During the late 1990s, Saeed served as general director of the Egyptian finance ministry's budget division. He was the ministry undersecretary during the term of Mubarak-era finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali. Prior to being appointed minister by Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri in the interim government in December 2011, Saeed served as the second-in-command at Egypt's finance ministry. Saeed was called from retirement in the middle of 2011 to work as deputy finance minister under Finance Minister Hazem Al Beblawi.
