Senior Engineering Manager (Defense)

TL;DR

Senior Engineering Manager (Defense): Leading engineering efforts in the Middle East to deliver custom AI applications for defense and national security clients with an accent on AI agents and full stack engineering. Focus on designing scalable backend services, deploying agentic frameworks, and mentoring high-performing teams in mission-critical environments.

Location: Doha, Qatar

Company

Scale AI develops reliable AI systems for critical global decisions, providing data and full-stack technologies for enterprises and governments.

What you will do

• Manage and grow the engineering team in the Middle East, driving technical delivery across defense and public sector engagements.
• Design and optimize backend services for AI-driven applications, with a focus on AI agents, evaluation tooling, and automation.
• Lead end-to-end full stack engineering from system design and architecture to production deployment.
• Act as the senior technical authority on defense projects, ensuring solutions meet mission-critical security and regulatory standards.
• Architect and deploy AI agent frameworks and API integrations tailored to government workflows.
• Deliver high-velocity MVPs and experiments to drive engagement with defense customers.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with a strong emphasis on backend and full stack development.
• 5+ years of experience managing and leading high-performing engineering teams.
• Demonstrated domain knowledge in the defense sector, including national security priorities and regulatory requirements.
• Deep expertise in AI/ML, specifically with LLM-powered applications and agentic frameworks.
• Hands-on experience designing and integrating APIs in production environments (cloud and on-premises).
• Must be based in Doha, Qatar.

Nice to have

• Experience working in or with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
• Arabic language skills.