Sales & Business Development job market in the Gulf
How many Sales & Business Development jobs are open across the Gulf, how many are new, who is hiring and which skills they want. Counted daily from employer career pages and job boards.
Browse Sales & Business Development jobsJobs open now
3,076
Saudi Arabia 1,407, UAE 1,222, Qatar 136
New jobs, last 30 days
4,095
Hiring trend vs the previous 30 days: -3%
Jobs closed, last 30 days
3,830
Filled, expired or taken down by the employer
Typical time a job stays open
27 days
Median, from posting to closing, 1,209 closed jobs
JobXDubai Hiring Index
New job postings each week from a fixed group of employers, against the four weeks from 3 August 2026 (= 100). The group never changes, so the index only moves when those employers hire more or less, never because we add a source.
Latest complete week
81
-28 points on four weeks before
New and closed jobs, week by week
Complete weeks only, for employers we were already tracking at the start, so a new source never looks like a hiring spike.
Employers stepping up, and slowing down
New jobs in the last 30 days compared with the 30 days before, for employers we have tracked throughout. Recruitment agencies and job boards are left out.
Posting more
- Mashreq24 42
- Al-Futtaim Group46 62
- Bayut & Dubizzle10 22
- Chalhoub Group27 36
- Refine Development Management14 16
Posting less
- Apparel Group16 2
- NADIA17 5
Skills employers ask for
The skills named most often in new adverts over the last 30 days. General soft skills are left out.
- 1Business development899
- 2Sales585
- 3Customer relationship management563
- 4Account management515
- 5Lead generation514
- 6Client relationship management463
- 7Relationship management382
- 8B2B sales376
- 9Market analysis338
- 10Sales forecasting325
- 11Pipeline management300
- 12Presentation298
- 13Market research292
- 14CRM287
- 15Relationship building287
Rising fastest
Like-for-like change vs the previous 30 days, on at least 30 adverts.
- Business development+61%
- Sales forecasting+60%
- Key account management+56%
- Excel+55%
- Sales pipeline management+52%
- Customer relationship management+51%
- Proposal development+28%
- Market analysis+20%
- Cross-selling+19%
- Relationship management+18%
What employers ask for, and what CVs show
For each field: the skills named most in new adverts, and how often CVs uploaded to JobXDubai mention them (5,451 anonymous CVs). A CV mentions far more skills than an advert lists, so compare down each column, not across.
Sales & Business Development
| Skill | In adverts | In CVs |
|---|---|---|
| Business development | 22% | 58% |
| Customer relationship management | 14% | 15% |
| Account management | 13% | 29% |
| Lead generation | 13% | 22% |
| Client relationship management | 11% | 15% |
| Relationship management | 9% | 40% |
4,095 adverts, 533 CVs
Where competition for jobs is highest
Each field's share of the CVs uploaded to JobXDubai against its share of new jobs. Above 1 means more job seekers than openings, relative to other fields. Our CVs are a sample, so read this as a comparison between fields, not a count of applicants.
| Field | Share of CVs | Share of new jobs | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering & Technology | 37% | 11% | 3.3x |
| Finance & Accounting | 13% | 6% | 2.3x |
| Human Resources | 4% | 3% | 1.7x |
| Marketing & Communications | 5% | 3% | 1.6x |
| Design & Creative | 2% | 1% | 1.1x |
| Sales & Business Development | 13% | 11% | 1.1x |
| Healthcare & Medical | 2% | 4% | 0.7x |
| Construction & Engineering | 10% | 16% | 0.6x |
| Education & Training | 2% | 3% | 0.6x |
| Hospitality & Tourism | 8% | 17% | 0.5x |
| Operations & Logistics | 3% | 8% | 0.4x |
What employers require
From the requirements in 3,076 open adverts. The typical ask is the median.
32%
ask for a degree
3
years of experience, typical ask
3%
ask for a driving licence
7%
require Arabic
Advertised pay, as employers state it
Only adverts where the employer published a salary (142 open jobs). Typical (median) monthly range, in AED, for fields with at least 30 such adverts.
| Field | Typical advertised range | Adverts |
|---|---|---|
| Sales & Business Development | AED 12k to 17.5k a month | 142 |
Adverts that state pay lean towards some employers and roles, so this is what advertised jobs offer, not what everyone earns.
What open jobs pay: our estimate
Most Gulf adverts don't state a salary, so these bands use our own estimate for each open job (the employer's figure when they give one). Individual estimates can be well off, so read this as the shape of the market, not a salary guide.
Open jobs by estimated monthly pay
- Under AED 5k6%
- AED 5k to 10k33%
- AED 10k to 20k40%
- AED 20k to 35k12%
- AED 35k and above9%
Estimate. 3,015 of 3,076 open jobs have a pay figure.
Adverts that state the pay
5%
Of jobs open now, the share where the employer published a salary. This one is a count, not an estimate.
Who the jobs are for
New jobs open to entry-level and junior candidates
27%
Last 30 days. The 30 days before: 19% (up 8 points).
New jobs reserved for GCC nationals
4%
Adverts that say the role is for Emirati, Saudi or other GCC nationals only. Last 30 days.
Most active employers
By new jobs posted in the last 30 days.
- 1Apparel Group78
- 2Hilton72
- 3Marriott International64
- 4Chalhoub Group63
- 5Al-Futtaim Group62
- 6PepsiCo56
- 7Mashreq45
- 8Accor40
- 9Al-Futtaim35
- 10Mastercard32
Where the new jobs are
New jobs in the last 30 days, by city.
Use this data
Journalists, researchers and bloggers are welcome to quote, embed and chart these numbers. Please credit JobXDubai with a link to this page.
JobXDubai, "Sales & Business Development job market pulse", data as of 28 October 2026. https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/sales-and-business-development
Source: <a href="https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/sales-and-business-development">JobXDubai Sales & Business Development job market pulse</a> (data as of 28 October 2026)
Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit "JobXDubai" with a link to jobxdubai.com/job-market/sales-and-business-development.
How we count
- Jobs open now are live listings on JobXDubai: collected daily from employer career pages and job boards, checked for dead links, with duplicates removed.
- A new job is a listing we first saw within 14 days of its posting date, so an employer's backlog of old adverts never counts as fresh hiring.
- Trends compare like with like: only employers we were already tracking in that country before the period began. When we add a new source, its jobs count as open jobs but not as growth.
- We only show a percentage change on a big enough base: at least 300 new jobs in the earlier period (30 for a single field or skill, 15 for an employer). Below that, small numbers swing too much to mean anything.
- Pay bands are estimates. Most adverts don't state pay, so we estimate it per job. The share of adverts stating pay is an exact count.
- The Hiring Index counts new postings each week from a fixed group of employers we already tracked before its base period, against the average of its four base weeks (= 100). A field gets its own index once it averaged at least 30 new jobs a week in the base period.
- Requirements come from the requirements written in each open advert (years, degrees, licences, credentials, languages). Spellings of the same credential are merged.
- Advertised pay uses only salaries the employer published, never our estimates, and only where at least 30 adverts in a field state one.
- CV figures come from CVs uploaded to JobXDubai, including free CV checks, stored as anonymous statistics: the skills a CV mentions and a likely field. We never keep or publish the CVs themselves.
- Time open runs from posting to closing. It leaves out jobs from feeds where we retire adverts ourselves after a fixed age, which would otherwise make every field look the same.
- Tracking began Bahrain: July 2026, Kuwait: July 2026, Oman: July 2026. Updated 28 October 2026.
Job market by field
- AI & Machine Learning
- Engineering & Technology
- Marketing & Communications
- Finance & Accounting
- Human Resources
- Legal & Compliance
- Operations & Logistics
- Product Management
- Design & Creative
- Data & Analytics
- Customer Support
- Healthcare & Medical
- Education & Training
- Construction & Engineering
- Real Estate & Property
- Energy & Sustainability
- Hospitality & Tourism
- Executive & Management
- Administrative
Job market by city
Job market by role: hiring data for the 100 most common jobs, from accountants to sous chefs. Who is hiring: every employer with 10 or more open jobs.