What Remote Work in the Middle East Is Really Like After Working With Saudi Leaders

In a typical startup, decisions come out of long Slack threads. In Saudi Arabia, decisions often come from one senior person who listens to you for five minutes.

I only understood that difference after working closely with Saudi stakeholders. Today I lead four product teams at a fast-growing MENA super app, focused on Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC. Before that, I spent almost twenty years shipping products at Tokopedia, Hijra, and Flip, plus three startups of my own.

So I know both worlds from the inside. And a lot of what people expect from an international career is wrong.

Communication: short messages, long relationships

I came up in the async-first startup style. Write a clean document, send it, wait for comments. I treated async work as the mark of a professional.

In Saudi Arabia, that approach often stalls. A ten-page document may never get opened. What works is a short call, a voice note, or a WhatsApp message that gets straight to the point.

Relationships also come before the work. The opening small talk I mistook for filler is actually the foundation. If you jump straight to the agenda, people stay polite, but trust is not there yet. Without trust, even a great proposal gets stuck.

Language is another layer. A "no" rarely sounds like "no". It sounds like a vague answer, or a topic that quietly shifts. It took me several misreads before I learned to notice it.

So I changed how I work. I still write the document, but only as a record. The real message goes out short, and I close it with a phone call.

Decision speed: long wait, fast move

In most startups I know, decisions are built by consensus. PM, engineers, designers, business: everyone has a say. The process is not always fast, but execution is smooth because everyone already agreed.

Here the pattern is reversed. Decisions sit with a small group of senior people. Getting to them can mean waiting, and you do not control their calendars.

But once a decision lands, things move fast. No extra alignment rounds. "Let's discuss later" turns into "do it now".

Here is an example. I received strategic direction to shift our focus from small merchants to 16 large tenants. Where I used to work, a call like that could take weeks of lobbying. Here, the key was simple: bring a clear proposal to the right person. Once it was approved, the roadmap and commercial materials changed right away.

I have felt similar speed elsewhere. During the Tokopedia and Gojek account integration, a three month target was delivered in one month, with many teams working at once. The difference is where the speed came from. There, it came from tight coordination. In Saudi Arabia, it comes from clear authority.

Both can be fast. They just take different roads, and you need to know which one you are on.

Remote work in the Middle East: where expectations break

Many people imagine remote work for an overseas company as total freedom. Wake up late, work from anywhere, send results, done.

Reality is different. These are the expectations I see broken most often:

• Remote does not mean rarely contacted. Senior stakeholders reach out on WhatsApp and expect a fast reply, including outside the hours you consider working hours.
• The work week shifts. Weekends and busy hours do not match what you may be used to. Meetings have to respect prayer times, and the rhythm of work changes during Ramadan.
• Presence counts. Turning your camera on, showing up to the important meetings, and being quick to respond when called are all part of your reputation. Quiet contributions inside a document rarely get seen.
• Escalation is more direct. Problems reach senior levels faster. Be ready to be asked directly about things that would normally be settled at PM level.

None of this is a flaw. These are different rules of the game. People burn out mostly because they arrive carrying the old rules.

I also do not want to generalize. This is my experience in one specific working environment. Other companies will differ, and every person has their own style. But the patterns above have been consistent enough to be useful.

If you want an international career

I hold three principles. I learned all of them the expensive way.

First, read the context before showing your skills. A brilliant person who is not perceptive usually loses to a good person who understands the rhythm.

Second, write short and speak clearly. A one paragraph summary that someone can read while walking is worth more than a complete document that never gets opened.

Third, bring proof, not promises. Concrete results earn trust much faster, in any country.

Where AI fits in

Cross-border work is only going to become more common, and AI makes the distance easier to close. Summarizing, translating nuance, preparing for meetings across time zones: the tools are already here. You just need to learn to use them properly.

Making companies save money has been a habit of mine long before AI was trendy: $4M+ per year, from many different initiatives, including process fixes, cost optimization, and more efficient product decisions. Automation was only one of them. Back then, that kind of leverage needed a senior position, an engineering team, and expensive systems. Now AI is the sharpest tool for the same habit, and it can be taught to everyone on your team.

I use it myself. I built and run an 8 channel content distribution system on my own, and I created the Applied-AI Certification and AI Circle for people who want to work this way.

Next step

If you are preparing yourself for cross-border work, join AI Circle. I share the workflows and prompts I use every day, and we figure things out together.

If you lead a team or a company starting to work with international partners, see the corporate page. It explains how I help teams use AI in their daily work.