Recruitment drive for Saudi women to join major defence firm

First local female board member of BAE Systems tells The National of plans for big increase in women engineers

Nouf Al Arify, director of strategic communications, BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia, leads efforts to recruit more female defence engineers. Thomas Harding / The National

As the first Saudi woman appointed to the management board of one of the world’s biggest defence companies, Nouf Alarify is using her position to attract more females to the industry.

Schools and universities across the kingdom are being scouted for young women to become leading engineers in BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom seeks to boost its female workforce.

The British company, which has provided defence equipment to Saudi Arabia for the past 55 years, is also now paving the way for the country to develop its own national defence industry.

Intrigued about future

Part of that fast-moving evolution will be tapping into the cohort of well-educated Saudi women graduating from universities, said Ms Alarify, director of strategic communications with BAE Systems Saudi Arabia.

“We go to schools and explain to them what we do in the company, how to become an engineer and what this means for our business, so they can be intrigued about their future,” she explained, speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow in south-east England.

Talks are now advanced with ministers in recruiting women from the all-female Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh, which will see five taken on to the BAE apprenticeship scheme.

“They have an engineering programme and we have agreed to have five ladies here for this specific programme,” said Ms Alarify.

There are also graduate support programmes from other universities where the focus is on recruiting more females because “we want to increase their number and get a fair deal for them, the same as men”.

However, the company does not always choose them “because they're women”, said Ms Alarify. But she added that “women sometimes prove to be better engineers”.

New vision

With Saudis making up nearly three quarters of BAE’s 7,800 workforce in the kingdom, there is now a growing local industrial workforce that is currently able to repair and service more than half of Typhoon fighter aircraft in the country.

“This is something we are very proud of, having the ability to make 55 per cent of repairs in Saudi Arabia,” said Ms Alarify.

“We're trying to transfer the knowledge to KSA as much as we can to be part of this new vision so that we have some defence capabilities in Saudi Arabia made by made Saudis and this is a big part of why BAE Systems Saudi Arabia is here today.”

That also led to the Saudi workforce believing that they were “working in the defence and security of our country”, she said.

“And there is nothing more noble for us as Saudis and as Muslims to protect Makkah and Madinah, because of their importance to the Muslim world,” said Ms Alarify.

Gender equality

Ms Alarify, who previously worked for the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, is the first woman on the management board of BAE Systems Saudi Arabia, which she joined almost two years ago.

“I'm very proud of that but I also feel like it's a big responsibility working on women empowerment in the company, as the defence industry doesn't have many women.”

With Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 just a few years away, Ms Alarify is working on fulfilling its ambition for great gender equality in business.

“Vision 2030 states we need to employ more women and to support women in Saudi Arabia that have joined the workforce later than others because of cultural boundaries,” she said.

Currently just over 5 per cent of BAE staff in its Saudi Arabia operation are women, with 400 working for the company in the kingdom.