Principal ML Engineer
Principal-level engineers — 12+ years — setting the technical direction for AI teams of 15+ across the GCC.
Principal mandates carry more architecture weight than people-management weight. Most are individual contributor track — you own the technical direction across multiple teams, set the model and serving architecture, and are accountable for production reliability at organisation scale.
Clients in this band say "Principal" and mean what most US tech firms would title Staff or Senior Staff. Genuine production ML over a decade-plus, not research-track tenure.
What you'll typically own
- Set the technical roadmap for the AI function — model architecture, serving stack, evaluation strategy.
- Make build-vs-buy decisions across the inference stack, including sovereign vs hyperscaler trade-offs.
- Lead the highest-risk technical work in the team — typically the model layer of a flagship system.
- Partner with the Head / Director of AI on hiring, technical interviewing, and team shape.
- Represent the team externally — vendors, partners, occasional speaking and recruiting.
Profile fit
Must have
- 12+ years engineering experience, at least 7 in production ML.
- Demonstrated architecture work — you have set the technical direction for a team that shipped.
- Deep LLM / GenAI engineering — fine-tuning, post-training, evaluation, inference optimisation.
- Comfort operating without scaffolding. Most GCC teams are still building theirs.
- Direct executive communication — you can write a one-pager that an Emirati or Saudi CEO will read.
Nice to have
- Prior Principal or Staff role at a tier-one ML organisation.
- Experience training models from scratch or extensively post-training open-weight models.
- Published work or open-source authorship at the framework / infra layer.
- Arabic language or established regional network.
Indicative package
Total fixed monthly base, tax-free. Long-term incentives (RSU equivalent, phantom equity) are typical at this level — between 20% and 50% of base. Relocation packages are bespoke.
| UAE · AED · per month | KSA · SAR · per month | |
|---|---|---|
| Principal (12–18 yrs) | AED50,000–75,000/mo | SAR50,000–70,000/mo |
| Senior Principal | AED70,000–95,000/mo | SAR65,000–88,000/mo |
| Bonus typical | AED20–30% | SAR20–30% |
USD equivalent: approximately $163,000–$310,000 per year before bonus and LTIs.
Location & corridor
KSA
Riyadh, with the most senior mandates inside NEOM, HUMAIN, and PIF portfolio leadership. On-site 5 days is standard.
UAE
Abu Dhabi (G42 portfolio, TII-adjacent) and Dubai (commercial AI, fintech). Hybrid is more flexible than KSA but most teams expect 4 days on-site for Principal-level.
Visa & relocation
Full executive-level sponsorship. School placements, spouse career support, and trailing-spouse provisions are negotiable. Most clients fund a relocation package covering flights, 60–90 days temporary accommodation, full shipping, and a settling-in allowance.
Get on our radar for this role.
Registering takes 3 minutes. We screen against active mandates and only come back when there's a credible fit. This is a talent pool registration — it pre-positions you for matching client briefs as they come up.
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