Vice President of Engineering

Discovered MENA; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Discovered MENA seeks a VP of Engineering to be the most senior technical leader, reporting directly to the CEO. You will own engineering end-to-end—from architecture and system design to delivery, team performance, and platform strategy.

This is a hands-on leadership role focused on shaping architecture, enforcing standards, and building a scalable fintech engineering organization. Responsibilities include driving delivery velocity, defining architecture, ensuring regulatory compliance,

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or similar.

Responsibilities

• Own engineering delivery, quality and velocity to improve deployment frequency, lead time, and reliability.
• Define and lead architecture strategy including microservices and core financial platform design.
• Ensure systems meet regulatory, security, and compliance requirements in fintech.
• Drive adoption of cloud best practices (Azure) and cost efficiency.
• Shape and implement AI-assisted engineering strategy and evaluation of emerging technologies.
• Own API and integration strategy with external partners and internal standards.
• Lead data platform governance, quality, and scalable analytics infrastructure.
• Build and scale a high-performing engineering organization with hiring and leadership development.

Skills

Fintech systems

Leading engineering teams

Hands-on problem solving

Stakeholder communication

Hiring & retention

Education

Degree in CS/Engineering/Math

Tools

Azure

Job description

Our client is a fast-growing, profitable, credit‑led fintech focused on providing digital financial products to SMEs.

As VP of Engineering, you will be the most senior technical leader in the organization, reporting directly to the CEO. You will own engineering end-to-end, from architecture and system design to delivery, team performance, and platform strategy. This is a hands‑on leadership role. You will actively shape architecture, raise engineering standards, and build the organization required to scale a market‑leading fintech platform.

Key Responsibilities

• Own overall engineering delivery, quality, and velocity, improving metrics such as deployment frequency, lead time, and system reliability
• Define and lead the architecture strategy, including microservices, event‑driven systems, and core financial platform design (e.g. ledger, transactions, reconciliation)
• Ensure systems meet regulatory, security, and compliance requirements within a fintech environment
• Drive adoption of cloud best practices (Azure), scalability, and cost efficiency across the platform
• Shape and implement an AI‑assisted engineering strategy, including evaluation of emerging agentic technologies
• Own API and integration strategy, including external partners and internal platform standards
• Lead the data platform, ensuring strong governance, data quality, and scalable infrastructure for reporting and analytics
• Build and scale a high‑performing engineering organisation, including hiring, leadership development, and culture
• Act as the senior technical representative to executive leadership, investors, and regulators

Requirements

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or similar
• Strong experience in fintech systems (payments, lending, banking, or cards)
• Proven experience leading engineering teams
• Strong hands‑on technical problem‑solving ability
• Track record of hiring and retaining high‑performing engineers
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to senior stakeholders

Preferred Experience

• Exposure to high‑growth or scale‑up environments
• Experience within regulated financial institutions
• Strong knowledge of cloud architecture (Azure)
• Experience with payments infrastructure, issuer processors, and transaction flows