Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) will hire more staff and most of them will be women in order to support diversity and inclusion. The company intends to hire some 1,500 people in the coming weeks.
Unit last year, SAMI had about 2,500 employees, with 82 percent Saudization and females representing 22 percent of the workforce.
“We believe that one of the key diversities is having females to empower females within the company and the Kingdom is moving in that direction,” said Walid Abukhaled, CEO of the Saudi Arabian Military Industries.
“This is a very new industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically for females, (who) were not allowed to be part of this industry before, so within a very short period, to have 22 percent females, this is a huge number (and) it’s on par with any Western defense company,” Abukhaled said.
He added that as part of SAMI’s growth portfolio it is also expecting to continue to qualify, train and develop the right talents to lead the company for the future, with women holding senior leadership positions.
Abukhaled was speaking on the sidelines of the World Defense Show in Riyadh where SAMI announced that it signed contracts exceeding SR10 billion ($2.665 million) with around 14 international defense companies to form joint ventures in 2021 and also secured further deals worth SR6 billion this year.
At the end of 2021, SAMI was among the top 85 defense companies in the world, Abukhaled said of the Public Investment Fund-owned company that was established four years ago.
“As one of the largest 85 defense companies in the world, our objective is by 2030 to be one of the top 25 defense companies globally,” he added.