Director - AI

About the Role
The Director - AI is responsible for leading the design, development, and deployment of large-scale, mission-critical AI systems across geospatial, digital twin, and defense portfolios. This role combines deep technical authority with end-to-end delivery leadership, overseeing the full AI lifecycle — from research and model development to production deployment, scaling, and operational governance. The Director - AI leads high-impact AI programs, ensures technical excellence across the AI stack, and guarantees that AI solutions meet national-scale, sovereign, and defense-grade requirements for performance, robustness, security, and explainability.

Responsibilities
AI Systems & Technical Leadership

• Lead the architecture, development, and deployment of foundational and domain-specific AI models, with a strong focus on geospatial AI, computer vision, predictive analytics, and decision-support systems.
• Define and enforce AI system architectures that support large-scale, secure, and high-performance deployments across cloud, hybrid, and edge environments.
• Provide hands-on technical guidance to senior engineers and AI specialists, ensuring best-in-class implementation, performance, and scalability.
• Drive adoption of modern AI frameworks, MLOps practices, and engineering standards.

Program Ownership & Delivery

• Own AI workstreams across multiple concurrent commercial, government, and defense programs, ensuring delivery on time, on scope, and to quality standards.
• Translate operational, mission, and product requirements into executable AI roadmaps and delivery plans.
• Manage technical risks related to model performance, data quality, scalability, and operational constraints.
• Ensure smooth transition of AI solutions from research to production.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of AI engineers, ML researchers, and software engineers.
• Establish technical standards, coding practices, review processes, and quality gates.
• Build long-term AI capability within the organization through coaching, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
• Foster a culture of engineering rigor, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Production AI & MLOps

• Oversee implementation of robust MLOps pipelines covering training, testing, validation, deployment, monitoring, and retraining.
• Ensure models are production-ready and operate reliably in high-availability and constrained environments.
• Monitor model drift, performance degradation, and operational risks, implementing mitigation strategies.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Product Management, Platform Engineering, Security, and Operations teams.
• Act as a senior technical counterpart in discussions with executives, clients, partners, and government stakeholders.
• Contribute to technical solution designs, proposal development, and strategic bids where AI capabilities are a differentiator.
• Communicate progress, risks, and outcomes clearly to senior leadership.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a closely related field.
• Solid Linux and systems-level expertise.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience in AI and ML development in production environments.
• 5+ years designing and maintaining data warehouses or data lakes.
• 5+ years designing, implementing, and maintaining custom ETL pipelines.
• Proven experience deploying AI systems at scale.
• Ability to read scientific literature and implement algorithms from scratch.
• Strong mentoring skills and proven ability to lead senior technical teams.

Technical Competencies

• Design and deployment of large-scale AI systems and foundational models.
• Advanced AI / ML frameworks (preferably PyTorch).
• Data Warehouse / Data Lake architectures.
• Custom ETL design, implementation, and maintenance.
• MLOps, model lifecycle management, and production AI systems.
• Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP.
• Strong programming skills in Python and compiled languages (C++, Rust, Go, Java).
• Performance profiling and optimization of AI systems.

Behavioural Competencies

• Applying a strong analytical and systems-thinking perspective.
• Promoting integrity, ethics, and engineering rigor.
• Building collaborative, high-performance teams.
• Communicating complex technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Leadership under delivery pressure.

Our Benefits & Perks

• Competitive compensation packages and comprehensive medical insurance to support you and your family.
• Wellbeing-focused initiatives and resources, designed to enhance your personal and professional life.
• Access to exclusive discount programs, offering savings across various lifestyle and leisure experiences across the UAE.

What Makes a Great Fit
If you are performance-driven and possess an inquisitive mind with the agility to navigate ambiguity, you will thrive here. At the heart of the community is a bias for action and a passion for developing innovative, efficient space services through AI-driven smart solutions that drive technological advancements and create a better tomorrow.