Al-Sakkaf worked in Oxfam's humanitarian program in 2003. In March 2005, she became the editor in chief of the "Yemen Times". In 2011, during the Arab Spring in Yemen, Al-Sakkaf and her staff participated in protests demanding that Saleh step down and played a significant role in reporting the Yemeni Revolution to the wider world. Al-Sakkaf is a member of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate and the International Journalists Syndicate. She is an advocate for women's rights, successfully recruiting female journalists to bring a gender balance to the newspaper's staff and running articles on female genital mutilation.