Director of Software Engineering

Foreground LLC; Dubai; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech company in Dubai is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to oversee the development of AI-powered SaaS solutions. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in software engineering, proven leadership in fast-paced environments, and expertise in modern development technologies. This role requires a strategic mindset to drive innovation and ensure product excellence across enterprise-grade platforms.

Qualifications

• 12-15 years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• 5 years in a leadership role overseeing SaaS or platform-based software development.
• Prior experience in AI/ML product environments is a strong advantage.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical vision and software architecture for core product platforms.
• Oversee backend, frontend, and infrastructure teams.
• Implement engineering best practices including CI/CD and secure code development.

Skills

Software Engineering

SaaS Development

Agile/Scrum

DevSecOps

Python

React

Docker

Kubernetes

REST/GraphQL APIs

AI/ML

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Master's degree in Software Engineering

Job description

Foreground is partnering with a venture-backed AI software company serving enterprise clients across MENA to appoint a product-driven and deeply technical Director of Software Engineering based in Dubai. As the company scales its SaaS platforms across industries including logistics banking and government services the role will lead the engineering vision and drive product excellence through scalable cloud-native architecture.

Role Purpose

To lead the engineering team responsible for designing building and deploying AI-powered software products that meet enterprise-grade performance reliability and security standards while maintaining speed of innovation and delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the technical vision and software architecture for core product platforms ensuring modularity scalability and continuous improvement across releases.
• Oversee backend frontend and infrastructure teams ensuring effective coordination with product managers data scientists and QA leads.
• Implement engineering best practices including DevOps pipelines CI/CD automation version control and secure code development.
• Define and enforce coding standards peer review protocols testing coverage benchmarks and documentation quality.
• Build engineering workforce plans recruitment pipelines and mentorship frameworks to scale the team as the company grows.
• Collaborate closely with product leadership to translate customer feedback and roadmap priorities into executable engineering sprints.
• Ensure security and compliance in multi-tenant enterprise environments particularly around data privacy AI model explainability and system availability.
• Report on platform performance technical debt delivery velocity and capacity planning to executive leadership and board stakeholders.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 1215 years of hands-on software engineering experience with at least 5 years in a leadership role overseeing SaaS or platform-based software development.
• Proven track record delivering enterprise-grade products using modern technologies (e.g. Python React Docker Kubernetes REST/GraphQL APIs).
• Experience leading teams using Agile/Scrum and DevSecOps frameworks in fast-growth environments.
• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Software Engineering or a related field.
• Prior experience working in AI/ML product environments is a strong advantage.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate across tech and non-tech stakeholders and manage remote cross-functional teams.