Qutaibah Essa

Engineering Leader · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

me@qutaibah.com +966 55 308 6742 linkedin.com/in/qutaibah

Record

  • Engineering org Hala

    3 to 85

    engineers and managers, 14 squads

  • Release cadence Hala

    ad hoc to fortnightly

    across all 14 squads

  • Commit to production Hala

    unmeasured to 6 days

    tracked and held

  • Crash free rate stc pay

    96% to 99%

    mobile portfolio

  • Crash free rate HungerStation

    87% to 99.6%

  • 15

    years in software

    the last six leading

  • 7.8M

    wallet users

    stc pay, during the period

  • SAR 2.5M

    annual budget

    engineering, Hala

  • 100+

    developers mentored

    MiSK and Udacity

Summary

Engineering leader with 15 years in software, the last six leading. Built Hala's engineering function from 3 to 85 across 14 squads while scaling a Saudi fintech platform, after leading mobile engineering at stc pay, MRSOOL and HungerStation, all high growth consumer platforms in KSA. Native Arabic. Riyadh based.

Experience

Jun 2022 — Present Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Director of Engineering

Hala

Report to the CTO. Own engineering across 14 squads.

  • Grew engineering from 3 to 85 engineers and managers across 14 squads. Hired 15 directly and promoted 4 into engineering management; the remainder joined through team consolidation.
  • Owned an annual engineering budget of approximately SAR 2.5M.
  • Introduced the organisation's first release process, moving engineering from ad hoc and unmeasured deployments to a fortnightly cadence across all 14 squads, with commit to production lead time tracked and held at 6 days.
  • Set technical vision and partnered with the executive team on product strategy, roadmap and budgeting.
Oct 2020 — May 2022 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Head of Mobile Engineering

stc pay

  • Led mobile engineering for the Kingdom's largest digital wallet, serving over 7.8 million users during the period.
  • Shipped Qattah, the in app bill splitting product, from concept to launch.
  • Delivered the digital marketplace, enabling in app purchase of iTunes credit and stc, Mobily and other operator top ups.
  • Raised the crash free rate from 96% to 99% across the mobile portfolio.
  • Led agile transformation across mobile squads and partnered with executives on mobile strategy.
Apr 2020 — Nov 2020 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Mobile Development Manager

MRSOOL

  • Managed mobile delivery for one of Saudi Arabia's largest on demand delivery platforms, serving several million users across the Kingdom.
  • Shipped QR based delivery passes at the onset of COVID 19, enabling couriers to keep operating under movement restrictions.
Apr 2018 — Mar 2020 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Software Engineering Team Lead

HungerStation

  • Delivered the Groceries Marketplace integration, opening a new vertical on the platform.
  • Built dynamic, user driven markets spanning pharmacy, food and groceries.
  • Raised the crash free rate from 87% to 99.6%.
  • Acted as architect on cross team infrastructure work.
Nov 2018 — Jan 2020 Part time, concurrent with HungerStation

iOS Instructor and Mentor

MiSK and Udacity

  • Mentored over 100 aspiring iOS developers through curriculum delivery, career coaching and technical interview preparation.
2011 — 2018 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Earlier

Jan 2018 — Mar 2018 Senior Software Engineer, Knowledge Ways Aug 2016 — Dec 2017 Senior iOS Engineer, Morni Jun 2011 — Jul 2016 iOS Developer, Programic

Shipped iOS products from zero to App Store launch, automated build and release pipelines, mentored engineers and led code review across teams.

AI practice

Independent work outside current employment, where AI tooling is restricted by policy.

Built a multi module enterprise platform spanning HR and quality management on a shared codebase, specification exceeding 38,000 lines, developed AI assisted end to end from specification through implementation, review and QA, including SAP integration for master data.

  • Stage 1

    Code completion

    Model as autocomplete. Suggestions accepted or rejected line by line.

  • Stage 2

    Specification driven development

    Written specification as the unit of work, with implementation derived from it rather than from prompts.

  • Stage 3

    Context engineering

    Automated formatting, analysis and codegen hooks supplying the model its working context.

  • Stage 4

    Multi agent workflows

    Separate drafting, critique and audit roles, each with its own brief.

Architecture

Small API based models with schema injected RAG behind a provider abstraction layer rather than self hosting, chosen for cost control and switching flexibility.

Skills

  • Leadership

    Org design, Hiring, Performance management, Budgeting, Technical strategy, Executive partnership

  • Backend

    Python, C#/.NET Core, Ruby on Rails

  • Frontend

    TypeScript, React, Next.js, Vue.js

  • Mobile

    Flutter/Dart, Swift/SwiftUI, React Native

  • Data

    PostgreSQL, MongoDB

  • Cloud and DevOps

    GCP, AWS, Docker, CI/CD, Git

  • AI

    AI assisted development workflows, RAG, Model selection and cost architecture

Background

Education

Computer Engineering FortJones University Oct 2009 — Oct 2013 · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Languages

Arabic — Native English — Professional

Contact

Email me@qutaibah.com

Phone +966 55 308 6742

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/qutaibah