SENIOR OUD BAKHOOR & ARABIAN FINE FRAGRANCE FORMULATOR

About the Role

Palomba General Trading LLC is seeking a Senior Oud, Bakhoor & Arabian Fine Fragrance Formulator to join their team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time position requires a professional with direct experience in formulating Middle Eastern fragrance products, rather than solely evaluating, selling, or marketing them. The role focuses on creating fragrance formulas that are technically credible, commercially relevant, and culturally appropriate for Saudi and GCC consumers.

Key Responsibilities

• Create original Arabian fine-fragrance formulas, including oud fragrances, bakhoor, attars, mukhallat, incense-based compositions, amber, musk, rose-oud structures, and oriental fine fragrances.
• Develop oud-based compositions, distinguishing and working with profiles such as woody, smoky, leathery, animalic, sweet, balsamic, medicinal, and resinous oud.
• Formulate bakhoor fragrance systems, understanding fragrance concentration, heat behavior, smoke character, diffusion, persistence, resin interaction, base compatibility, and fragrance evolution during burning.
• Develop attars and mukhallat, with experience in concentrated oil perfumes, non-alcoholic fragrance systems, traditional attar structures, oil-based fragrance performance, and layering concepts.
• Build incense and resin accords, and develop modern amber, musk, and oriental accords.
• Work with rose, saffron, woods, and balsamic materials, balancing natural and synthetic materials.
• Modify formulas based on olfactory evaluation, improving diffusion and substantivity, and optimizing performance on skin and fabric.
• Develop fragrance variants for different concentration levels and create commercially differentiated fragrance structures.
• Evaluate raw-material quality, compare oud qualities and oud accords.
• Support fragrance stability and performance evaluation, and work with external fragrance houses and ingredient suppliers as required.
• Maintain formulation documentation and modification history.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• 5-10 years of hands-on experience in creating and modifying fragrance formulas, specifically for Middle Eastern products.
• Proven ability to move from creative direction to formula, modification, performance testing, and final fragrance concept, understanding regional olfactory codes.
• Experience with both natural agarwood materials and reconstructed oud accords, understanding oud's interaction with rose, saffron, musk, amber, sandalwood, patchouli, leather, and incense.
• Direct professional experience with bakhoor formulation is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with concentrated oil perfumes, non-alcoholic fragrance systems, and oil-based fragrance performance.
• Professional knowledge of naturals such as oud/agarwood, rose, sandalwood, patchouli, frankincense, myrrh, labdanum, saffron, vetiver, and citrus oils.
• Professional knowledge of synthetics/accords including amber materials, musks, woody ambers, leather notes, oud bases, diffusive woody materials, and fixative systems.
• Ability to modify existing formulas by deliberately changing strength, diffusion, longevity, sweetness, smokiness, animalic character, dryness, woodiness, floral balance, and market positioning.
• Direct familiarity with Saudi fragrance preferences, including high fragrance concentration, strong performance expectations, layering, oud and musk usage, incense culture, and luxury fragrance purchasing behavior.
• Candidates with direct experience working for Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti, or Omani fragrance houses are particularly relevant.
• Previous titles may include Senior Perfumer – Arabian Fragrance, Oud Perfumer, Oriental Perfumer, Fine Fragrance Perfumer, Bakhoor Formulator, Attar Perfumer, Fragrance Formulator, or Senior Fragrance Developer.
• Candidates must have direct formula ownership, not merely project coordination.

Compensation

The salary for this position ranges from SAR 24,000 to SAR 38,000 per month.

Work Environment

This is a full-time position based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The role offers direct involvement in new fragrance development projects for both Middle Eastern and international markets.