Director of Engineering

Salt; Dubai; Remote; AED 418,000 - 566,000; Full time

Job summary

Salt in Dubai is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead a 50+ strong distributed engineering organisation. You will own engineering best practices, architecture, delivery speed, and team development, reporting directly to the Co-Founder & CTO.

This role drives high standards in a fast-moving fintech environment, building scalable systems that comply with regulatory requirements and accelerate product delivery while remaining a first-mover in innovation.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in engineering leadership.
• Hands-on coding with C#/.NET.
• Experience in regulated fintech environments.
• Experience leading distributed teams across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead a distributed engineering team across multiple geographies.
• Set engineering standards, documentation, and processes for faster, secure delivery.
• Drive architectural evolution with a focus on backend scalability and performance.
• Oversee budgets, recruitment of senior hires, and team structure as the organization scales.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, and problem-solving across squads.

Skills

Leadership

C#/.NET

Python

Fintech payments

Remote team leadership

Job description

Up to USD 12,000 a month

We're seeking a Director of Engineering to lead, scale, and inspire my clients 45+ strong engineering organization. Reporting directly to the Co-Founder & CTO, you'll take ownership of engineering best practice, architecture, delivery speed, and team development. You'll provide the senior technical depth to balance strategy with execution, enabling the CTO to step further into a strategic role. This role is pivotal: you'll be driving high standards in a fast-moving fintech environment, building systems to satisfy stringent regulatory demands, and ensuring that they remain a first-mover in product delivery and innovation.

What You'll Do:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a distributed engineering team (currently 50+, across Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi and beyond).
• Build scalable systems that comply with SAMA and other regulatory requirements.
• Set engineering standards, documentation, and processes that empower the team to deliver faster, better, and more securely.
• Drive architectural evolution across C#/.NET and Python, with a strong focus on backend scalability and mobile performance.
• Work with payments, card processing, and settlement systems (experience with integrators like Network International, or similar is a major plus).
• Oversee engineering budgets, recruitment of senior hires, and organisational structure as the team scales.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, problem-solving, and accountability across remote squads.
• Translate ambiguity into structure: bring clarity and order to a rapidly scaling business.

What We're Looking For:

• 10+ years in engineering leadership with at least 3-4 years at Engineering Lead / Director / VP level.
• Hands‑on technical depth: recent coding experience in C#/.NET (mandatory); exposure to Python and other open-source stacks is a plus.
• Strong fintech/payments experience in regulated environments (cards, gateways, settlements, reconciliation).
• Proven ability to lead large remote teams across multiple geographies and time zones.
• Comfortable in ambiguity: able to adapt, prioritise, and deliver in a fast‑paced, shifting environment.
• Collaborative leadership style: approachable, empowering, and focused on team success rather than personal credit.
• Bonus: Arabic-speaking, or experience working across MENA.