Dubai: UAE airlines are hiring - and along with cabin crew and ground staff, there is a lot of emphasis on IT-related positions too.
Last year, Emirates said it was looking to recruit more than 500 IT professionals in the next six months to build its own talent pipeline with expertise in various areas, including cybersecurity, technical product management, DevOps, and hybrid cloud.
“Some of the highest demand jobs will be in the IT departments of airlines because technology is clearly benefiting every business,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Chief Operating Officer, during an industry event last month.“Every sector – be it tourism or airline – will be tapping into the same resources.”
Etihad Airways has signed a multi-year agreement with Kyndryl, which was spun out of tech giant IBM, to upgrade its IT infrastructure by facilitating the use of cloud platforms. Such initiatives require highly skilled tech employees that can help companies make the transition.
Air Arabia, meanwhile, is in the home stretch towards launching two airlines, in Pakistan and Armenia, and requiring more recruitments.
So, along with ecommerce, fintechs and other categories taking in high-on-skills tech professionals, airlines too are casting the net wide with each progress made towards their return to full network operations post-Covid.
These are some of the tech roles that airlines have an eye on:
Delivery lead
The selected candidate will perform the role of ‘Scrum Master’, developing and leading a high-performing, multi-discipline team. They will play a leading role in fulfilling the vision, driving the implementation of technical products, and setting standards for teams to follow.
A person working in the same or similar roles typically earns around Dh24,000 a month. Salaries range from Dh11,800 (lowest) to Dh38,700 (highest).
IT portfolio officer
The individual will implement consistent PMO (project management office) best practices for portfolios that will ‘enable timely delivery of IT commitments to the business within cost’.
The average salary for a portfolio manager in UAE is Dh20,000 per month.
Senior ‘DevOps’ engineer
In its credentials needed for this role, Emirates says the senior engineer will be a core member of the DevOps platform or enablement team who builds, maintains and rolls out CI/CD pipelines as service to the autonomous team to ‘enable them deliver software better and quicker for the group’.
A DeVops engineer makes around Dh30,000, while someone in a senior role can earn up to Dh100,000 per month.
Principal software engineer
The selected candidate will engineer business critical technology solutions through the application of software programming, quality management, data engineering, and big data analysis.
A principal software engineer can net anywhere between Dh20,000-Dh40,000 in a month.
It’s not just airlines that are on the lookout for skilled IT workers, Airbus – the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer - has made a few job postings as well:
IT architect and Integrator
“The individual will create future-proof system architectures for Airbus’ highly interconnected 4G/5G communication solutions,” the aircraft maker said. The average salary for an IT architect in the UAE is around Dh13,000 per month.
Customer engagement and programme manager “The jobholder will have the responsibility to ensure the realization of the value creation expected from Airbus’ digital solutions by engaging with airline customers in the Africa and Middle East region,” the company has posted.
An engagement manager, on an average, gets a pay of more than Dh300,000 per year or around Dh25,000 per month.
Employment sector and HR sources affirm that IT professionals are leading the way in new job creations or job switches. On Friday, S&P Global’s May PMI report confirmed that UAE private sector has been adding new positions, indicating that employment options are opening up in full to pre-Covid levels. The spike in economic growth too is helping.
