Director of Software Engineering (DSE001)

Foreground LLC; Dubai; On-site; AED 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI software company is seeking a Director of Software Engineering in Dubai to spearhead the engineering vision and drive product excellence. This role involves overseeing cross-functional teams, implementing best practices in software development, and ensuring compliance and security in enterprise environments. The ideal candidate will possess significant leadership experience and a robust technical background in SaaS and AI/ML products.

Qualifications

• 12-15 years of software engineering experience with 5+ years in a leadership role.
• Experience in fast-growth SaaS environments.
• Familiarity with AI/ML products is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering vision and build AI-powered software products.
• Set technical vision, oversee teams, and implement best practices.
• Coordinate with product managers and ensure compliance with data privacy.

Skills

Software Engineering

Agile

DevSecOps

Communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science

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.
• 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.