Lead AI & Data Engineer (Ref: 197591)

Job Title: Lead AI & Data Engineer – Dubai Contract (Ref: 197591)Location: Dubai, UAEContract: Initial contract engagementStart: September 2026Language: Arabic & EnglishWe’re supporting a global consumer brand that is continuing to build out its data and AI capability in Dubai.They are looking for a senior, hands-on AI & Data Engineer to work closely with their global media analytics team, with a particular focus on social media data, GenAI and automation. The core challenge is around improving the quality of social media analytics across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. At the moment, large volumes of social mentions are being picked up through keywords and product terminology, but not all of that data is genuinely relevant to the brand. They need someone who can build the AI and data infrastructure to better understand context, classify that content and clean the data before it reaches downstream analytics.What you'll be doingBuilding GenAI and Agentic AI solutions around real-world business and social media dataDesigning and developing data pipelines for large volumes of social contentBuilding AI-led approaches to classify, filter and clean social media mentionsUsing NLP and contextual analysis to distinguish genuine brand engagement from irrelevant keyword matchesImproving data quality, taxonomy and classificationIdentifying manual processes that can be automated through AITaking AI ideas from concept through to working, production-ready solutionsHelping shape the underlying AI and data infrastructureWorking closely with Data Science, Analytics and senior global stakeholdersRequirements Strong experience across AI Engineering, Data Engineering or Machine LearningHands-on experience building production AI solutionsStrong GenAI / Agentic AI experienceAdvanced Python and SQLExperience building modern data pipelines and infrastructureStrong understanding of data cleansing, classification and unstructured dataExperience with NLP or text-based machine learningUnderstanding of MLOps and production AI environmentsComfortable working autonomously and building solutions from the ground upStrong stakeholder management skillsFluent Arabic and EnglishBased in, or able to work from, DubaiRelevant preferred experienceSocial media analyticsSocial listeningTikTok / Instagram dataConsumer or ecommerce businessesLarge-scale text classificationAI automationBuilding new AI capability within a growing organisationThis is a senior individual contributor role rather than a traditional people-management position.The successful person will be expected to be technically hands-on, work with senior stakeholders and take ownership of building solutions rather than simply analysing the output of existing systems.