Director of Engineering (m/f/d)

Halian | Managed Services, Recruitment Agency & Contract Staffing; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Halian seeks a Director of Engineering in Abu Dhabi to build and lead a high-performing engineering organization delivering secure, scalable, business-critical digital platforms.

Reporting to the CTO, you will design the operating model, governance, and leadership layers to support rapid growth, while owning engineering operations, workforce planning, and delivery execution to enable strategic technology initiatives.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.
• Proven experience leading engineering organizations through growth and transformation.
• Experience building scalable operating models and leadership layers.
• Experience leading 50+ engineers via Engineering Managers and Team Leads.
• Experience partnering with CTO, CIO, VP Engineering or executive leadership.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, cloud platforms, DevSecOps, CI/CD.
• Experience in regulated or mission-critical environments preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead and design a scalable engineering operating model aligned to growth objectives.
• Build and develop Engineering Managers, Tech Leads, Architects, and senior engineers.
• Drive delivery governance, capacity planning, and execution across initiatives.
• Partner with Product, Business, and Technology stakeholders to align roadmaps and delivery.
• Provide technical leadership across architecture, practices, and platform modernization.
• Establish KPIs, scorecards, and reporting for engineering performance.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Growth & transformation

Executive collaboration

Software architecture

DevSecOps & CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS/IT

Job description

Job Purpose

The Director of Engineering is responsible for building, scaling, and leading a high-performing engineering organization that delivers secure, scalable, and business-critical digital platforms.

This role serves as the operational leader of the engineering function, partnering closely with the CTO to establish the organizational structure, operating model, delivery governance, and leadership capability required to support rapid business growth.

A key objective of the role is to transform engineering into a highly accountable, delivery-focused organization by implementing effective squad structures, resource planning models, performance frameworks, and engineering leadership layers. The successful candidate will enable the CTO to focus on strategic technology direction by assuming ownership of engineering operations, workforce planning, people leadership, and delivery execution.

The Director of Engineering will combine organizational leadership with deep technical credibility, ensuring engineering teams deliver reliable, secure, scalable, and high-performing software solutions aligned to business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Engineering Organizational Leadership
• Design and implement a scalable engineering operating model aligned to business growth objectives.
• Establish clear team structures, reporting lines, ownership boundaries, and accountability frameworks across engineering.
• Build and develop Engineering Managers, Technical Leads, Architects, and senior engineering talent.
• Define workforce planning strategies, hiring plans, succession planning, and organizational growth roadmaps.
• Create a culture of accountability, ownership, performance, and continuous improvement.

Squad & Delivery Model Transformation

• Design and implement squad, tribe, pod, or domain-based engineering structures.
• Define ownership models across products, platforms, services, and technology domains.
• Drive delivery predictability through capacity planning, resource allocation, prioritization, and execution governance.
• Establish portfolio planning and delivery review processes across multiple initiatives and teams.
• Create engineering KPIs, operational scorecards, and performance reporting mechanisms.

Delivery Governance & Execution

• Own engineering delivery across all software development initiatives.
• Ensure effective planning, estimation, prioritization, and execution of strategic technology programs.
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering productivity, quality, release management, and operational efficiency.
• Establish governance for delivery management, risk management, dependencies, and escalation processes.
• Partner with Product, Business, and Technology stakeholders to align roadmaps and delivery commitments.

Technology Leadership

• Provide technical leadership across software architecture, engineering practices, and platform modernization initiatives.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices including Agile, DevSecOps, CI/CD, cloud-native architectures, observability, and automation.
• Support the design and delivery of highly available, scalable, secure, and resilient enterprise platforms.
• Ensure engineering decisions align with long-term technology strategy and business objectives.
• Provide guidance and challenge architecture decisions where appropriate.

People Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop engineering leaders and managers.
• Establish engineering career frameworks, performance management processes, and talent development programs.
• Build leadership capability and succession pipelines across engineering teams.
• Foster collaboration, engagement, knowledge sharing, and high-performance team culture.
• Drive employee retention, professional growth, and leadership development initiatives.

Executive Partnership

• Act as the primary operational leader for the engineering organization.
• Partner closely with the CTO on technology strategy, transformation initiatives, and organizational growth.
• Assume responsibility for engineering operations, allowing executive leadership to focus on strategic priorities.
• Provide executive reporting on engineering performance, delivery health, organization capacity, and business outcomes.
• Influence leadership decisions regarding technology investments, workforce growth, and organizational effectiveness.

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related discipline.
• Proven experience leading engineering organizations through periods of significant growth and transformation.
• Experience building engineering structures, leadership layers, and scalable operating models.
• Demonstrated success leading organizations of 50+ engineers through Engineering Managers and Team Leads.
• Experience partnering directly with CTO, CIO, VP Engineering, or executive leadership teams.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, cloud platforms, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern software delivery practices.
• Experience operating within complex, highly regulated, or mission-critical environments preferred.

Director of Engineering in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates