Head - Developer Experience and DevSecOps

RAKBANK; Dubai; On-site; AED 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Innovation-focused environment

Leadership in AI-native banking transformation

Job summary

RAKBANK in Dubai is looking for a Head - Developer Experience and DevSecOps, a leadership role focused on AI-driven software delivery and DevSecOps practices. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience in engineering roles and leadership, enabling modernization and scaling of development practices.

This role emphasizes employing AI to improve software quality and delivery speed while navigating regulated banking technology. Candidates should bring a wealth of experience in software engineering and a passion for innovation in financial services.

Qualifications

• 15 years of experience in software engineering or DevOps.
• Minimum 4 years in a senior leadership role.
• Strong hands-on background in DevSecOps tooling.

Responsibilities

• Define and scale enterprise AI-driven software delivery.
• Drive engineering productivity through automation.
• Establish engineering standards to reduce developer cognitive load.

Skills

Developer Experience

DevSecOps

AI-assisted software delivery

CI/CD platforms

Java

Kubernetes

Spring Boot

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

OpenShift

SAST

DAST

Job description

Overview

Head - Developer Experience and DevSecOps in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is a senior Financial Services technology leadership opportunity for an experienced engineering capability leader with deep expertise in AI‑driven SDLC, DevSecOps, developer experience, testing governance, CI/CD platforms, platform engineering, security automation, and regulated banking technology delivery. This role is ideal for an execution‑focused leader who can help RAKBANK become an AI‑native bank by scaling secure, automated, high‑quality, and AI‑assisted software delivery across the engineering organization.

Job Details

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Industry: Financial Services
Function: Information Technology
Job Type: Full‑time
Experience: 15 years software, platform engineering, or DevOps experience

Salary: 60,000‑85,000 (estimated; final offer to be confirmed with the employer)

Gender: Any
Candidate Nationality: Any

Key Responsibilities

• Define and scale an enterprise‑wide AI‑driven software delivery lifecycle across the engineering organization.
• Enable governed human‑and‑agent software co‑delivery from requirements through production release.
• Deploy and govern specialist AI agents with bounded autonomy, auditability, and human‑in‑the‑loop decision controls.
• Drive measurable engineering productivity improvements through AI‑assisted development, automation, and platform enablement.
• Own end‑to‑end CI/CD and deployment pipelines across engineering teams.
• Embed security, reliability, compliance, and automation into every stage of the software delivery lifecycle.
• Build and operate a self‑service internal developer platform to remove infrastructure friction and accelerate autonomous squad delivery.
• Improve deployment frequency, MTTR, release quality, engineering throughput, and cost efficiency.
• Ensure DevSecOps practices meet CBUAE expectations, internal security mandates, and operational resilience requirements.
• Establish engineering standards, golden paths, reusable patterns, and delivery guardrails to reduce developer cognitive load.
• Build and operate a single authoritative developer portal for services, APIs, tooling, documentation, and operational knowledge.
• Govern AI‑assisted development practices and engineering KPIs to improve developer productivity, quality, and experience.
• Define and enforce enterprise‑wide testing standards, quality expectations, and coverage thresholds across engineering squads.
• Embed shift‑left and shift‑right quality controls throughout the delivery pipeline.
• Implement automated and non‑negotiable quality gates across build, test, security, release, and deployment workflows.
• Govern AI‑enabled QA agents, automation frameworks, and test governance practices to reduce defect leakage.
• Lead adoption of testing governance that supports predictable release confidence in a regulated banking environment.
• Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing engineering leadership team across platform engineering, DevOps, developer experience, and QA.
• Represent engineering capability priorities at CTO leadership forums and cross‑functional governance meetings.
• Collaborate with product, risk, compliance, business, architecture, security, and technology stakeholders.
• Own strategic vendor relationships across DevOps tools, AI developer tooling, internal developer portals, testing platforms, and engineering productivity systems.
• Translate technical capability improvements into measurable executive‑level business outcomes.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices across squads through coaching, standards, enablement, and clear accountability.

Ideal Profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 15 years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, technology delivery, or engineering enablement.
• Minimum 4 years in a senior leadership role building and scaling engineering capabilities.
• Proven experience designing and operating enterprise CI/CD platforms at scale using OpenShift, Kubernetes, or equivalent technologies.
• Strong hands‑on background in DevSecOps tooling including SAST, DAST, SCA, container security, secrets management, and infrastructure‑as‑code policy enforcement.
• Demonstrated leadership in developer experience initiatives, including developer portals, engineering standards, golden paths, and DORA‑aligned metrics.
• Exposure to AI‑assisted development, agentic systems, LLM‑powered engineering tooling, or human‑AI software delivery models.
• Ability to translate engineering productivity, platform reliability, quality, and security improvements into measurable business outcomes.
• Experience working in banking, fintech, insurance, or another regulated financial services environment is preferred.
• Familiarity with CBUAE or UAE Central Bank technology, security, and operational resilience expectations is desirable.
• Prior hands‑on exposure to Java, Spring Boot, React, BPM, Kafka‑based event‑driven architecture, or similar enterprise technology stacks is an advantage.
• Background in Site Reliability Engineering or platform product management is valuable.
• Knowledge of Model Context Protocol, multi‑agent orchestration frameworks, Kubernetes certifications, cloud DevOps certifications, TOGAF, or SAFe is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of software delivery governance, platform security, testing governance, and operational excellence.
• Ability to stay close to execution while leading enterprise‑level frameworks, adoption, and capability scaling.
• Strong leadership, stakeholder management, executive communication, coaching, and vendor management skills.
• Strategic, practical, resilient, and delivery‑focused approach to engineering transformation.

Skills Set

• Developer Experience
• DevSecOps
• Agentic SDLC
• AI‑assisted software delivery
• AI‑native banking
• Platform engineering
• Internal Developer Platform
• Developer portal
• Engineering standards
• Golden paths
• CI/CD platforms
• OpenShift
• Kubernetes
• DevOps governance
• SAST
• DAST
• SCA
• Container security
• Secrets management
• Infrastructure as Code
• IaC policy enforcement
• DORA metrics
• Developer productivity
• Engineering KPIs
• Testing governance
• Shift‑left testing
• Shift‑right testing
• Automated quality gates
• QA automation
• AI‑enabled QA agents
• Defect leakage reduction
• Release confidence
• MTTR improvement
• Deployment frequency
• Site Reliability Engineering
• Platform product management
• Java
• Spring Boot
• React
• BPM
• Kafka
• Event‑driven architecture
• Model Context Protocol
• Multi‑agent orchestration
• LLM‑powered engineering tools
• CBUAE compliance
• Operational resilience
• Vendor management
• Engineering leadership
• Executive stakeholder management

Why Join Us

This opportunity is ideal for a Head – Developer Experience and DevSecOps seeking a high‑impact technology leadership role in Dubai's Financial Services sector. The position offers the chance to shape RAKBANK's AI‑native engineering journey, scale enterprise DevSecOps, build a modern internal developer platform, govern AI‑assisted software delivery, and improve software quality, speed, security, and cost efficiency. It is a strong fit for a hands‑on engineering leader who wants to combine strategy, execution, AI adoption, platform thinking, testing governance, and regulated banking technology delivery.

About the Company

RAKBANK is a leading UAE banking institution serving personal, SME, commercial, corporate, and wealth management customers through a broad range of financial products, digital banking services, and client‑focused solutions. The bank is committed to innovation, governance, operational resilience, teamwork, customer service, and sustainable growth. Through its digital, AI, DevSecOps, platform engineering, automation, and technology transformation initiatives, RAKBANK continues to strengthen modern financial services and deliver secure, reliable, and customer‑focused banking experiences across the United Arab Emirates.