Hands-On Senior Backend Engineer (AI-First)

Role: Hands-On Senior Backend Engineer (AI-First)

Location: Dubai / Hybrid

Department: Technology & Operations

Reports To: CIO

Position: Full-Time

About us:

GlobalDrum is empowering the media sector to own, understand, and monetise their most valuable social audiences, using live audience behavioral data for brands to operate diversified business models on demand for themselves.

We are evolving our unique next-generation B2B2C Platform as a Service (PaaS) that operates on a globally distributed cloud infrastructure incorporating a scalable, event-driven architecture using the latest AI and data techniques to evolve an entire sector.

Located in London, Dubai, New York and Dubai, the Company is at the centre of reshaping how global brands will evolve in a sector valued at $276Bn in 2025 representing 30% of all digital ad spending.

If this seems too ambitious for you, then don’t apply.

Job Description:

Are you an AI pioneer who still loves to get your hands dirty in the codebase?

We are looking for a visionary, hands-on Senior AI/Backend Engineer to be a core builder of our multi-tenant platform. Working within a fast-paced development team in Dubai, you will architect and deploy the complex backend systems that drive monetisation such as content ingestion, ad-serving, and subscriptions. You will heavily leverage AI development tools to write, test, and ship cloud-agnostic code at unprecedented speeds.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a proven track record of building massive, data-intensive global systems, we want you as part of our engineering team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect and develop scalable, cloud-agnostic backend services and real-time, event-driven data pipelines.
• Design and implement secure multi-tenant solutions, payment system integrations, and robust public APIs.
• Build and integrate Model Context Protocol (MCP) solutions to support advanced agentic capabilities.
• Participate actively in Scrum ceremonies, taking ownership of complex architectural epics and mentoring team members.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Extensive hands-on experience in large-scale “AI vibe” development (fluent in coding assistants and agentic workflows).
• Deep expertise in Solution Architecture, AWS, and building cloud-agnostic backend solutions.
• Proven experience designing real-time, event-driven architectures.
• Strong background working in early-stage startup environments using Scrum.

Preferred Experience/Qualifications:

• Strong domain knowledge in SaaS/PaaS, Multi-tenant solutions, MarTech, and AdTech.
• Direct experience integrating complex payment gateways (e.g., Stripe) and building MCP layers.

Bonus Points If You Have…

While not strictly required, exposure to the following will make you a standout candidate:

• Deep understanding of the Media and/or News technology ecosystems.
• Experience in AdTech (advertising networks, programmatic bidding, ad serving).
• A Consulting or Startup/Scale-up background , bringing a strategic, client-centric, and solution-oriented mindset to technical problem-solving.

Why Join Us?

• The chance to build a ground-breaking AI platform from day one
• Competitive equity options package and salary
• Flexible working environment