Saudi CV Templates: Free, ATS-Safe, Arabic and English

If you came here for a template, take one now. Below are three complete CV layouts — fresh graduate, experienced professional, career changer — written as plain text you can copy straight into Word or Google Docs. They are one-column, use standard section headings, and are built to survive both an applicant tracking system and a Saudi hiring manager’s first scan.

After the templates, we explain what makes them safe, why most downloadable designs fail, and what changes between the Arabic and English versions.

Quick answer

• Copy, don’t download. A plain layout you paste into a blank document beats any design file.
• One column, standard headings, text-based PDF, Western digits. That is the entire technical requirement.
• The layout never changes per job. The summary line and the order of achievements do.
• English for corporates and multinationals, Arabic for government and جدارات postings. See Arabic or English CV.
• File name: Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf.

For the reasoning behind every rule here, the Saudi CV guide is the full version.

Template 1 — Fresh graduate (one page)

FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Saudi Arabia | 05X XXX XXXX | firstname.lastname@email.com | linkedin.com/in/username

SUMMARY
[Degree] graduate from [University], [Year], with cooperative training in [function] at
[Employer]. [Strongest concrete result in one clause]. Seeking [target role] in [sector].

EXPERIENCE
Cooperative Training – [Function] | [Employer] | [City] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [Verb] [countable object], [result or figure].
- [Verb] [tool or process you built], [before → after figure].
- [Verb] [output you delivered to a named person or team].

[Volunteer / Freelance / Club Role] | [Organisation] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [Verb] [number of people, events, or items handled].
- [Verb] [output].

PROJECTS
[Project name] — [Graduation project / course project], [N students], [duration]
- Problem: [the real situation the project addressed].
- My role: [your specific contribution, not the team's].
- Tools: [Tool], [Tool], [Tool].
- Result: [measurable output and grade or outcome].

EDUCATION
Bachelor of [Field], [University], [City] — Graduated MM/YYYY
GPA [X.X]/5 [include only if 4.0/5 or above]

SKILLS
[Tool], [Tool], [Tool], [Method]
Languages: Arabic (native), English ([honest level])

COURSES & CERTIFICATIONS
[Course name] — [Doroob / Coursera / Provider], [Year]
[Course name] — [Provider], [Year]
[Course name] — [Provider], [Year]

Full guidance on filling this one is in how to write a CV with no experience.

Template 2 — Experienced professional (one to two pages)

FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Saudi Arabia | 05X XXX XXXX | firstname.lastname@email.com | linkedin.com/in/username

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
[Job title] with [N] years in [sector] across [scope: teams, regions, budgets].
[Single strongest result with a number and a timeframe]. Specialised in [2-3 areas
that match the posting].

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
- [Biggest result, with baseline → outcome → timeframe → scale].
- [Second result, different type: cost, revenue, time, quality, risk].
- [Third result, ideally one that shows leadership or scope].

EXPERIENCE
[Job Title] | [Employer] | [City] | MM/YYYY – Present
- [Result-first bullet: outcome, then how, then scale].
- [Result-first bullet].
- [Result-first bullet].
- [Scope line: team size, budget, systems owned].

[Job Title] | [Employer] | [City] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [Result-first bullet].
- [Result-first bullet].
- [Result-first bullet].

[Job Title] | [Employer] | [City] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [One or two lines only; older roles compress].

EDUCATION
[Degree], [University], [Year]

CERTIFICATIONS
[PMP / CFA / CMA / SOCPA / CISSP / other], [Issuing body], [Year]

SKILLS & SYSTEMS
[SAP / Oracle / Power BI / Primavera / specific technical stack]
Languages: Arabic (native), English ([honest level])

Two structural notes. The Key Achievements block near the top is what earns the longer read — it puts your three best numbers above the fold instead of on page two. And older roles get one line, not four; nobody hiring a finance manager needs detail on a 2013 internship.

Template 3 — Career changer (one to two pages)

FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
City, Saudi Arabia | 05X XXX XXXX | firstname.lastname@email.com | linkedin.com/in/username

SUMMARY
[Current profession] moving into [target field], with [the transferable asset that
makes the move credible: domain knowledge, data volume handled, customer exposure].
[Proof of the new skill: certification, project, freelance work]. Targeting
[specific role], not [the vague version].

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
[Reframed job title or project] | [Employer or client] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [Bullet written entirely in the vocabulary of the TARGET field].
- [Bullet showing the transferable result].

[Project or freelance engagement] | [Client or self-directed] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
- [What you built in the new field, with a measurable output].

CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING FOR [TARGET FIELD]
[Certificate], [Provider], [Year]
[Bootcamp or programme], [Provider], [Year]

FULL WORK HISTORY
[Job Title] | [Employer] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
[Job Title] | [Employer] | MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY
[One line each; this section exists to show continuity, not to sell]

EDUCATION
[Degree], [University], [Year]

SKILLS
[Target-field tools first], [then transferable tools]
Languages: Arabic (native), English ([honest level])

The move here is splitting Relevant Experience from Full Work History. It lets you lead with the two things that support the change without hiding the rest of your record. More on the strategy in changing careers in Saudi Arabia.

The Arabic version: what changes and what does not

The structure is identical. Only these things change:

Element	English CV	Arabic CV
Section headings	SUMMARY, EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, SKILLS	الملخص المهني، الخبرة العملية، التعليم، المهارات
Job titles	English	Arabic, with English in brackets on first use: محلل بيانات (Data Analyst)
Tools and systems	Latin	Latin, unchanged — Excel, SAP, Power BI
Certifications	Latin acronym	Latin acronym — PMP, SOCPA, CMA
Digits	0-9	0-9, never Arabic-Indic
Text direction	LTR	RTL for the whole document, not per paragraph
File name	Latin	Latin, always: Firstname-Lastname-CV-AR.pdf

Do not build a side-by-side bilingual document. Two columns is the layout parsers handle worst. If you need both languages, keep two separate files.

Why most downloadable templates fail

A “free CV template” search returns thousands of design files. Most of them are built for a portfolio aesthetic, not for a screening pipeline, and they fail in five predictable ways.

• Two columns. A sidebar with skills and contact details on one side, experience on the other. A parser reads linearly and interleaves the two, producing lines like “Excel Senior Analyst Arabic 2021 Riyadh”.
• Tables. Contents inside table cells frequently extract as empty. This is the most damaging one because you cannot see it happening — the PDF looks perfect to you.
• Text boxes and shapes. Anything floating on top of the page instead of flowing in the document body. Text in a text box often does not extract at all.
• Header and footer content. Some parsers skip headers and footers entirely. If your phone number and email are in the header, you have just made yourself uncontactable.
• Graphics standing in for information. Skill meters, star ratings, donut charts of “languages”, icons instead of section labels. All of it parses as nothing, and even a human reader cannot tell what “4 out of 5 stars in leadership” means.

There is a sixth, subtler failure: the design template pushes you to write in its shape rather than yours. A template with six equal-sized boxes makes you pad four of them. Content should decide the layout.

Weak: a two-column template with a photo, a dark sidebar, skill bars, and section icons, exported from a design tool.

Strong: a blank document with Firstname Lastname at the top, five plain headings, and result-first bullets under each — exported as a text-based PDF.

How to check your template actually parses

Two minutes, and it is the only test that matters.

1. Open your finished PDF in any reader.
2. Select all the text (Ctrl+A), copy it, paste it into a blank text file.
3. Read what came out.

If your name, phone, email, job titles, employers and dates all appear in a sensible order as plain text, the file parses. If sections are missing, scrambled, interleaved, or you copied nothing at all because it is an image, the file will fail screening — and no amount of good writing inside it will help. Fix the layout and repeat.

A second check: search the pasted text for one of your dates and one of your employer names. Those two fields are what most systems index first.

What actually changes between applications

Once the layout is right you never touch it again. What changes per posting is content, in three places:

1. The summary line — retargeted to the role in the posting.
2. The order of achievements — the ones matching this posting move up.
3. The vocabulary — mirror the posting’s own terms where they truthfully describe you. If the posting says “procurement”, write procurement, not “purchasing”. Decoding the posting shows how to pull those terms.

That is twenty minutes per application and it is the difference between a document aimed at everyone and one aimed at this job.

Doing that twenty minutes by hand for every posting is exactly the part people stop doing by week three. TrueSira keeps one Master Profile holding your real experience once, then takes any job description you paste and produces a tailored, ATS-ready CV in this structure — with every line traced to something you actually did and shown to you for approval before it enters the document. The template stays honest because the source material is yours. Get started free.

FAQ

Where can I download a free Saudi CV template?

You do not need a download. Copy one of the three plain layouts above into a blank Word or Google Docs file, fill it in, and export as PDF. Downloaded design templates are the single most common cause of parsing failures, so a plain document you build yourself is safer.

Are Word CV templates ATS friendly?

Most of the built-in gallery templates are not, because they use tables, text boxes, headers and footers to place content. A blank Word document formatted with plain headings and normal paragraphs parses more reliably than almost any pre-made design.

Is there an Arabic CV template that parses correctly?

Yes. Any single-column Arabic layout with standard headings, selectable text, Western digits and no tables will parse. Arabic script is not the problem — the two-column bilingual layout, tables and scanned PDFs common in Arabic templates are.

What CV format do Saudi companies prefer?

Text-based PDF, one column, reverse chronological order, one page for early careers and two at most for senior ones. English for corporates, multinationals and the giga-projects; Arabic for government entities and postings routed through جدارات.

Should I use a two-column CV template?

No. Two-column layouts are the most reliable way to get your content read out of order or dropped. Anything you would put in a sidebar — skills, contact details, languages — fits in a one-column layout without any loss.

Do I need a different template for each job?

No. Keep one layout and change the content: the summary line, the order of your achievements, and the vocabulary you mirror from the posting. Rebuilding the design per application wastes the time you should be spending on targeting.