Best 16 MENA Software Developers
Meet the top software developers from MENA making waves in tech. These standout talents are raising the bar for global engineering excellence. ↓
The Middle East and North Africa region boasts world-class software talent excelling in open-source contributions, startup innovation, influential tech content, impactful roles at major tech firms, and international coding competitions.
Below is a curated list of the best current software developers from across MENA, selected for their coding achievements and diverse backgrounds:
- Bassam Tabbara
- Ahmed Aly
- Hadi Hariri
- Sara Soueidan
- Samer Buna
- Osama Elzero
- Hussein Nasser
- Moataz Soliman
- Maryam Alhuthayfi
- Hadi Partovi
- Eran Hammer
- Ehsan Akhgari
- Uri Goldshtein
- Andi Gutmans
- Abdelrahman Awad
- Ali Ghodsi
Now, let’s delve into their profiles and why they stand out:
Bassam Tabbara
Kubecon + Cloudnativecon Europe
Nationality: Lebanese
Bassam, originally from Lebanon, is a cloud computing trailblazer and open-source innovator.
A former Microsoft veteran who helped lay groundwork for what became Azure Cloud, he later created Rook, an open-source system that pioneered cloud-native storage orchestration on Kubernetes. Bassam founded Upbound Inc., building on Rook to offer a universal control plane for multi-cloud management. Upbound’s Crossplane project (another OSS he leads) is redefining infrastructure-as-code by using Kubernetes control planes. Bassam’s startups and projects have seen big success – his previous company Symform (decentralized storage) was acquired in 2014.
By continually “democratizing the cloud control plane”, he’s pushing the envelope of cloud tech. Bassam’s career exemplifies how MENA talent is influencing Silicon Valley’s cloud landscape.
- LinkedIn: Bassam Tabbara
- Twitter (X): @bassamtabbara
- GitHub: bassamtabbara
Ahmed Aly
Nationality: Egyptian
A legend of competitive programming, Ahmed Aly dominated coding contests in the Arab region (ranked #1–#3 for four years) before moving to the judge side.
He won Google Code Jam 2010 (Africa/MENA region) and created the popular A2 Online Judge platform for training competitive programmers. Ahmed spent three years at Google working on search and organizing Code J, then quit to join HackerRank so he could focus on his passion: coding competitio. He continues to inspire as a staff engineer (formerly at Google, HackerRank, Mapbox) and by building tools for the programming community.
- LinkedIn: Ahmed Aly
- GitHub: ahmed-aly
- Twitter (X): @ahmed_aly_tc
Hadi Hariri
Nationality: Lebanese
Hadi is a globally recognized software engineer, technical speaker, and author from Lebanon.
As VP of Developer Advocacy and head of Open Source at JetBrains (the company behind Kotlin, IntelliJ, etc.), he drives community engagement and open-source ecosystem growth. A veteran coder with two decades of experience, Hadi has authored books/courses on .NET and Kotlin and hosts the “Talking Kotlin” pod. He is known for evangelizing modern development practices, speaking at conferences worldwide, and helping shape JetBrains’ developer tools.
Hadi’s mix of deep coding skills and community leadership makes him one of MENA’s most influential dev voices.
- LinkedIn: Hadi Hariri
- Twitter (X): @hhariri
- GitHub: hhariri
- Website/Blog: hadihariri.com
Sara Soueidan
Nationality: Lebanese
Sara is an independent front-end UI developer and author from Lebanon, celebrated internationally for her mastery of CSS and SVG.
She was voted Developer of the Year in the 2015 .net and won an O’Reilly Web Platform Award for her contributions to web standards. Sara has co-authored the Codrops CSS Reference and taught thousands through her workshops, articles, and talks. As a freelance consultant, she has helped companies like Starbucks and Gov.uk build modern, accessible web interfaces.
Her relentless sharing of knowledge (via blogs and conferences) and pioneering work in web graphics have cemented her status as a top developer in MENA and globally.
- Website/Blog: sarasoueidan.com
- Twitter (X): @SaraSoueidan
- GitHub: SaraSoueidan
Samer Buna
Nationality: Palestinian
Samer is a Palestinian software developer, prolific technical author, and educator with over 20 years of coding experience.
A polyglot programmer, he has built web and mobile apps across industries and has deep expertise in JavaScript, Node.js, React, and GraphQL. Samer has authored several books and video courses (for Pluralsight, O’Reilly, LinkedIn Learning) that have trained tens of thousands of developers. He also runs jsComplete.com for JavaScript training. Currently an engineer at Galoy, Samer continues to code daily while mentoring others.
His impact through content and code makes him one of MENA’s notable developer-influencers.
- LinkedIn: Samer Buna
- Website/Blog: jsComplete.com
- Twitter (X): @samerbuna
- GitHub: samerbuna
Osama Elzero
Nationality: Egyptian
Osama is arguably the most famous Arabic-speaking coding educator online, known for founding “Elzero Web School”, a YouTube-based platform with millions of views.
A self-taught web developer from Egypt, he has 15+ years of experience and specializes in full-stack web technologies. Osama’s Arabic tutorials on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and more have lowered the barrier to entry for countless aspiring developers in MENA. His interactive e-learning site Elzero Academy provides structured paths and challenges for students.
By making programming accessible in Arabic, Osama has become a coding celebrity and a mentor to an entire generation of new developers.
- LinkedIn: Osama Elzero
- GitHub: ElzeroWebSchool
Hussein Nasser
Nationality: Bahraini
Hussein is a Bahraini software engineer and a prominent tech YouTuber known for demystifying complex backend systems.
By day, he’s a Product Engineer at Esri, building geographic information systems and authoring several books on GIS and distributed systems. By night, he runs a popular YouTube channel where he explains topics like database engines, networking protocols, proxies, and software architecture to over 200k subscribers. Hussein’s unique ability to break down systems (e.g. how MySQL replication or NGINX works) with clarity and fun has made him an influential educator.
With 20 years in coding, he bridges practical industry experience and teaching, inspiring many developers in MENA and beyond.
- LinkedIn: Hussein Nasser
- Twitter (X): @hnasr
- Website/Blog: husseinnasser.com
Moataz Soliman
Nationality: Egyptian
Moataz is the co-founder and CTO of Instabug, one of MENA’s startup success stories in developer tools.
An engineer at heart, he built Instabug’s initial in-app bug reporting SDK that lets mobile developers get feedback by shaking the device. Under his technical leadership, Instabug evolved from a hackathon idea in Cairo’s Flat6Labs to a global developer platform now used in thousands of apps. Moataz remains hands-on in coding and product development, ensuring Instabug’s SDK integrates seamlessly for iOS, Android, and more.
By solving a real pain for fellow developers (simplifying bug reports), he’s become a hometown hero in Egypt’s tech scene and proof that MENA engineers can build developer tools for the world.
- LinkedIn: Moataz Soliman
- Twitter (X): @mzsoliman
Maryam Alhuthayfi
Nationality: Saudi Arabian
My heart is filled with happiness witnessing the positive impact of mentorship and guidance on such brilliant talents.
Maryam made history as the first Android Google Developer Expert (GDE) in the Middle East (and only the second in all of MENA).
A senior Android developer at Zain KSA (a major telecom), she actively writes Kotlin code for mobile apps by day. Off work, Maryam is a tireless community builder: she co-founded the Kotlin Saudi User Group, mentors women in tech, blogs in Arabic/English, and gives talks to spread Android best practices. Her passion for Android led her to become a recognized expert by Google – a badge few achieve.
Maryam’s journey from limited local resources to international GDE showcases the rising Saudi talent in software development.
- LinkedIn: Maryam Alhuthayfi
- Blog: mal7othify.com
Hadi Partovi
Nationality: Iranian
Hadi Partovi is a Tehran-born software entrepreneur and the driving force behind global coding education.
A Harvard-educated programmer, Hadi began his career as an engineer at Microsoft in the 1990s, where he rose to lead Internet Explorer’s platform team. He went on to co-found startups: Tellme Networks (voice tech, sold to Microsoft for $800M) and iLike (social music, sold to Newscorp). In 2013, Hadi and his twin brother Ali launched Code.org, a nonprofit that has introduced computer science to tens of millions of students worldwide. As CEO of Code.org, he still codes demos and curricula, championing initiatives like Hour of Code.
Hadi also was an early investor in Facebook, Dropbox, Uber and advises tech startups. His blend of coding expertise, entrepreneurial success, and social impact makes him one of MENA’s most inspiring tech figures.
- LinkedIn – Hadi Partovi
- Twitter (X) – @hadip
- Personal Site – Partovi.org
Eran Hammer
Nationality: Israeli
Eran is an Israeli-American programmer renowned for his work in authentication and Node.js.
He was one of the original authors of the OAuth 1.0 and OAuth 2.0 specs, shaping how the web handles secure authorization. Eran later created hapi.js, a richly featured Node.js web framework used by Walmart and other enterprises, emphasizing security and maintainability. (Hapi was born out of his experience as lead architect for Walmart’s Node.js stack on Black Friday.) He also developed Oz (an OAuth-like protocol) and numerous open-source plugins in the hapi ecosystem. Eran’s focus on code quality is legendary – hapi was the first Node framework with 100% coverage. Even after leaving the Node core team, he continues to contribute to open-source.
By pioneering OAuth and building tools that “bring sanity to Node.js development”, Eran has earned rockstar status among developers.
- LinkedIn – Eran Hammer
- GitHub – hueniverse
Ehsan Akhgari
Nationality: Iranian
Ehsan is an Iranian-Canadian software engineer famed for his contributions to Mozilla Firefox.
As a Principal Engineer at Mozilla, he spent over a decade improving Firefox’s performance, security, and features. Ehsan implemented critical components like Private Browsing and Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox, and co-authored standards like the Web Audio API. He started contributing to Mozilla as a student in Iran in 2006, proving that open-source allows talent to shine from anywhere. Beyond Firefox, he ported Node.js to work with Mozilla’s JS engine and tinkered with Firefox OS.
Ehsan’s story – from coding in Tehran to shaping a global browser – inspires many developers in MENA’s open-source communities.
- LinkedIn: Ehsan Akhgari
- Twitter (X): @ehsanakhgari
- GitHub: ehsan
- WebSite/Blog: ehsanakhgari.org
Uri Goldshtein
Nationality: Israeli
Uri is an Israeli open-source leader making waves in the GraphQL world.
He founded The Guild, which has grown into the largest open-source GraphQL collaboration, maintaining tools like GraphQL Code Generator and Mesh. Uri was an early contributor on the Apollo GraphQL team and also integrated GraphQL with Angular and Meteor in the past. A true digital nomad, he has coded from dozens of countries, all while creating and supporting libraries used by millions. Today, The Guild (led by Uri) supports Fortune 500 companies in adopting GraphQL successfully.
By championing OSS and sharing knowledge at conferences, Uri has become a key figure in both Israel’s tech scene and the global JavaScript community.
- LinkedIn: Uri Goldshtein
- Twitter (X): @UriGoldshtein
- GitHub: Urigo
Andi Gutmans
Nationality: Israeli
Andi is a veteran Israeli software pioneer best known as co-creator of PHP.
As a computer science student, he and Zeev Suraski developed PHP 3 in 1997 and wrote the Zend Engine that powers PHP 4. They went on to co-found Zend Technologies in 1999 to support and evolve PHP, which today runs over 75% of websites. After two decades leading PHP’s growth (including guiding PHP 5 and 7 releases), Andi transitioned to cloud databases – he is now a General Manager at Amazon Web Services, heading engineering for AWS’s data services. From scripting the web in the ’90s to driving cloud innovation, Andi has continually been at the forefront of software.
His journey illustrates how foundational contributions can impact millions of developers globally
- LinkedIn: Andi Gutmans
- Twitter (X): @andigutmans
- GitHub: andigutmans
- Personal Blog: andigutmans.com
Abdelrahman Awad
Nationality: Egyptian
Abdelrahman is an Egyptian open-source developer making a global impact in the Vue.js community.
He is the creator and maintainer of VeeValidate, the most popular form validation library for Vue (with 10k+ stars). A frontend engineer by profession, Abdelrahman built VeeValidate to simplify building forms, and it has been adopted by developers worldwide. He’s an active OSS maintainer and Vue.js enthusiast, contributing to tutorials and answers for the community. By day he works at a startup (Robusta Studio) crafting UIs, and by night he advances his library with new features for Vue 3.
Abdelrahman’s work demonstrates how developers in MENA are leading open-source projects at the core of modern web development.
- LinkedIn: Abdelrahman Awad
- Twitter (X): @logaretm
- GitHub: logaretm
- Website/Blog: awad.dev
Ali Ghodsi
Nationality: Iranian
Ali is an Iranian-Swedish computer scientist and the CEO/co-founder of Databricks, one of the world’s most valuable data/AI companies.
With a PhD in distributed computing, Ali was a key creator of Apache Spark, the open-source big-data processing engine that Databricks commercialized. He has co-authored influential research papers on Spark and Mesos, and his work enables thousands of companies to process large-scale data. Under Ali’s leadership, Databricks (which he co-founded with UC Berkeley colleagues) has grown into a multi-billion dollar unicorn, while he remains active in its product direction. Earlier, he also co-founded an academic startup in peer-to-peer networking.
Ali’s journey – from war-torn Iran to Sweden to Silicon Valley – and his focus on open-source-first innovation have made him one of the most prominent tech CEOs with MENA origins
- LinkedIn: Ali Ghodsi
- Twitter (X): @alighodsi
Wrap Up
These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals in the MENA region available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.
Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. If you intend to share or make use of it in any way, we kindly ask that you include a backlink to the original source – EchoGlobal.
Tags: coders, developers, engineers, experts, innovators
Lou Reverchuk IT Entrepreneur