A hands-on CTO for the AI era.
I design the system, hire the team, and write the code that matters. Former Head of Engineering (AI) at a G42-powered platform, leader of a 32-person cross-regional team, and the founder-CTO who shipped six production products in 2026. Available full-time, fractional or advisory — Dubai, the Middle East, Europe or remote.
Prefer paper? Download the CV (PDF)
Six things a hands-on CTO brings that a title doesn't
Architecture you can defend in a board meeting
Event-driven microservices (21+ at Etera AI on Kafka and EKS), Kubernetes platforms for a bank and a government, and Rust services doing 42.7k events/s on one CPU. I design for the numbers that matter and I can explain the trade-offs to non-engineers.
An AI strategy that ships, not a slide
Multi-agent LLM orchestration with LangGraph and MCP in production, hybrid retrieval with bge embeddings on pgvector, voice agents on real phone lines. I know which parts of 'AI' are a demo and which hold up with real users.
A team that's hired, structured and shipping
I've led 32 engineers across Europe, MENA and India and a team of 15 before that. I hire senior, set up the cadence (written decisions, thin slices to production, weekly demos) and give engineers AI tooling with guardrails.
Velocity you can see within weeks
Six products in 2026 is the proof. The same operating model inside your company means a vertical slice in production in the first month, not a six-month replatforming.
Security and compliance built in
OAuth 2.1 and scoped tokens, RBAC, audit logs, DPIA/ISO work that signed Saudi Aramco and Jumeirah, PCI and KYC/AML exposure from banking. Compliance is designed in, not retrofitted.
Cost discipline on cloud and vendors
I've migrated platforms from Windows VMs to AKS, on-prem to PKS, and chosen Rust and ClickHouse specifically to change a product's unit economics. Your cloud bill is a design input.
Ship-first, written-down, AI-era velocity
My operating model is simple and I apply it everywhere, from a bank's onboarding product to my own Rust telephony stack. Decisions are written before code: a short architecture note with the trade-off, the alternative we rejected and the number we expect to move. Thin slices reach production early: a vertical cut through the real stack in weeks, so integration risk surfaces when it's cheap. AI-assisted delivery is the default: engineers use Claude, Codex and agents for volume work inside guardrails (tests, review, scoped access), and human judgment goes to the decisions that compound — data model, security boundary, provider choice.
In 2026 that model let one engineer-CTO ship Atrix, VoDialer AI, Atrix Analytics, Atrix Mail, RentGari and Switchboard. Inside a company with a real team, the same model compounds: fewer meetings, more demos, and an AI strategy measured by what's in production rather than what's on the roadmap.
Three ways to bring me in
CTO / Head of Engineering (AI)
Dubai · Middle East · Europe · RemoteA permanent seat owning architecture, hiring, delivery and AI strategy. The right fit is a product where AI is central and a team that wants a leader who still ships.
- Own the technology roadmap and the hard calls
- Hire and lead the engineering org
- Represent engineering to the board, investors and customers
Fractional CTO
8–15 hours / week · monthly retainerI embed part-time with your team, own technical decisions and stay accountable week after week — for founders not yet ready for a full-time hire.
- Architecture ownership and roadmap
- Hiring, mentoring and delivery cadence
- Hand-off to a full-time CTO when you're ready
Technical advisor / board advisor
A few hours / monthFor companies with a strong engineering lead who want a second senior opinion on AI direction, architecture or due diligence.
- Monthly architecture and AI reviews
- Tech due diligence for raises and M&A
- Investor and board-level technical narrative
The fractional model is described in full on the fractional CTO service page; project-based AI work lives under AI implementation.
What I'd do in your first quarter
An outline, not a template — the specifics change once I've met the team and read the code. But the shape of the first ninety days is consistent.
Learn and stabilise
- Meet every engineer 1:1; map the system, the incidents and the backlog
- Write down the current architecture and its three biggest risks
- Fix the one thing hurting delivery most (usually CI, environments or on-call)
- Ship a thin, visible improvement to production so the team sees the cadence
Decide and build
- Publish a 12-month technology roadmap tied to business milestones
- Make the AI strategy concrete: which workflow, which model, how it's evaluated
- Stand up the operating cadence: written decisions, weekly demos, AI tooling with guardrails
- Open the hiring pipeline for the senior roles the roadmap needs
Scale and prove
- First AI-powered feature in production with evals and cost tracking
- Security and compliance baseline documented (access, audit, data handling)
- Board-ready update: what shipped, what's next, what it costs
- Team structure and hiring plan for the next two quarters
“I rarely come across real talents who stand out like Moeid. His ability to handle mobile, cloud infrastructure & web at once was unlike any I've seen. No matter how complex the problem, he resolved it when everyone else failed.”
Donny FernandezIT Manager, Mashreq BankAvailable by region
I'm based in Dubai and have shipped for companies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the US. Each region page covers the local context, my track record there and how time zones work in practice.
What hiring managers and founders ask
Are you looking for a full-time role or consulting?
Both, honestly. I'm actively open to a full-time CTO or Head of Engineering (AI) seat — in Dubai, the Middle East, Europe or remote — and I take a small number of fractional-CTO and advisory engagements alongside. My role at Etera AI ended in September 2026; since then I've been building Atrix.
What size and stage of company fits best?
Seed to Series B startups building AI-centred products, and scale-ups or enterprises standing up an AI engineering function. I've been the senior engineer at a bank with 100K+ users, the CTO of a startup that was acquired, and the head of a 32-person cross-regional team — so I'm comfortable at either end.
Will you still write code as a CTO?
Yes, deliberately. In the AI era the leverage of a senior engineer who designs the system and writes the hard parts is higher than it's ever been. I'll spend most of my time on people, architecture and strategy — but I ship, and I expect my leads to as well.
What about Atrix — would it conflict with a full-time role?
No. Atrix is a portfolio of products I built and maintain; it doesn't compete with an employer's business and it doesn't need my working hours. It's my proof of work, and I'm transparent about it in every conversation.
Can you relocate, or work across time zones?
I'm based in Dubai with a UAE residence and happy to stay. I'm open to relocation within the Middle East or to Europe, and I've led distributed teams across Europe, MENA and India for years, so remote-first works too.
How does a fractional engagement start?
A free 30-minute call, then a short audit week where I map your stack, team and goals. From there we agree a monthly retainer, usually 8–15 hours a week, with a clear roadmap and weekly delivery cadence.
Where can I see your CV?
It's a one-click PDF at https://moeidsaleem.com/moeid-saleem-khan-cv.pdf. The about page on this site has the long-form version, and every 2026 product has its own case study under /projects.
Hiring a CTO or Head of Engineering (AI)?
Book a 30-minute call. I'll give you a straight read on your architecture, team and AI roadmap — whether or not we end up working together.