A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)

Finding opportunities that match their skills is not always straightforward for Emirati jobseekers, even as more companies seek local talent. Employers may also face challenges identifying suitable candidates, not because of a shortage, but due to limited access to the available talent pool. An app bridges this gap.

Dawlati - meaning “My Nation” - is an app for Emiratis, by Emiratis. Its founder is young Zakaria Rashid Doleh, who studied business management in the UK before returning to the job market in the UAE.

The app was born out of the founder’s own experience navigating the labour market.

“There was a major disconnect between employers actively looking to hire Emiratis and Emiratis actively seeking meaningful opportunities,” Doleh told Aletihad, explaining the rationale behind the platform.

“As an Emirati myself, I experienced first-hand how fragmented and unclear the job search process could feel for UAE nationals. Despite the country’s strong focus on Emiratisation, many talented Emiratis still struggled with visibility, feedback, and access to the right opportunities,” he said.  

Rather than launching what he called “just another job platform”, Doleh said the aim was to build “the digital infrastructure for Emirati hiring” - a system purpose-built around the UAE’s long-term national vision.

Dawlati officially launched at the end of November 2025 during Tawdheef x Zaheb in Abu Dhabi and has since expanded rapidly. According to Doleh, the platform today has more than 15,000 verified Emirati users, with new users joining daily.

Only Verified UAE Talent Makes it to the Search

The verification process itself is central to the platform’s identity. Every profile is authenticated through UAE PASS, allowing employers to interact only with verified UAE National talent rather than anonymous or unverified databases. Doleh described this as an important layer of trust and transparency for both employers and jobseekers.

The scale of engagement has also grown quickly. Doleh said the platform has already facilitated more than one million AI-driven job matches between employers and Emirati talent. He added that hundreds of Emiratis had already progressed into interviews, job offers and employment opportunities across different sectors.

“What has been most encouraging is hearing directly from users who tell us Dawlati gave them visibility and opportunities they previously struggled to access,” he said.

On the employer side, the young entrepreneur said companies were able to reduce recruitment timelines significantly through the platform. “Some organisations are able to identify, shortlist and move forward with qualified Emirati candidates within minutes rather than months,” he said.

An AI-powered App tailored to UAE Market

Doleh believes Dawlati differs fundamentally from global recruitment platforms and traditional hiring agencies because it was designed specifically around the realities of Emiratisation and the UAE labour market.

“The major difference is speed and intelligence,” he said.

While conventional recruitment can be highly manual and time-consuming, Dawlati uses AI-driven matching and ranking systems to instantly connect employers with the most relevant Emirati candidates based on skills, experience, industry and role requirements.

“What traditionally took weeks now happens in seconds,” he said.

The platform’s AI system works in both directions. Employers receive ranked candidate matches, while jobseekers are shown match scores for opportunities most suited to their profiles and experience.

He added that Dawlati is also evolving continuously with newer AI-powered tools. Among the planned features is a Natural Language Processing search system allowing employers to interact with the platform in what he described as a “ChatGPT-style” experience by simply describing the type of candidate they need, with the system instantly generating relevant matches.

Beyond technology, however, Doleh repeatedly returned to the human and national dimensions of the project.

“We believe the future of Emiratisation should not be driven purely by mandate, but by merit,” he said. “Emiratis are exceptionally talented when placed in the right roles and environments.”

That philosophy was also shaped by his father Rashid Doleh, who is a co-founder of the company. Doleh said his father brought decades of business and operational experience from the private sector, while he himself represented a younger generation navigating a rapidly changing labour market.  

“That balance helped Dawlati become both mission-driven and commercially practical,” he said.

“Building the company together has been a very meaningful experience for both of us because we genuinely believe the platform can contribute positively to the future of the nation, and our Emirati brothers and sisters.”