khoja was appointed dean of the faculty of education in mecca in 1979 and his term lasted until 1984. then he served as the undersecretary for information affairs at the ministry of information from 1984 to 1991. later, he served as a saudi ambassador to various countries, including turkey (1991), russia and morocco. he was also saudi ambassador to lebanon and was in office from 2004 to 2009. during this period of time, king abdullah's foreign policy towards lebanon was highly intense and also seen as an interventionist approach. on 14 february 2009, khoja appointed minister of culture and information, replacing iyad bin amin madani who had been in office since february 2005. khoja's appointment was regarded as part of king abdullah's reform initiatives.