Obaida Attended Imam Mohamed Bin Saud University in the late 1990s, where he earned a degree in media.[1] After graduation, he started working at Saudi Al-Jazirah. His former boss, Abdul-Elahi Al Qasim stated he was one of the first Saudi journalists to include his email address in his byline. He stated that Obaida had shown no signs of extremist ideology while with the paper.