Position: Head of Data Engineering Location: Dubai/Abu Dhabi  (Relocation support available)
Employment Type: Full-Time | Senior Leadership

We are conducting a confidential executive search for a Head of Data Engineering to join one of the world’s fastest-growing digital asset trading platforms, serving millions of users globally with multi-billion daily trading volumes. This is a rare opportunity to lead a world-class data organization, driving scalability, reliability, and innovation in a high-performance environment.
Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and scale the Data Engineering function, overseeing global teams responsible for data pipelines, storage, and real-time processing at massive scale.
• Design and implement a robust, future-proof data architecture to support analytics, AI/ML initiatives, risk management, and next-generation trading products.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Quant, and Business teams to ensure data availability, integrity, and accessibility across all platforms.
• Build and optimize large-scale distributed data systems, ensuring ultra-low latency and high fault tolerance.
• Drive data strategy and best practices, focusing on governance, lineage, and security across all datasets.
• Manage global stakeholders, providing thought leadership in data engineering, tooling, and emerging technologies.
• Hire, mentor, and inspire top-tier data engineering talent to support exponential growth.

Key Requirements:

• Proven track record leading large-scale Data Engineering organizations (100+ professionals), ideally in fintech, trading, or high-frequency transaction environments.
• Expertise in big data technologies (Spark, Flink, Kafka, Hadoop, Airflow, etc.) and modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Delta Lake).
• Strong knowledge of data streaming, real-time processing, ETL pipelines, and large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of cloud infrastructures (AWS, GCP, Azure) and data security practices in highly regulated environments.
• Exceptional leadership skills with experience building global data teams in high-growth, fast-paced organizations.
• Ability to solve complex technical challenges while aligning data strategy with long-term business goals.
• Experience in digital assets, trading platforms, or financial services preferred but not mandatory.

About Edison Smart

Edison Smart is a global provider of specialized recruitment solutions, supporting the technology industry’s most innovative companies. Headquartered in the UK, we connect talent with opportunity, driving the ‘Industry 4.0’ revolution. With over 30 years of experience, Edison Smart partners with forward-thinking organizations to help achieve their strategic growth goals while fostering groundbreaking technological advancements.

Full Time