We are seeking a Principal Technical Architect - a hands-on technical leader who combines deep architectural expertise with the ability to lead and grow an AI engineering team. This is not a pure governance role: the successful candidate will personally drive critical technical decisions, contribute to design and code where needed, and own delivery outcomes alongside their team. The role sits at the intersection of architecture, AI/ML engineering, and delivery leadership, partnering closely with engineering, DevOps, cybersecurity, data, and program teams to take complex, enterprise-grade solutions from concept to production in demanding environments - including air-gapped and sovereign deployments.
Ready to apply for roles like this?
Unlock the company name and direct application link. Subscribers get instant access to fresh jobs across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, many with visa support.
Unlock employer & apply directly
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end architectural vision across application, data, integration, infrastructure, security, and AI domains.
- Define and enforce architecture standards, reference patterns, and engineering principles aligned with enterprise and cloud strategy.
- Govern both high-level and low-level designs (HLDs & LLDs), including service architecture, deployment topology, data models, integration patterns, and API contracts.
- Make and defend critical technical trade-offs across performance, scalability, availability, security, and cost.
- Lead the AI engineering function: set technical direction for ML pipelines, model serving, evaluation frameworks, and MLOps practices.
- Provide hands-on technical depth in modern AI/ML stacks (LLMs, computer vision, classical ML, vector search, retrieval pipelines, agentic systems where relevant).
- Drive responsible AI practices — evaluation, observability, safety, and governance — into the delivery lifecycle.
- Translate research and emerging capabilities into production-grade, deployable systems.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a cross-functional team of architects and AI/ML engineers.
- Own technical delivery accountability end-to-end: scope, design, build, deployment, and go-live.
- Identify and mitigate technical risks and dependencies early.
- Establish a strong engineering culture rooted in code quality, security-by-design, and operational excellence.
- Engage senior stakeholders, including C-level, to align business objectives with technical strategy.
- Lead technical conversations with vendors, partners, and system integrators.
- Contribute to proposals, SoWs, and transformation programs as the senior technical authority.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience spanning solution architecture, engineering leadership, and hands-on technical delivery.
- Proven track record leading architecture and engineering teams on large-scale enterprise transformation or AI programs.
- Demonstrable hands-on depth - this role is not for someone who has stopped engineering.
- Deep expertise across:
- Cloud-native and hybrid infrastructure (Kubernetes, containers, service mesh, IaC)
- Data platforms and advanced analytics (streaming, lakehouse, distributed compute)
- AI/ML systems at production scale, including LLMs and computer vision
- MLOps, model lifecycle management, and AI observability
- Enterprise integration, API design, and event-driven architectures
- Air-gapped, sovereign, and high-assurance data centre environments
- Security architecture, zero-trust principles, and security-by-design
- Experience managing and mentoring senior engineers and architects.
- Strong stakeholder management and executive-level communication skills.
