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Chief Technology Officer

tech company · Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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Chief Technology Officer (CTO)📍 Dubai, UAE | Reports to: CEO | Full-time, Executive LeadershipOur client, a leading global provider of background verification, screening and compliance services to governments, regulators and employers, is hiring a hands-on, AI-native Chief Technology Officer to lead its next phase of platform growth and business transformation.ABOUT THE ROLEThe CTO will own all technology delivery: architecture, engineering quality, live platform operations, security, data and AI-enabled verification. This is a deeply technical executive role for someone who will roll up their sleeves, challenge engineering assumptions and personally drive AI-enabled development practices.Direct reports: Team of Engineering, Head of Data & AI, Head of DevOps & Security, Head of QABudget: Full Technology P&L (development, infrastructure, tooling, vendor contracts, live service support)Team: ~60–80 engineers across multiple global locationsHiring From : Product Based Organisations onlyKEY RESPONSIBILITIESTechnology Strategy & Architecture- Own and deliver a multi-year engineering roadmap aligned to business growth- Lead the evolution of a cloud-native, microservices core platform (AWS)- Champion AI-first engineering, including AI-assisted coding, code review and testing- Make commercially grounded build vs. buy vs. partner decisionsPlatform & Product Engineering- Own end-to-end delivery of the verification engine, API marketplace, client and regulator portals, and document processing engines- Scale the platform to tens of millions of verifications a year with sub-second response times- Consolidate legacy and new platforms into one unified, right-sized engineering organisationAI, Data & Intelligent Automation- Build and deploy OCR, NLP and computer vision models for automated document verification- Implement fraud detection for document tampering, credential forgery and identity misuse- Drive data strategy end-to-end: governance, warehousing, analytics and MLOps- Use LLMs and AI coding tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) to raise engineering velocitySecurity, Compliance & Risk- Ensure compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, PDPA, DPDP (India), ADGM and DIFC- Define and enforce zero-trust architecture, encryption and data residency standards- Lead incident response, business continuity, vulnerability management and penetration testing- Own technology risk reporting to the Board and CEOEngineering Leadership- Move to a product-squad-based organisation with a strong DevOps culture (CI/CD, IaC, automated testing)- Track DORA-aligned KPIs: deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, defect escape rate- Attract, develop and retain top engineering talentInnovation & Executive Accountability- Evaluate real-time verification APIs, e-KYC/digital identity and blockchain credential registries- Serve as the technology voice on the Executive Leadership Team- Own the technology budget and act as technical spokesperson to investors, regulators and key clientsWHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR- Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field- 20+ years in technology leadership, including 5+ years as CTO, VP Engineering or Head of Engineering at a high-growth company- Proven record of scaling SaaS platforms to millions of API calls/transactions per day- Experience leading distributed engineering teams of 40+- Deep domain expertise in RegTech, FinTech, GovTech, HRTech or digital identity/background verification- Hands-on experience shipping production AI/ML: document intelligence, OCR, NLP, fraud detection- Strong cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure) and microservices/event-driven architecture credentials- Cybersecurity leadership: ISO 27001, SOC 2, zero-trust, incident response- Experience consolidating engineering organisations while improving output and reducing costPreferred- Experience leading teams across Europe and the Middle East- M&A technical due diligence and post-merger platform integration- Blockchain/distributed ledger credential solutionsTHE PERSONEngineer-first