Paul5550

Utilities Commissioning Lead Looking to Move to UAE.

Hi all,

I am considering moving to Dubai with my family. We have had the pleasure of holidaying there a couple of years ago and loved it.

I have worked for Jacobs Engineering for the last 7 years as a Commissioning Lead (mainly in utilities e.g. HVAC, Steam ,Chilled Water, Process Air, Low Pressure Hot Water etc). I have over 12 years of commissioning, qualification and validation experience on major projects.

I have over 24 years experience within the pharmaceutical sector on many multi million dollar projects.

I am looking to see if there is anyone out there who may be able to help me out in my search for a job. I have applied for a few but sadly have not heard anything back.

I would appreciate if there is anyone out there who may be able to point me in the right direction, who might know someone who is looking for someone or may be looking for someone themselves.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone can give me a helping hand in my search.

Thanks

Paul

Miss Ann Thrope

Hi,

Others on the bored will have more specific info than I but as somebody with perhaps not a dissimilar background (Chem Eng UCD c1874) who lived in Dubai for 12 years, let me offer my perspective. There is not a great deal of process engineering activity in Dubai, certainly not on the commissioning side, as Dubai is pretty much a services hub with minimal process industry there other than very small scale speciality blending. Dubal (which I guess has merged with Emal) and DEWA (the utilities supplier) are perhaps the sole exceptions. You may have identified them already - neither have the reputation as easy places to work: state owned etc. Construction is by far the main engineering employer in Dubai and there may be some relevant stuff in building services, HVAC etc.

The real process stuff is in Abu Dhabi with the petroleum and petrochemicals industries. I think you would massively widen your scope of opportunity if you look at AD rather than just Dubai, bearing in mind the location of some of those facilities is far from urban areas. There is some process industry in RAK: cement, ceramics and also the UAE's only significant pharmaceuticals manufacturer (Julfar). In pharma in particular, and in general across the board, remember there are qualified capable experienced people from various Asian countries, especially India, who will have much lower salary expectations than you,

Your depth of experience should be of value to some employers but I think focussing on Dubai will make it a much tougher search. My own job in Dubai was a head office technical management role - those might be more abundant if you are not absolutely committed to hugging the pipes.

SandyMcSand

Dude

Just reach out to any of the big engineering firms here and you’ll be fine, LinkedIn or even a speculative application should do fine.

However, the sector is still deep in recovery so don’t expect a cushy package.