Head of Engineering

Tarjama&; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in the United Arab Emirates is seeking a Head of Engineering to provide strategic leadership across all engineering disciplines. You will oversee the development of government-grade AI systems, ensuring they meet secure-by-design and high-performance standards. The ideal candidate has 10+ years of experience in engineering roles, including a senior leadership position, and a strong background in software engineering, AI, and cloud infrastructure. This role is vital for shaping and executing our engineering strategy.

Qualifications

• 10–15+ years of experience in engineering roles, including 5+ years in senior leadership positions.
• Proven experience scaling engineering organizations and managing complex systems.
• Strong expertise in software engineering, AI / ML environments, and cloud infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the engineering vision, strategy, and long-term roadmap.
• Oversee the development of production-grade AI pipelines and ecosystems.
• Lead and mentor engineering teams across multiple technical disciplines.
• Ensure system reliability through monitoring and performance optimization.

Skills

Software engineering

AI / ML environments

Cloud infrastructure

DevOps

Communication skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related field

Job description

Job Purpose

The Head of Engineering provides strategic and operational leadership across all engineering disciplines—including software engineering, AI / ML, data infrastructure, architecture, and DevOps—to build secure, scalable, and high-performing government-grade AI systems.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Strategy

• Define and execute the engineering vision, strategy, and long-term roadmap.
• Build a high-performing engineering culture centered on quality, collaboration, and innovation.
• Align engineering goals with organizational priorities and product strategy.

AI System Development

• Oversee the development of production-grade AI pipelines, platforms, and ecosystems.
• Ensure AI products adhere to secure-by-design and government performance standards.
• Guide teams in building scalable architectures for RAG, LLM, and automation systems.

Engineering Management

• Lead, scale, and mentor engineering teams across multiple technical disciplines.
• Recruit and develop top engineering talent.
• Establish effective team structures, workflows, and performance frameworks.

Technical Execution & Quality

• Oversee technical architecture, system design, and operational excellence.
• Enforce best practices in software engineering, automation, DevOps, security, and documentation.
• Ensure system reliability through monitoring, observability, performance optimization, and incident management.
• Define technical governance, evaluation methodologies, and AI reliability / quality standards.
• Oversee rigorous testing, benchmarking, and compliance validation to ensure production-grade performance.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with product, data, AI / ML, and business stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions.
• Support technical evaluations, feasibility studies, and architectural reviews.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or related field.
• 10–15+ years of experience in engineering roles, including 5+ years in senior leadership positions.
• Proven experience scaling engineering organizations and managing complex systems.
• Strong expertise in software engineering, AI / ML environments, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience delivering enterprise or government-scale AI systems is a plus.
• Prior work in regulated or high-security environments is a plus.