This study explores the factors that affect overall job satisfaction and intentions to stay among 432 employees in public research and development (R&D) center in Saudi Arabia. Five organizational characteristics variables: pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers, and nature of work, were considered as antecedents to overall job satisfaction and intentions to stay. Results show that pay has direct effect on overall job satisfaction and indirect effect on intentions to stay through overall job satisfaction; promotion has direct effect on overall job satisfaction; and supervision, co-workers, and nature of work have direct effects on both overall job satisfaction and intentions to stay among R&D center employees. Implications for R&D center management and future research are discussed.