00Engineer · Dubai, UAE

Custom software, built in Dubai.

One senior engineer. Full stack, full responsibility, shipped on your timeline — for founders and product teams across the UAE.

Start a project

See selected work

00 →Scroll

03Services

Three ways to work together.

BUILD

I build the thing.

Custom software development in Dubai, from zero to production. I own the stack, the code, and the delivery.

What it looks like

—MVPs and v1 products for UAE founders who need something real before the next raise
—New features, integrations, and internal tools for existing product teams
—Full-stack: web, API, database, deploy, on-call if needed

Best when

—You have a clear problem and need one senior engineer to own the solution
—You want to move faster than hiring in the Dubai market allows

Not a fit if

—You need a full agency (design, PM, QA, engineering)
—The project needs 3+ engineers from day one

ADVISE

I help you make it work.

Technical partnership without a full build. Audits, architecture, and second opinions from someone who's shipped a lot.

What it looks like

—Codebase and architecture reviews with a written report and a call-through
—Fractional engineering — embedded with your Dubai team a few days a week
—Technical due diligence for UAE investors, acquirers, and boards

Best when

—You have an existing product and need senior input, not more hands
—You're hiring and want a technical partner to evaluate candidates or approaches

Not a fit if

—You want someone to manage a team long-term
—You need generic consulting without touching the code

LEAD

I run your tech, until you hire a CTO.

Fractional CTO for Dubai founders. I own the technical direction — architecture, stack, and your first engineering hires — so you can raise, sell, and build with a technical partner in your corner.

What it looks like

—Weekly strategy sessions and decision support between them
—Architecture and stack ownership — the calls that compound early
—First-engineer hiring: sourcing, evaluating, onboarding
—The technical voice for investors and due diligence

Best when

—You're a non-technical (or time-poor) founder who needs a CTO's judgment, not a full-time CTO's salary
—You're pre-first-engineering-hire and every early decision compounds

Not a fit if

—You need someone writing production code day-to-day — that's BUILD
—You already have senior technical leadership in place

04Selected Work

What I've shipped.

Selected custom software projects — the kind of end-to-end builds I take on for founders and product teams in Dubai and across the UAE.

01→ case study

Biodiversity Monitoring Platform

A platform for real-time ecological monitoring, species tracking, and environmental threat detection from Earth observation data.

Complex data loggers measurements

Next.jsNestJSPostGIS

02→ case study

Oil Spill Detection & Monitoring Platform

An advanced geospatial intelligence platform designed to detect, monitor, and analyze oil spills in marine environments using satellite imagery, AI models, and real-time spatial analytics.

Real-time Geospatial Intelligence

Next.jsNestJSPostGIS

03→ case study

ALPHA10X

ALPHA10X is an AI-native Decision Intelligence platform built for private markets. At the heart of the platform is the ALPHAcodex, a governed reasoning system that masters the hardest problem in investing: judgment under uncertainty.

Scalable & Robust Architecture

AngularNestJSNeo4jAzure

05Stack

The tools.

LANGUAGES

TypeScript
JavaScript
Python
Go
SQL

FRAMEWORKS

Next.js
React
Angular
Node.js
NextJS
Flutter
React Native

INFRA

Vercel
Railway
Docker
GitHub
Cloudflare
Azure

DATA

PostgreSQL
Prisma
MongoDB
Neo4j

06Experience

Where I've been.

2024 — nowPrincipal Software EngineerAriasTechSolutions
2022 — 2024Senior Software EngineerALPHA10X
2018 — 2022Software EngineerVerbindungszentrum der Bildung und Forschung
2016 — 2018IT ManagerINNOGROUP SARL

Chihab Jraoui · Dubai, UAE

07About

Engineer in Dubai. For hire.

I'm Chihab Jraoui, a senior software engineer and fractional CTO based in Dubai, UAE. I help founders and product teams turn ideas into production software — end-to-end, with one person accountable for the whole thing.

I've shipped systems across payments, B2B SaaS, geospatial intelligence, and developer tooling. I care about code that's simple enough to maintain and rigorous enough to hold up under real load.

Working with startups and product teams in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and across the UAE — in your timezone, in your working week, and on the ground when a room beats a call.

Based in Dubai, UAE. GST (UTC+4). English, French, Arabic.

08Contact

Let's build something.

Tell me about your project. I'm based in Dubai and work on GST, so you'll usually hear back the same working day — within 2 business days at the latest.