Head of Technology – Buying, Planning & Sourcing

Salt; Dubai; On-site; AED 600,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Salt is seeking a hands-on technology leader to build and scale a greenfield Buying, Planning & Sourcing platform. You will own the technology strategy, architecture and delivery, shaping an engineering function and building a high-performing team across markets.

You will work closely with Product, Design, Data and Operations to translate priorities into scalable digital products, champion modern practices, and ensure reliability, security, and data-driven decision-making as the platform evolves.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading software or product engineering teams as a Head of Engineering, Engineering Director, VP Engineering or equivalent.
• Strong product-engineering background within a fast-moving digital business, marketplace, e-commerce, fintech, travel-tech or consumer technology environment.
• Proven experience building a platform from scratch or modernising a legacy platform.
• Able to operate in ambiguity and own a greenfield technology mandate.
• Credible technically while remaining hands-on, able to challenge architecture and guide teams.

Responsibilities

• Define the engineering vision, architecture and delivery roadmap for a new platform.
• Turn manual and legacy processes into scalable internal digital products.
• Lead technical decision-making across architecture, code quality and platform reliability.
• Partner with Product, Design, Data and business stakeholders to translate priorities into outcomes.
• Build and scale the engineering organization, leveraging existing capabilities.
• Drive modern engineering practices across cloud-native development, microservices, event-driven architecture, Kubernetes, DevOps and CI/CD.
• Ensure integration with ERP and broader inventory, e-commerce, data and operations systems.
• Establish delivery governance, technical KPIs, security-by-design and observability.

Skills

Leadership

Head of Engineering

Cloud-native

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Stakeholder Management

Architecture Review

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD Pipelines

Oracle ERP Integration

Job description

We are hiring a hands-on technology leader to build and scale a new in-house Buying, Planning & Sourcing platform for a major consumer and retail group. This is a greenfield product-engineering leadership role. You will own the technology strategy, architecture and delivery of a platform that transforms how the business plans demand, manages suppliers, buys products, allocates stock and supports merchandising decisions across multiple markets. This is an opportunity to shape a business-critical platform from the ground up, establish the engineering function and build a high-performing team over time. This is a role for… A product-engineering leader who enjoys building rather than inheriting. You will be comfortable taking manual business area and turning it into a modern, scalable internal platform from the ground up. You may come from e-commerce, marketplaces, fintech, travel-tech or another high-growth product organisation but you will have experience working closely with Product teams to solve complex commercial and operational problems through technology. This is not a traditional IT applications or management role. It suits someone who is technically hands-on, commercially minded and excited by the opportunity to set the engineering direction, build a team and create a platform with real organisation-wide impact.

What you'll do:

Define the engineering vision, architecture and delivery roadmap for a new Buying, Planning & Sourcing platform. Turn manual and legacy business processes into scalable, intuitive internal digital products. Lead hands-on technical decision-making across architecture, code quality, engineering standards and platform reliability. Partner with Product, Design, Data and business stakeholders to translate priorities into deliverable product outcomes. Build and scale a dedicated engineering organisation, initially leveraging existing capability Drive modern engineering practices across cloud-native development, APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, Kubernetes, DevOps and CI/CD. Ensure the platform integrates effectively with Oracle ERP and wider inventory, e-commerce, data and operational systems. Establish delivery governance, technical KPIs, security-by-design, observability and operational resilience. Identify practical opportunities for AI, automation, forecasting and data-driven decision-making.

What we're looking for:

Significant experience leading software or product engineering teams as a Head of Engineering, Engineering Director, VP Engineering or equivalent. A strong product-engineering background within a fast-moving digital business, marketplace, e-commerce, fintech, travel-tech or consumer technology environment. Proven experience building a platform from scratch, or leading a major modernisation of a legacy platform. Comfortable working in ambiguity and taking ownership of a greenfield technology mandate. Technically credible and still hands-on: able to challenge architecture, review code and guide engineering teams directly. Experience building scalable cloud-native products using modern engineering practices such as microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture, Kubernetes, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code. Strong stakeholder management, with the ability to partner closely with product leaders while leading engineering delivery.