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Sunday – Friday 8am to 8pm
Consultant roles across Riyadh, Jeddah, and Taif for Irish-trained doctors, with SCFHS licensing and relocation handled from our Dubai office.
Saudi Arabia is the second Gulf destination Irish doctors weigh, after the UAE, and the decision is a genuinely different one. The pay looks similar at first glance but sits meaningfully below UAE consultant bands. Cultural fit matters more. The regulator is centralised, so one licence covers the whole Kingdom. First enquiry to first shift typically takes around six months.
Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 healthcare transformation has created sustained demand for Western-trained consultants, particularly those with subspecialty fellowships. The Kingdom's largest hospital groups are actively expanding capacity, adding new sites, and hiring for specialties Ireland trains well: paediatric subspecialties, oncology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, and emergency medicine. Irish CCST holders are recognised at consultant grade by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, and Ireland is on the SCFHS list of countries whose training is accepted for professional classification.
The healthcare landscape is centralised in a way the UAE is not. One regulator, one licence, three big employer categories: government (Ministry of Health, MNGHA, KFSH&RC), private groups (Dr Sulaiman Al Habib, Fakeeh Care Group), and academic medical centres. Riyadh and Jeddah are where most consultant roles sit, with regional cities like Taif and the Eastern Province adding capacity for specific specialties.
Twelve consultant roles are open across three Saudi cities as of August 2026, all available to Irish-trained consultants.
View all Saudi vacancies or send us your specialty; roles move quickly and not everything we recruit for is listed publicly.
Saudi Arabia is a more culturally conservative country than the UAE, and the day-to-day differences are worth understanding before you decide.
Modest in public for both women and men. Requirements have relaxed considerably in Riyadh and Jeddah since 2019; women no longer need to wear an abaya in public, and international dress is common in compound life and private hospitals.
Not legally sold in Saudi Arabia. Some hospital compounds have historically had informal arrangements, but this is not something to plan around when comparing offers.
Friday to Saturday rather than the UAE's Saturday to Sunday. Friday morning is quieter as most of the country attends Jumu'ah prayers. Ramadan hours affect working schedules across the whole month for both Muslim and non-Muslim staff.
Women can now drive, work in nearly all professions, and travel independently within the Kingdom. Riyadh and Jeddah have wide international school choice, expat compounds with familiar amenities, and Western family communities.
What Saudi Arabia asks in return is that you engage with the culture on its terms rather than expecting UAE-style Westernisation. Some Irish consultants find this genuinely comfortable, especially those coming with young families who value structure and safety. Others find it wearing and choose the UAE instead. Both are legitimate. We say so honestly at the eligibility stage.
Consultant roles on our current Saudi listings pay SAR 60,000 to 70,000 per month, roughly EUR 14,000 to EUR 16,500, tax free. That sits meaningfully below UAE consultant bands, where Dubai and Abu Dhabi roles run AED 70,000 to 120,000 per month depending on specialty. On the headline number, Saudi pays less.
Package composition can narrow the gap. Saudi hospital groups typically add larger housing allowances, education allowances for children through international schooling, and repatriation benefits structured differently to UAE contracts. The net-take-home depends heavily on family size and lifestyle choices, and it is worth doing the calculation properly before deciding. For a full breakdown of Saudi salary structures by specialty and grade, our doctors' salary in Saudi Arabia guide covers the current picture, and we can walk you through your specific numbers on a call.
The Saudi Commission for Health Specialties is the single licensing authority for the entire Kingdom, which means one process regardless of whether you end up in Riyadh, Jeddah, or Taif. Ireland is on the SCFHS list of recognised training countries, so Irish CCST holders qualify for Consultant classification if their experience meets the requirements.
Primary source verification of your degree, CCST, IMC good standing, and specialty logbook. This is the longest single step and runs in parallel with everything else.
SCFHS reviews your qualifications and experience and assigns you a category, most commonly Consultant, Specialist, or Registrar.
Specialty-specific exam. Many Irish CCST holders qualify for exam exemption at this stage depending on their qualification and experience mix.
Registration in your specialty council with SCFHS.
Portal activation. This is how you activate your licence and how your employer verifies your standing. Total timeline for most Irish cases: three to six months.
One thing worth knowing before you start: SCFHS licence renewals follow a 1, 3, or 5-year cycle depending on your classification, with annual CME requirements tracked through Mumaris Plus. Specialists need 40 CME hours per year, GPs and dentists 30 hours, all logged before renewal. For the full SCFHS process with document requirements and current fees, see our guide to medical licensing (SCFHS) in Saudi Arabia, and for the CME picture in detail, see our CME requirements for doctors working in Saudi Arabia guide.
Our Saudi network covers the three groups most Irish consultants join, plus academic-track roles.
MNGHA runs King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh (1,973 beds), the Jeddah campus (906 beds), and King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital. KFSH&RC has three campuses: Riyadh (1,600 beds, Newsweek-ranked academic centre), Jeddah (537 beds with paediatric bone marrow transplant centre), and Madinah. King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh is a JCI-accredited complex of four hospitals with 1,200 beds.
Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Group (DSFH) operates one of the largest private networks in the Kingdom, with the flagship Olaya Hospital in Riyadh's business district and a specialist women's, maternity, and paediatrics site at Ar Rayyan. Fakeeh Care Group runs JCI-accredited hospitals in Riyadh and Jeddah, expanding into other Saudi cities and Dubai.
MNGHA's King Abdulaziz Medical City has strong academic links, and KFSH&RC is a research-driven environment with international collaborations across cancer, transplantation, and genetics. If your career direction is teaching-hospital consultant work with research and training responsibilities, these are the destinations.
For deeper looks, see our Riyadh hospitals guide, Jeddah hospitals guide, DSFH guide, and Fakeeh Care Group guide.
SCFHS licensing covers the entire Kingdom, so a Riyadh application widens to Jeddah, Taif, or any other Saudi city on the same file. The cities below cover most Irish medical placements we handle.
Our office is in Tiffany Towers, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai. Every Saudi placement runs from here through SCFHS, so wherever your target city sits in the Kingdom, the first conversation happens in the same place. Video for initial consultations, in-person if you are routing through Dubai.
Emilie founded Allocation Assist in 2015 after recognising a gap in the market for helping high-calibre Western-trained doctors find opportunities in top-tier Gulf hospitals. She graduated from the University of Hertfordshire with First Class Honours in Nursing, then worked in the Acute Medical Unit and Emergency Department at Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust before founding the consultancy. Allocation Assist now works with 400+ doctors placed across UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
One free call covers your specialty market in the Kingdom, your likely SCFHS classification, and an honest read on whether Saudi Arabia or the UAE is the better fit for your family and career. No fee, no obligation, and if the timing is wrong for you we will say so.
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