed internal and external pay equities to make recommendations for specific changes and/or general adjustments; - Managed the development and implementation of merit and promotion increase programs linked to performance, and developed and monitored annual salary increase budgets; - Managed and implemented short term incentive programs (bonuses, commissions, etc.) - Partnered with the Sales team on Sales Compensation program design - Participated in, and managed appropriate third party salary surveys to ensure appropriate assessment of the relevant salary market to assure that compensation objectives are achieved - Harmonized and synchronized benefits and compensation relating to mergers and acquisitions.
- Facilitated the development of job descriptions/job design for job evaluation and market pricing activities - Benchmarking of jobs and benefits within the KSA market to be competitive with the market - Job Analysis & Job Evaluation for the changed and new roles based on HAY methodology - Managed the refinement of pay administration policies and procedures - Managed the performance management system (merit increase, promotion, variable pay and special adjustments, if any) - Manpower planning both in terms of numbers and total cost for the project phase - Established and improved the compensation structure to attract and retain the best manpower for the project - Established, reviewed and administered the pay scales for Saudis, Easterners and Westerners and their alignment with the market - Conducted, gathered and analyzed market survey data. Prepared proposals with recommendations based on research and analysis of this information to present to management - Effectively utilized and supported participation in national, regional, and local compensation surveys as well as conducting custom surveys - Review and improvement in the existing HR policies - Established and maintained internal and external network for the efficient exchange of information and benchmarking data - Managed and prepared the annual budget and forecasts till 2015 (SR.600 million per annum)