Head of AI-Assisted Engineering

📌 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

A client of byteSpark.ai is seeking a Head of AI-Assisted Engineering to join a forward-thinking bank based in Dubai, in a role that is as much about building a new way of working as it is about delivering software.

The context is deliberate and worth stating plainly: this bank currently runs an offshore engineering team of 35 and is bringing that function back onshore to Dubai as a lean team of 8, with AI-assisted development tools as the engine that makes that ratio not just viable but genuinely more powerful.

The person hired into this role will report directly to the CEO, own the build of this centre of excellence from the ground up, and be accountable for delivering across mobile and web banking applications, internal tooling, and compliance and governance platforms.

The right candidate will have strong engineering leadership credentials in a regulated environment, a hands-on and current working knowledge of tools like Claude, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot, and the maturity to operate with significant autonomy at the most senior level of the organisation.

This role will not suit someone who has read about AI-assisted engineering.

It is built for someone who has already changed how they work because of it and is ready to build a team and a practice around that shift.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎯 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀:

▸ A minimum of 8 to 12 years of software engineering experience with at least 4 years in an engineering leadership role with direct team and delivery accountability

▸ Demonstrable hands-on experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot as an active and deliberate part of their engineering practice, not as an occasional experiment

▸ Proven ability to lead a small lean engineering team to deliver disproportionate output through tooling strategy, sprint discipline, and strong engineering culture

▸ Experience building or significantly shaping a new engineering function, practice, or centre of excellence from scratch

▸ Strong working knowledge of agile sprint methodology with evidence of consistently high delivery velocity in a lean team context

▸ Experience delivering across multiple product types including consumer-facing mobile and web applications and internal operational or compliance tooling

▸ Demonstrated ability to operate with direct accountability to a CEO, CTO, or equivalent executive and translate technical strategy into business outcomes

▸ Experience working within a bank, financial institution, or similarly regulated environment with an understanding of compliance, audit, and governance constraints in software delivery

▸ Ability to define the hiring bar and assess engineers specifically for their capacity to thrive in an AI-assisted development environment

✨ 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀:

▸ Experience leading or playing a senior role in an offshore to onshore engineering transition

▸ Familiarity with banking-specific compliance and regulatory frameworks relevant to the UAE or GCC

▸ Experience with VS Code plugins, agentic coding workflows, or emerging AI development tooling beyond mainstream tools

▸ A track record of evangelising AI-assisted engineering practices to senior non-technical stakeholders

▸ Bilingual proficiency in English and Arabic

▸ Exposure to open source contribution or personal projects that demonstrate continuous self-directed learning in AI-assisted development

💰 Compensation

AED 48-55k per month + visa and medical (family)

📍 Location

📄 Employment Type

📈 Job Level

⌛ Experience

🏢 Department

🏭 Industry

🔹 Sub-Industry

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🚀 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗽 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 – 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗡𝗼𝘄! 🚀