International Women in Engineering Day spotlights AI careers in the UAE
International Women in Engineering Day, marked annually on 23 June, is increasingly tied to the next wave of technology, with artificial intelligence now at the center of many engineering and business conversations. In the UAE, two Salesforce Solution Engineers, Marion Karanja and Loma Abbas, describe careers that moved across countries and functions, and a current focus on helping enterprises apply AI in ways that connect to customer experience and operational goals.
Both engineers work at the intersection of technology and business as solution-focused professionals, roles that sit alongside product and engineering but are built around translating capabilities into practical outcomes for organizations. Their shared theme is not only participation in AI, but also shaping how it is introduced, tested, and explained to the people who will use it.
From early opportunity to long-term engineering identity
Karanja and Abbas come from different backgrounds, but their narratives start with early access to learning and a willingness to challenge assumptions. Karanja, based in the Middle East after earlier roles in companies including IBM, says her path began with a family that encouraged education and technical ambition. She studied Telecommunications and Information Engineering and later moved to Germany for an internship, a transition she describes as enabled by family support and practical sacrifice.
Abbas, who began her career with a focus on security engineering, describes an “understanding” mindset that drove her toward engineering as a way to solve real problems. Her route included engineering education in Egypt, followed by roles that took her into cybersecurity work and later into customer-facing pre-sales.
While the specifics differ, their common thread is the idea that engineering is not only technical execution, but also a route to agency, including the ability to move toward roles with broader business impact.
Career pivots: from security and architecture to enterprise AI conversations
Karanja’s professional development spans multiple enterprise technology domains. She has described building a foundation through earlier experience in IBM, then moving into technology leadership and solution-focused roles at consulting and enterprise technology companies. Over time, she says she wanted her work to extend beyond technical teams and help connect technology choices to strategy, growth, and measurable impact. That shift aligns with what many enterprises increasingly look for when deploying AI, where success depends on translating models and data capabilities into workflows, customer journeys, and governance.
Abbas began in network security, configuring firewalls and working with security technologies. She later moved into pre-sales, a step that she frames as leaving behind a narrower comfort zone in order to influence how solutions are shaped for customer requirements. For businesses, this type of role is critical in AI rollouts because it bridges technical potential with adoption realities, including integration constraints and stakeholder expectations.
Cross-border experience as a professional advantage
Both engineers also describe their careers as shaped by geography. Karanja’s path has taken her from Kenya to Germany and then to the UAE. Abbas moved from Egypt to Ireland before relocating to the UAE. They both highlight how exposure to different work cultures can reshape how engineers see inclusion and professional development.
Karanja notes that in Germany she was one of only a small number of women in her immediate environment, an experience that helped her understand that barriers are often broader than local context. In the UAE, she describes a willingness to experiment and an environment that encouraged her to learn and adapt, including learning Arabic as part of working across perspectives.
Abbas emphasizes the value of staying rooted while remaining open. Rather than treating international moves as detours, she frames them as a combination of experiences that can be used to articulate value in new settings. For AI talent pipelines, this matters because many enterprise AI deployments require teams that can navigate both technical complexity and culturally grounded communication, especially in multinational organizations.
Working on “engineering intelligence” and the realities of AI in business
This year’s International Women in Engineering Day theme, often presented as #EngineeringIntelligence, places women shaping AI at the center of how new technologies are developed and applied. In their current roles, both engineers describe AI as a practical business tool rather than a standalone innovation.
Karanja’s work includes conversations across travel, transport, and hospitality, where AI initiatives frequently intersect with customer experience and service operations. She describes a milestone experience delivering a demo related to Agentforce at Salesforce events in Dubai, reflecting the growing focus on AI agents and copilots in enterprise environments.
Abbas describes AI’s immediate value as reducing repetitive tasks so she can dedicate more time to higher-value problem-solving and strategy. Her account highlights a pattern seen across the industry: early AI adopters often use pilots and pre-release testing to evaluate what automation can deliver while keeping human oversight for edge cases and decision accountability.
Both engineers also point to a common principle behind effective AI solutions, that teams benefit from diverse perspectives. In enterprise deployment, that diversity can reduce blind spots when defining use cases, selecting data, and testing outcomes against real human needs.
Advice for the next generation: confidence after action, mentorship, and pathways
When asked what they would tell women starting out in engineering, both emphasize action over hesitation. Abbas says confidence often grows after taking steps, while Karanja encourages women who feel isolated in their workplace to remember they belong and that others have come before them.
They also return to themes of opportunity and structured support. Karanja references involvement in educational and community efforts, describing a belief that passing opportunity forward is part of engineering responsibility. Abbas highlights the role of mentorship and sponsorship, not only representation, as a mechanism to help people move into leadership roles.
Why the message matters for UAE enterprise AI
The stories shared for International Women in Engineering Day are personal, but they also speak to broader workforce and implementation questions facing the UAE and the wider region. As companies explore AI for customer service, data-driven operations, security, and agent-based workflows, the demand is not only for technical skill, but also for professionals who can translate AI into business decisions.
Solution engineering roles like the ones described here are one pathway for that translation. They require both technical fluency and the ability to collaborate across functions, including product, engineering, legal or compliance, and business stakeholders. In that context, diverse career trajectories, cross-border experience, and active mentorship can influence not just who gets involved, but how organizations adopt AI in practice.
