Chief Technology Officer / AI Lead - Finance Startup

Davidson Tech Recruitment has been mandated to recruit a Chief Technology Officer / AI Lead for their client in Dubai, which is a US-based AI-native financial technology startup establishing and expanding its technology and AI engineering operations in the UAE. We are looking for an exceptionally hands-on technology leader with a minimum of 10 years of relevant software engineering and technology experience, including substantial recent experience architecting, developing and deploying production-grade Generative AI and Machine Learning applications. The successful candidate will take ownership of the company's technology architecture, AI product development, engineering roadmap, cloud infrastructure and technical delivery while building, recruiting and leading a high-performing team of AI engineers and software developers in Dubai. Candidates must have strong practical experience with Python, Large Language Models including OpenAI, Claude and leading open-source models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, embeddings, AI agents, agentic workflows, API integrations, full-stack development, cloud infrastructure and scalable enterprise software architecture. Previous experience developing AI applications for financial services, banking, lending, credit assessment, investment management or FinTech platforms is highly desirable. Candidates should understand financial statements, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, cash-flow analysis, financial ratios, financial data processing and the application of AI to underwriting, financial-document intelligence, risk assessment, compliance automation and financial decision-support systems. The CTO / AI Lead will work directly with the founders and senior management to translate business requirements into working AI products, take ownership of technical decisions, oversee AWS, GCP or Azure infrastructure, manage capacity planning and infrastructure costs, establish engineering standards and ensure secure, scalable and reliable production deployment. We are specifically looking for a technology leader who continues to code, prototype, review architecture and personally solve complex engineering problems rather than someone whose experience is predominantly managerial or advisory. Previous experience building engineering teams from the ground up, recruiting and mentoring AI engineers, managing technical delivery and working within startup or high-growth technology environments is essential. A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics or a related engineering discipline is required. Candidates must demonstrate multiple AI products or platforms they have personally architected and built, together with evidence of successful production deployment, team leadership and measurable commercial or operational outcomes. This is a full-time, Dubai-based leadership opportunity for a commercially minded AI engineering professional who is motivated by the opportunity to build and scale an AI-native business.

Salary: AED 65,000 per month + Benefits + Equity / Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOPs). (The salary mentioned in the advert is indicative. The final offer, including equity or ESOP eligibility and terms, lies at the discretion of the client and will be made after completion of interviews).