Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 healthcare transformation has triggered unprecedented investment in pharmaceutical logistics infrastructure: cold rooms, distribution centers, and temperature-controlled fleets. But the most consequential asset in this transformation cannot be procured or contracted. It must be developed. The deeper, more enduring competitive advantage lies in the human expertise required to operate that infrastructure at the highest level of precision.
The Kingdom’s cold chain logistics market reached SAR 11.5 billion in 2023, with the healthcare segment projected to grow steadily through 2033, driven by rising demand for biologics, vaccines, and advanced cell and gene therapies.[1][2]
This expansion, however, has not been matched by a corresponding increase in the specialized workforce required to sustain it. Approximately 40% of companies in the Kingdom report difficulty finding adequately skilled labor for cold chain operations.
This challenge is compounded by Saudization requirements that, while essential to building national capability, place additional pressure on an already constrained talent market.[3]
The implication is significant: specialized operational expertise in high-stakes cold chain logistics is itself a form of healthcare sovereignty, distinct from and more enduring than infrastructure ownership alone. When that expertise is embedded in Saudi nationals, it becomes a compounding national asset rather than a contracted service that can be withdrawn when foreign talent moves on.
Salehiya’s partnership with the Saudi Logistics Academy offers a concrete model of how private-sector organizations are translating this philosophy into practice.
Students train across logistics specializations and transition directly into employment, embedding nationally developed expertise into the Kingdom’s most technically demanding healthcare logistics operations.
The Specialized Workforce Deficit in Saudi Pharmaceutical Cold Chain
Workforce shortages in pharmaceutical cold chain logistics are well-documented and widening. The gap is not a generalized talent problem — it is technical and specific.
Technical and Vocational Training programs have not kept pace with the sector’s digitalization, leaving Saudi professionals underequipped in data analytics, IoT troubleshooting, hazardous-material protocols, and GDP-compliant documentation.[4] Each of these is a non-negotiable competency for operating modern pharmaceutical supply chains.
The stakes are most acute for advanced therapies. An estimated 40% to 60% of all pharmaceuticals require temperature-controlled logistics globally, a proportion that is rising as biologics and cell and gene therapies represent an increasing share of the pipeline.[5]
For cell and gene therapies specifically, which must be maintained at precise cryogenic conditions throughout extraction, international transit, and re-administration, even minor deviations in protocol represent clinical failures rather than operational setbacks.
Saudi Arabia’s manufacturing ambitions intensify this pressure. PIF-backed Lifera is scaling domestic biologics production, including vaccines, insulin, and cell and gene therapies.
As the Kingdom builds out this production capacity, the absence of an equivalent workforce capability shifts from an operational inconvenience to a strategic bottleneck. Domestic manufacturing at scale requires domestic logistics expertise at scale.[6]
Without a parallel investment in workforce capability, the Kingdom risks building production infrastructure that outpaces its ability to deliver those therapies safely and reliably to patients.
Salehiya recognized this gap early. In 2024, the company formalized its commitment to addressing the Kingdom’s supply chain talent deficit by signing a two-year partnership agreement with the Saudi Logistics Academy to train and develop 50 Academy students, directly aligning its workforce strategy with the national imperatives of Vision 2030.
Operational Expertise as a Strategic Asset: The Case for Knowledge Sovereignty
Cold storage facilities, refrigerated fleets, and IoT monitoring systems can be procured, contracted, or replicated.
What cannot be acquired through procurement alone is the judgment to manage a cell and gene therapy shipment across a complex, multi-jurisdictional logistics chain. That capability is built through repeated, high-stakes operational experience under rigorous compliance conditions.
The expertise is procedurally dense. It requires simultaneous command of SFDA regulations, GDP standards, cross-border regulatory frameworks, cold chain compliance documentation, and real-time problem-solving when conditions deviate.
Certification programs provide a foundation, but these competencies are ultimately forged through practice, not credentialing.
This distinction has direct implications for national strategy. When specialized expertise resides primarily in expatriate or foreign-contracted talent, the Kingdom’s operational capability remains contingent on that workforce staying.
When it is embedded in Saudi nationals, it compounds: each cohort mentors the next, institutional knowledge accumulates, and the intellectual capital of the sector stays in the Kingdom.
The Saudi Logistics Academy, established in 2021 as part of the National Strategy for Transport and Logistics, reflects the government’s recognition of this gap.[7][8]
The Academy offers eight specializations, including supply chain management and warehouse management, with programs structured explicitly around employment in partner organizations. To date, more than 1,200 Saudi nationals have been trained and placed through its initiatives.
In 2022, the Academy launched an executive leadership program in partnership with the ZLC Center and MIT Institute, comprising more than 90 hours of intensive instruction from international specialists.[9]
This signals an ambition that extends well beyond producing operational workers to cultivating the Kingdom’s next generation of logistics sector leaders.
Translating that national ambition into operational capability is where private-sector partners play an indispensable role.
Salehiya’s partnership with the Academy is a direct expression of that role in practice. Trainees receive hands-on experience across supply chain verticals including planning, procurement, freight forwarding, customs clearance, warehousing, regulatory affairs, and last-mile delivery. Outstanding performers advance from structured programs into specialist roles within each vertical. In the first year of the partnership alone, more than 10 trainees transitioned into full-time employment with Salehiya, with additional placements planned as part of the second cohort.
Institutionalizing Excellence: Salehiya’s Model for National Talent Development
Closing this workforce gap requires private-sector organizations to go beyond compliance and build genuine expertise pipelines.
Government training infrastructure is expanding meaningfully, but it does not yet address the most specialized competencies in pharmaceutical cold chain at the depth the sector requires.
Salehiya has chosen to fill that role directly, investing in structured talent development that converts Academy-trained students into operational specialists.
Salehiya’s approach reflects a commitment that runs deeper than regulatory compliance. The company’s two-year Saudi Logistics Academy partnership is structured to place 25 students per annual cohort across supply chain departments, with deliberate emphasis on cold chain operations.
Students assigned to freight forwarding, customs clearance, transportation, warehousing, and delivery receive direct, hands-on involvement in the physical management of temperature-sensitive shipments. Theoretical knowledge is tested against real operational conditions from the outset.
The Regional Distribution Center (RDC) provides the operational environment that makes this training substantive.
With more than 30,000 pallet positions, over 2,000 dedicated to cold chain, a centralized monitoring and compliance system, and real-time tracking across a national fleet, the RDC is among the most advanced facilities of its kind in the Kingdom.
For a trainee, this is not a classroom approximation of pharmaceutical logistics; it is the actual work, performed to GDP standards, under live conditions. It is this direct exposure to real compliance requirements, rather than simulated ones, that builds the judgment cold chain expertise requires.
The cell and gene therapy capability represents the apex of what this training is designed to produce. Salehiya manages end-to-end logistics for cell and gene therapy shipments, coordinating the full journey from patient cell extraction to overseas treatment and back — one of the most technically demanding capabilities in the global healthcare sector. Developing Saudi nationals who can execute this process with precision is a direct contribution to the Kingdom’s long-term healthcare sovereignty.
Salehiya’s investment in Saudi national talent is inseparable from its identity as a Saudi organization. The aspiration to contribute to the Kingdom’s ambition of becoming a top-ten global logistics powerhouse is realized through building world-class cold chain infrastructure, and also by developing the Saudi professionals who make that infrastructure perform.
As the Kingdom’s pharmaceutical manufacturing and biotech sectors continue to scale under Vision 2030,[10] demand for this caliber of expertise will only intensify. The Knowledge Chain, once built, is self-reinforcing: each expert developed becomes a foundation for the next generation of Saudi logistics leadership.
[1] https://www.tracedataresearch.com/industry-report/saudi-arabia-cold-chain-market
[2] https://www.imarcgroup.com/saudi-arabia-cold-chain-market
[3] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/saudi-arabia-chain-logistics-market
[4] https://www.tracedataresearch.com/industry-report/saudi-arabia-cold-chain-market
[5] https://themedicinemaker.com/issues/2026/articles/april/a-reliable-cold-chain-is-a-health-equity-issue/
[6] https://saudilogisticsconsulting.com/insights/articles/saudi-pharma-logistics-meets-cold-chain-test
[7] https://sla.edu.sa/about/
[8] https://ncsp.org.sa/en/lists/training-facilities/saudi-logistics-academy/
[9] https://sla.edu.sa/
[10] https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/explore/programs/health-sector-transformation-program
