Insights that help you hire — and decide.
What the GCC talent market is doing right now and what it means for your next hire. Salary movements, deployment trends and the hiring decisions shaping the region's biggest projects, written by the teams who work these markets every day and read the permit data every month.
- 2,117
- Global capability centres in India
- 2.36M
- Professionals employed across them
- 60,042
- Nepal work permits, mid-Aug–mid-Sep 2026
- 68%
- Of those permits going to the Gulf
Salary guide · 2026 — construction & infrastructure
What Construction and Infrastructure Roles Actually Pay Across the Gulf. Monthly base salary for expatriate hires, before allowances. The low end reflects mid-tier contractors; the top end reflects Tier-1 contractors, developers and government-linked programmes.
- 11
- Roles benchmarked, Leadership to Site
- 3
- Markets compared — UAE, KSA & Qatar
- 15–25%
- Housing on top of base
| Role | Exp. | UAE (AED) | KSA (SAR) | Qatar (QAR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership & Management | ||||
| Project Director | 20+ yrs | 55,000–85,000 | 60,000–95,000 | 50,000–78,000 |
| Senior Project Manager | 12–18 yrs | 32,000–52,000 | 35,000–58,000 | 30,000–48,000 |
| Project Manager | 8–12 yrs | 20,000–32,000 | 22,000–36,000 | 19,000–30,000 |
| Engineering, Commercial & Controls | ||||
| Commercial Manager | 12+ yrs | 35,000–55,000 | 38,000–60,000 | 32,000–50,000 |
| Senior Quantity Surveyor | 8–12 yrs | 20,000–32,000 | 22,000–35,000 | 18,000–30,000 |
| Senior Civil / Structural Engineer | 8–12 yrs | 18,000–28,000 | 20,000–30,000 | 17,000–26,000 |
| MEP Engineer | 5–10 yrs | 13,000–22,000 | 14,000–24,000 | 12,000–20,000 |
| Planning / Scheduling Engineer | 5–10 yrs | 15,000–26,000 | 16,000–28,000 | 14,000–24,000 |
| HSE, Quality & Site | ||||
| HSE Manager | 8–15 yrs | 20,000–34,000 | 22,000–36,000 | 18,000–31,000 |
| QA/QC Manager | 10+ yrs | 20,000–32,000 | 22,000–35,000 | 18,000–30,000 |
| General Foreman / MEP Supervisor | 5–10+ yrs | 7,000–12,000 | 7,500–13,000 | 6,500–11,000 |
UAE (AED)
KSA (SAR)
Qatar (QAR)On top of base: housing at 15–25% of base (or company accommodation below supervisor level), transport, an annual air ticket, mandatory medical cover, end-of-service gratuity, and remote-site premiums on Saudi projects outside the main cities. Candidates compare the whole package, and family status often decides it.
What we're seeing: commercial roles are the hardest seats to fill, and a first offer at the bottom of the band usually costs two weeks and a counter-offer. The Saudi premium still holds at director level but has narrowed for mid-level engineers. After this year's regional disruption, senior candidates now ask about repatriation terms at offer stage.
India desk · 2026
Hiring in India: Salaries, Labour Codes and the GCC Boom. India is where Infinium started and remains our largest operation, run from New Delhi. It is also a hiring market in its own right: India now hosts 2,117 global capability centres employing 2.36 million professionals, and nearly half of those set up since FY21 were built around AI from day one. Add the national infrastructure pipeline and the result is intense competition for senior engineering, project and digital talent.
- 2,117
- Global capability centres
- 2.36M
- Professionals employed across them
- 4
- Labour codes replacing 29 laws
| Role | Exp. | Annual CTC (INR lakh) | Where the pressure is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Director, Infra / EPC | 20+ yrs | 60–120 | Metro, highways, power |
| Senior Project Manager | 12–18 yrs | 35–60 | Tier-1 contractors, developers |
| Senior Quantity Surveyor / Contracts | 8–12 yrs | 14–25 | Infrastructure, claims experience |
| HSE Manager | 10+ yrs | 14–25 | Industrial, oil & gas sites |
| Cloud Architect | 7–12 yrs | 35–60 | GCCs, Bengaluru and Hyderabad |
| AI / ML Engineer | 4–8 yrs | 20–45 | GCC AI centres of excellence |
| Financial Controller | 10+ yrs | 25–45 | MNC subsidiaries, GCCs |
| Country Head / Managing Director | 18+ yrs | 90–200+ | Market-entry mandates |
New labour codes: four codes replacing 29 laws took effect on 21 November 2025. Basic pay plus DA must now be at least 50% of total pay, fixed-term employees earn gratuity after one year, and final settlements are due within two working days. Offers built on a 35–40% basic structure need redesigning before they go out.
What we're seeing: notice periods of 60 to 90 days are the real constraint on Indian hiring timelines, and a counter-offer lands in most senior moves during that window. We plan every India search with a notice-period strategy from the first call: buyout budget, pre-joining engagement, and a warm backup candidate until day one.
Market report · September 2026
Cross-Border Workforce Trends: South Asia to Gulf Deployment Update. 2026 showed Gulf employers how much their workforce plans depend on decisions made in Kathmandu, Dhaka and Riyadh.
- 60,042
- Nepal permits, mid-Aug–mid-Sep 2026
- 68%
- Of Nepal permits going to the Gulf
- ~1.12M
- Bangladeshi workers deployed in 2025
Where Nepal’s Permits Went
Mid-Aug–mid-Sep 2026 · 60,042 total
| Corridor | Latest data | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Nepal | 60,042 permits, mid-Aug to mid-Sep 2026. 68% to the Gulf; UAE 18,477 (31%), Qatar 10,471, KSA 6,787. 57% skilled. | Permits to 12 West Asian countries halted from 1 March 2026. Returning workers cleared first, new workers later. UAE is now the top destination. |
| Bangladesh | ~1.12M deployed in 2025; over 750,000 to Saudi Arabia, 107,472 to Qatar. | Saudi skill verification cut July 2025 deployments to 41,797; a partial relaxation drove a record 142,665 in August. |
| India | eMigrate clearance required for ECR passport holders to all six GCC states. | SVP test centres in Delhi and Mumbai; minimum referral wages apply to ECR categories. |
| Pakistan | First SVP country (2021), run through NAVTTC. | Takamol fee of USD 85 per test from 9 September 2026. |
Nepal
Bangladesh
India
PakistanWhat it means for employers: a single permit decision can stop a corridor overnight, so any mobilisation above 50 heads needs a live pipeline in at least two source countries. For Saudi trade hires, the Skill Verification Program is now a gate: schedule testing before final selection and build in one retest window. Check wage compliance at brief stage, and agree in writing what happens to selected candidates if their corridor pauses.
Infinium runs owned trade-testing centres in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and a permanent office in Kathmandu, so we see corridor changes at the testing bay before they reach the monthly statistics.
Hiring guide · recruitment briefs
How to Structure a Cross-Border Recruitment Brief, and Why Most Get It Wrong. When a cross-border hire fails, the brief is usually where it started. A weak one costs a flight, a visa fee, a medical, a trade test and six weeks. The briefs that work cover eight lines:
- 8
- Lines every strong brief covers
- 48 hrs
- Our CV feedback commitment
- 5–8 weeks
- Visa to fully onboarded, UAE
- The date the person must be working. In the UAE the visa and onboarding tail runs five to eight weeks from signed offer, so plan backwards from site.
- The trade written as a spec: "6G TIG pipe welder, CS/SS, ASME IX", not "welder".
- Headcount and phasing: one batch of 40 and four batches of 10 are different sourcing plans.
- The full package in the currency it is paid in, checked against source-country minimum wage rules.
- Visa or quota approved for the nationalities you want before the search opens.
- The assessment method and the dates your panel is available.
- Preferred source market, and whether a second one is acceptable if the first pauses.
- One decision owner who commits to CV feedback within 48 hours.
| Brief line | What we usually receive | What actually works |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Welders needed urgently | 40 × 6G TIG pipe welders, pressure vessel experience |
| Timing | ASAP | On site by 1 December, two batches of 20 |
| Visa | Will arrange | Quota approved for Indian and Nepali nationals |
| Decision | HR team | Project Manager signs off; feedback in 48 hours |
Send us your draft brief and we will mark it up before the search starts. Fifteen minutes of questions usually saves a month. Need a number for a specific role? For a custom compensation benchmark on a specific role or market, request a benchmark.
New content is published monthly. For a briefing on any of these topics in the meantime, get in touch.
Sources: Nepal DoFE via Republica (22 Sep 2026) and The Kathmandu Post (18 Mar 2026); BMET via BSS and Arab News (Jan 2026), The Business Standard (Sep 2025); NAVTTC Takamol page; India MEA eMigrate rules; Cooper Fitch 2026 UAE and KSA Salary Guides; Nasscom-Zinnov GCC Landscape Report FY26 (Jul 2026); Ministry of Labour & Employment (PIB, 21 Nov 2025); Infinium 2025 salary benchmarks. Salary ranges are indicative.