United Arab Emirates

Feeny tracks about 613 active tech roles in the United Arab Emirates across 182 companies. These are live listings we scrape and refresh, not a number left to go stale. Dubai carries most of the volume, with Abu Dhabi adding the rest. A role listed here was open the last time we pulled from the source.

Dubai dominates the 2 cities we track and is where the large majority of tech hiring happens. Abu Dhabi is the clear second, backed by heavy sovereign investment in its own tech push. The two together account for nearly all of the country's openings. If you are looking at UAE tech, Dubai is the center and Abu Dhabi the follow-up.

The UAE spent heavily to turn Dubai and Abu Dhabi into a regional tech hub, and it drew founders and global firms from across MENA. No income tax, fast-track visas, and sovereign capital made the pitch hard to refuse. Fintech and proptech lead the local scene, with e-commerce close behind. The employer mix skews toward companies serving the wider Middle East from a UAE base.

Fintech leads, reflecting the region's push to modernize financial services. Proptech is unusually strong here, tied to the pace of real-estate development in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. E-commerce fills out the third major category. Roles tend to serve the broader MENA region rather than a single national market, which shapes the kind of engineering that gets hired.

The UAE bought its way into a real tech hub quickly, and for a lot of people the draw is straightforward: no personal income tax, so more of your salary stays yours. Dubai is an expensive city and the work culture can be intense, so the tax advantage is not free money. What you get is a fast-growing regional hub with global firms and generous relocation terms. For engineers weighing take-home pay and mobility, the pitch is genuinely strong.

This is a real strength of the market, not a hurdle. The Golden Visa offers long-term residence, and employer-sponsored work permits move fast compared with most countries. No personal income tax is a concrete draw on top of that. The UAE is one of the most foreigner-friendly tech markets anywhere for relocation, and moving there for a role is a well-worn, realistic path.