Staff AI Platform Engineer - Abu Dhabi

Overview

Role Overview

• We are seeking a **Staff AI Platform Engineer** to own the platform infrastructure that enables engineering teams to build and operate AI systems efficiently and reliably.
• This is a senior individual contributor role focused on model serving, vector infrastructure, data pipelines, observability, and deployment platforms.
• Your success will be measured by the productivity and reliability gains you enable for other engineers.
• You will combine deep platform engineering expertise with a strong understanding of AI workload requirements, including inference performance, retrieval systems, and operational complexity.
• At the staff level, you will:
• Define and evolve the technical foundations of the AI platform
• Build systems that accelerate engineering teams across the organisation
• Set standards for reliability, security, and scalability
• Lead architecture decisions and evaluate emerging technologies
• Use AI coding tools such as Codex, Claude Code, or similar as part of your daily workflow

Key Responsibilities

• AI Platform Infrastructure* Design and operate model serving infrastructure using vLLM, TGI, TensorRT-LLM, or similar technologies
• Build and manage vector infrastructure, embedding pipelines, and retrieval systems
• Develop data pipelines for document ingestion, transformation, and storage
• Own deployment platforms, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code
• Observability & Reliability* Build observability across the AI stack, including latency, throughput, and model behavior monitoring
• Define SLOs, perform capacity planning, and lead reliability engineering initiatives
• Lead incident response, root-cause analysis, and postmortems
• Establish platform standards for operational excellence
• Force Multiplication* Build reusable internal tooling, SDKs, and deployment patterns
• Partner with engineering teams to translate infrastructure needs into scalable platform capabilities
• Mentor engineers and raise technical standards across the organisation
• Basic Qualifications* 10+ years of platform, infrastructure, or backend engineering experience
• Proven experience operating at staff or principal engineer level
• Deep expertise in Azure (AWS or GCP also valued)
• Strong Kubernetes and Docker experience
• Hands-on experience with Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code
• Experience building production data pipelines
• Proficiency in Python, Java/Kotlin, or Go
• Strong PostgreSQL knowledge at production scale
• Experience with distributed tracing, metrics, logging, and alerting
• Practical use of AI coding assistants such as Codex or Claude Code
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building RAG systems and retrieval infrastructure
• Experience with LangGraph, LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or similar frameworks
• Hands-on experience with GPU-based inference infrastructure
• Experience with vector databases such as pgvector, Qdrant, Pinecone, or Weaviate
• Familiarity with LLM inference optimization and evaluation frameworks
• Experience with speech and conversational AI systems
• Experience building internal developer platforms
• Security and compliance experience in highly regulated environments
• Technology Stack* **Backend & Platform:** Python, Java, Kotlin, Go, REST, gRPC
• **AI Infrastructure:** vLLM, TGI, TensorRT-LLM, GPU Serving
• **AI & LLM:** LangChain, LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, vector databases
• **Data:** PostgreSQL, Redis, DocumentDB, Azure Blob Storage
• **Infrastructure:** Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD
• **Observability:** Langfuse, Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry
• **Security:** Entra ID, RBAC, Secrets Management, Zero Trust
• **AI Development:** Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode

What We’re Looking For

• You are an engineer who:
• Thinks in systems and enables others to move faster
• Designs infrastructure that is reliable, scalable, and easy to operate
• Grounds technical decisions in evidence and operational data
• Raises engineering standards through architecture and mentorship
• Communicates clearly and transparently
• Embraces AI-native development practices
• Why Apply?
• This role offers the opportunity to shape the technical foundations of a world-class AI platform supporting transformative public services in Abu Dhabi.
• You will tackle complex infrastructure challenges at the intersection of AI, cloud computing, and platform engineering while delivering meaningful impact at a national scale.