Senior AI Engineer
Applied AI engineers — RAG, agentic systems, fine-tuning — for organisations standing up AI capability inside business functions.
AI Engineering is the most common mandate we run in the region. Most clients in this category — regional banks, energy majors, government-adjacent entities — have decided AI matters and now need someone who can take a vague business problem to a working production system inside one or two quarters.
Senior AI Engineers in the GCC look closer to generalist software engineers with deep ML literacy than they do to research scientists. The bar is end-to-end delivery, not benchmark contribution.
What you'll typically own
- Take internal business problems from brief to production AI system in 60–120 days.
- Build RAG, agentic, and classical ML solutions inside enterprise environments.
- Integrate with existing systems — Oracle, SAP, regional core-banking platforms, in-house warehouses.
- Set up evaluation, monitoring, and ongoing iteration loops for systems that real teams depend on.
- Partner with business stakeholders directly — most clients in this band have flat enough structures that engineers are in the room with the business owner.
Profile fit
Must have
- 6+ years software engineering with at least 2 building AI / ML systems in production.
- End-to-end delivery instinct — comfort across the full stack from data to UI.
- LLM engineering: RAG, fine-tuning at least once, evaluation, prompt design at scale.
- Enterprise integration experience — you have worked with legacy systems, not just greenfield.
- Strong stakeholder communication. Most GCC clients prize this above pure technical depth.
Nice to have
- Arabic language capability or prior work in MENA / South Asia / North Africa.
- Sector depth in financial services, energy, healthcare, or public sector.
- Comfort with both classical ML and modern LLM stacks.
- Experience deploying on sovereign or hybrid-cloud infrastructure.
Indicative package
Total fixed monthly base, tax-free. Housing, transport and schooling allowances typically add 25–35% on top.
| UAE · AED · per month | KSA · SAR · per month | |
|---|---|---|
| Senior (6–10 yrs) | AED40,000–55,000/mo | SAR38,000–48,000/mo |
| Senior+ (10–15 yrs) | AED55,000–65,000/mo | SAR48,000–55,000/mo |
| Bonus typical | AED15–25% | SAR15–25% |
USD equivalent: approximately $131,000–$212,000 per year before bonus.
Location & corridor
KSA
Riyadh primary, with mandates from Jeddah-based clients. On-site weighting is high — 4 to 5 days.
UAE
Dubai (commercial banking, real estate, logistics AI) and Abu Dhabi (sovereign, energy).
Visa & relocation
Full sponsorship is standard. Family visa, schooling allowance and health cover are typically included. Spouse work authorisation is straightforward in UAE; KSA depends on employer.
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.
Want the market context for this band? Read the GCC market intelligence brief.
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