Ali Fouad KwikaCTO · Dubai
العربية Book a call
Services

CTO & AI advisory services in Dubai

Senior technology leadership across strategy, AI, engineering and cloud — available as a fractional CTO, an advisor, or for a defined programme of work. I work with founders, boards and growth-stage companies across the UAE, the GCC and remotely.

Book a strategy call How I work
01

Fractional CTO

Senior technology leadership one to three days a week — the strategy, architecture and team decisions of a CTO, without a full-time executive hire.

Ideal for: Startups and scale-ups that need senior technology leadership before — or instead of — a full-time CTO.

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What’s included

  • Technology roadmap and architecture ownership
  • Hiring, team structure and vendor management
  • Delivery governance and engineering standards
  • Board, investor and stakeholder reporting
  • Hands-on support at critical moments: launches, audits, fundraising
02

Technology strategy & roadmap

Align technology with business goals. I help you set a clear roadmap, make the right build-versus-buy decisions and translate engineering complexity into decisions leadership can act on.

Ideal for: Founders and leadership teams planning growth, fundraising or a major platform decision.

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What’s included

  • Technology roadmap and strategy
  • Technology governance
  • Digital transformation strategy
  • Technical due diligence and investor readiness
  • Stakeholder and board engagement
03

AI & digital transformation

Turn AI from a buzzword into measurable outcomes. I identify the highest-value use cases, design LLM-powered products and agents, and lead them from prototype to production with the data, security and governance to scale safely.

Ideal for: Companies that want real business value from AI — not experiments that never ship.

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What’s included

  • AI strategy and use-case roadmap
  • LLM and generative AI product development
  • AI agents and workflow automation
  • RAG, knowledge assistants and copilots
  • Data readiness and AI governance
  • Digital transformation programmes
04

AI & machine learning integration

Add intelligence to the products you already have. I integrate LLMs, machine learning models and AI APIs into existing platforms — from smart search and recommendations to document processing and conversational assistants.

Ideal for: Product teams adding AI features to an existing web or mobile platform.

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What’s included

  • LLM integration (OpenAI, Claude, open-source models)
  • Recommendation and personalisation engines
  • Document and data intelligence
  • Conversational AI and chatbots
  • MLOps and model monitoring
05

Engineering leadership

Great products need great teams. I build, restructure and lead engineering organisations — hiring the right people, setting delivery cadence and creating the culture and processes that let teams ship reliably as you scale.

Ideal for: Companies growing from a handful of developers to multiple product teams.

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What’s included

  • Engineering hiring and team structure
  • Delivery process and release cadence
  • Architecture governance and code quality
  • Engineering culture and mentoring
  • Vendor and outsourcing management
  • Interim or fractional CTO leadership
06

SaaS & platform architecture

From MVP to enterprise scale. I design SaaS products end to end — domain model, multi-tenancy, billing, APIs and mobile apps — on cloud-native foundations built for availability and multi-market growth.

Ideal for: Teams building a new product, or re-platforming one that no longer scales.

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What’s included

  • MVP scoping and architecture
  • Multi-tenant SaaS architecture
  • Billing, subscriptions and payments
  • API and integration design
  • Web and mobile apps (Next.js, React Native)
07

Cloud & DevOps (AWS / Azure / GCP)

Infrastructure that is fast to ship on and cheap to run. I design cloud-native platforms, automate delivery pipelines and put observability in place so releases become routine, not risky.

Ideal for: Teams whose releases are slow, risky or expensive to run.

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What’s included

  • Cloud-native architecture
  • Cloud migration and modernisation
  • Kubernetes and containers
  • CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code
  • Monitoring and incident response
  • Cloud cost optimisation
08

Cybersecurity & risk management

Security and compliance built in, not bolted on. I assess risk, design secure architectures and put the controls in place to meet the standards your customers and regulators expect across the UAE, the GCC and beyond.

Ideal for: Companies handling customer, payment or regulated data.

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What’s included

  • Security architecture and reviews
  • Data protection and privacy by design
  • Compliance readiness (ISO 27001, SOC 2, UAE PDPL)
  • Risk management and incident planning
Process

How an engagement works

  1. 1

    Discovery call

    A free 30-minute conversation about your goals, constraints and where things stand today.

  2. 2

    Assessment

    A focused review of architecture, team, delivery and costs to find the risks and the quick wins.

  3. 3

    Roadmap & proposal

    A prioritised plan with a clear scope, engagement format and timeline.

  4. 4

    Leadership & delivery

    I lead or embed with your team and report progress against the outcomes we agreed.

Work together

Three ways to engage

Ongoing

Fractional CTO

Your technology leader one to three days a week.

  • Technology roadmap & architecture
  • Hiring and team structure
  • Delivery, security and vendors
Discuss your needs
Monthly

Advisory

A senior sounding board for founders and boards.

  • AI adoption & technology investment
  • Board and investor support
  • Technical due diligence
Discuss your needs
Fixed scope

Focused project

A defined outcome in weeks, not quarters.

  • Architecture or platform review
  • AI roadmap & proof of value
  • 0 → 1 MVP build
Discuss your needs
FAQ

Questions about working together

How are engagements priced?

Fractional CTO and advisory work is a monthly retainer based on the time commitment; focused projects are priced for a defined scope. You receive a clear proposal after the discovery call.

Do you work remotely or on-site?

Both. I’m based in Dubai and work on-site across the UAE and GCC, and remotely with teams in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Can you help us hire a full-time CTO or engineering team?

Yes. I can define the role, design the hiring process, run technical interviews and support onboarding — then step back once the team is in place.

Which industries do you work with?

Travel, events and ticketing, hospitality, real estate, retail and e-commerce, and B2B SaaS — plus enterprise transformation programmes across the GCC.

Have a product to build or a team to scale?

Tell me where you are and where you want to be. Let’s find the shortest path to get there.

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