AI Engineering

NoA Ignite is a consulting, design and technology company with 450 employees across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Poland, part of The North Alliance — a Nordic network of around 1,250 specialists in creativity and technology. We're sourcing a Principal-level Engineering Lead for a client engagement with a major financial services organisation in the UAE, where AI-native delivery isn't a pilot — it's the operating model.

Role Overview
You'll lead a delivery squad embedded with the client, working alongside their Technology and Digital leadership and architects. You'll still write code yourself, own architecture within the squad, drive the quality of specifications, enforce engineering standards, and be accountable for the squad's delivery quality and governance — not just your own output.

Key Responsibilities
Day to day, you'll set the standard for how the squad uses AI: agentic coding tools like Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot for generation, refactoring, test authoring and review, spec-driven development from structured Markdown, YAML or JSON specifications rather than verbal tickets, and a habit of writing reusable skill files that capture patterns for the whole team. You'll configure MCP servers and AI gateways hands-on, design how specialist agents hand off work across the squad, and manage context deliberately on long-running tasks. Because the client runs its own technical assessment on every engineer you propose, you'll be expected to screen for the same depth you're hired for: live AI-assisted coding, architecture walkthroughs, and a real MCP and context-management discussion. You'll also stay credible across the squad's full stack — React on the frontend, Java Spring Boot on the backend, APIs, DevOps and cloud — so you can step into and review any part of the delivery, coach engineers on prompting and context management, and present progress to executive stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• 12–15 years of engineering experience, including 3+ years leading AI-assisted delivery teams

• Expert, hands-on command of agentic coding tools, spec-driven development, skill-file authoring, MCP configuration, AI gateway routing and multi-agent orchestration — not theoretical familiarity

• Proven breadth across React, Java Spring Boot, APIs, DevOps and cloud, with the credibility to lead architecture discussions with client architects

• A track record of leading at least one programme where AI-assisted delivery was the primary engineering model, not a pilot

• Delivery leadership experience in a regulated sector, ideally financial services, with contactable references

• Able to mobilise to Dubai within roughly six weeks of contract signature — UAE-resident or sponsorable on a fast-track visa

Nice to Have

• React Native

• Apache Camel K and ESB migration patterns

• Flowable BPM / BPMN 2.0

• Redis and pgvector for AI-backed features

• UAE banking domain knowledge and CBUAE awareness

Who We're Looking For
This role suits someone who leads from the front rather than from a slide deck — still hands-on in the code, but equally comfortable holding a squad accountable for measurable delivery targets and presenting that progress to a client's leadership. You're the kind of engineer other engineers learn from: you coach on prompting and context management through example, you review and approve the skill files your team writes, and you're comfortable operating inside audit trails, approval gates and phase-gated delivery rather than treating governance as friction.

What We Offer
Ownership of a high-visibility engagement from the ground up — you'll be part of the first cohort on the ground, ahead of the full team. Real scope to shape how a regulated financial services organisation adopts AI-native delivery, backed by a 12-month engagement (extendable in further 12-month increments) and a structured week-one onboarding covering security, data protection and AI-usage training.