Mohammed Ali Alghentawi

Summary

Results-driven Technical Program Manager with 12+ years of experience leading AI/ML and data-driven software programmes across government, OTT media, and enterprise platforms - including 4+ years focused on production AI delivery (RAG, multi-agent systems, computer vision). Track record of orchestrating delivery across backend, AI/ML, and frontend teams; improving engineering velocity by 30% and reducing delivery timelines by 20%; managing large-scale AI deployments including RAG systems, knowledge management platforms, and real-time AdTech infrastructure. PMP certified, fluent across Agile methodologies, AWS/Azure cloud platforms, and modern engineering practices. Currently at Sharjah Digital Department, leading a 15-person team, an AED 5M+ portfolio and 5+ external vendors across 9 strategic initiatives - including the Digital Sharjah government super-app's AI assistant, sovereign AI-assisted engineering, government entity onboarding, integration modernisation and cybersecurity programs.

Former Associate Professor with 7+ years mentoring technical talent - fostering a culture of innovation and applying strategic oversight to deliver impactful results.

Experience

1. Technical Program Manager

   Sharjah Digital Department · Sharjah, UAE

   Jan 2026 - present

   • Leads a 15-person team, an AED 5M+ portfolio and 5+ external vendors (global consultancies, a research and advisory firm, technology partners) across 9 strategic initiatives, run through 13 delivery projects - each with a charter, success KPIs and workstream-level governance.
   • Technical Manager of the Digital Sharjah Assistant - a multi-agent LLM assistant with an intent-routing orchestrator, 7+ specialised service agents and a RAG knowledge agent, live on web, iOS and Android in Arabic and English; also Technical Manager for its real-time voice experience.
   • Led the assistant's roadmap and transactional skills (a 13-week, 5-phase traffic-fines plan across 2 government data sources; smart parking with the 5 nearest open car parks), a quality and stabilisation program across 4 delivery streams, responsible-AI transparency UX, and AI-to-human handover to the government contact centre (6 delivery tracks).
   • Authored the business case for next-generation agentic orchestration with MCP-based service onboarding and an AI governance framework - targeting 30+ services from 5+ entities, 85+ knowledge sources, >90% intent accuracy, ≥95% task completion and under 2 s response time.
   • Technical Manager for agent-to-agent integration with a partner platform's AI agent (designed for ~1-second response time) and for a real-time knowledge pipeline approved by the Architecture Review Board, targeting 15-minute data freshness with zero changes to the source system.
   • Led a sovereign AI-assisted development program - self-hosted open-weight coding LLMs on government-controlled cloud GPU, governance aligned with UAE Information Assurance data classification, and secrets hardening across 3 codebases; delivered AI-assisted development training to engineering teams.
   • Led the migration of legacy service-bus integrations to an enterprise API management platform: 100% of APIs inventoried and classified, 30+ integrations rebuilt across 13+ government and partner entities, and 80% of migration defects resolved in staging.
   • Led the onboarding of government entities and sub-platforms through a 12-gate technical acceptance process; delivered the Nabni platform onboarding (11 further services in progress), 4 new Aqari real-estate services, 2 new Mazraaty agriculture services and a Smart Farming dashboard.
   • Led a cybersecurity remediation program, completing all 3 priority remediation workstreams; led a UAE Information Assurance gap assessment of 134 controls and set up an 8-workstream maturity program; established the Information Security Steering Committee.
   • Program-managed a platform-modernisation engagement with a global consultancy (first 2 milestones delivered) and built a ~65-page knowledge-transfer repository.
   • Led Digital Sharjah's WSIS Prizes 2026 submission (ITU), which was shortlisted.

2. Project Manager - AI & Digital Transformation

   Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) · Dubai, UAE

   Jan 2023 - Dec 2025

   • Directed delivery of AI-powered initiatives - including a RAG-based knowledge platform that improved internal document search accuracy by ~40% and an AI-powered knowledge management system that boosted relevance by ~35%.
   • Designed and deployed multi-agent AI applications using LangGraph, CrewAI, Synthetic Kernel, and Agno - agents specialised in benchmarking, text-to-SQL business intelligence, technical evaluation, and eligibility/decision orchestration.
   • Architected event-driven microservice architecture (Kafka + mediator pattern), cutting API overhead by 25% and enabling async workflow automation.
   • Established the AI Governance & Validation Framework covering data quality, bias monitoring, and ethical compliance aligned with Dubai Government AI ethics principles.
   • Conducted load-testing and optimisation of AI APIs achieving 99.8% uptime and 20% faster inference under production load.
   • Oversaw the full lifecycle of multiple AI and digital transformation programmes valued at >AED 30M, from initiation and business case preparation through deployment and change control, aligned with RTA's 2030 Smart Mobility strategy.
   • Coordinated with governance, finance, and procurement to ensure compliance with PMO standards, procurement policies, and DESC cloud-security requirements - zero audit findings across the programme.
   • Championed Agile transformation within AI delivery teams, increasing sprint velocity by 30% and reducing rework by 18%.
   • Delivered ROI dashboards to IT directors and agency leadership; conducted ROI and benefits-realisation analyses to quantify cost savings, automation efficiency, and KPI impact.

3. Head of AVOD - AI & Backend Systems Lead

   Setplex · New York, USA

   Oct 2023 - Dec 2025

   • Spearheaded design and deployment of an AI-based commercial detection engine using CNN+LSTM for live and VOD content - achieving 97% precision in real-time ad identification.
   • Successfully deployed the ad-detection module across 80+ live TV channels, enabling continuous ad monitoring, automated replacement, and contextual ad matching at scale.
   • Architected a distributed DSP system handling 3M+ ad requests per second using Python, Node.js, and Redis microservices.
   • Directed backend optimisation of Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) workflows using Broadpeak SmartLib - reducing ad-break latency by ~35% and improving fill-rate consistency.
   • Built CI/CD pipelines (GitLab + MLflow) to support continuous model retraining, automated rollbacks, and environment versioning for production-grade AI services.
   • Designed an edge-optimised inference service (Python + FastAPI + Redis) achieving sub-second response latency across distributed OTT nodes globally.
   • Integrated with leading SSP/DSP partners (PubMatic, Aniview, Kevel), expanding ad-tech interoperability and driving new monetization channels.
   • Implemented observability dashboards in Grafana and Prometheus for real-time tracking of latency, model drift, and campaign KPIs.
   • Mentored engineers on AI deployment, containerised infrastructure, performance tuning, and observability best practices.

4. Tech Lead

   Landvault (formerly Admix) · London, UK

   Sep 2019 - May 2023

   • Led modernisation of a high-traffic Supply-Side Platform (SSP) handling 200K QPS with <300ms latency, cutting CPU use by 25%.
   • Developed an in-house Demand-Side Platform (DSP) using Nest.js + React for campaign, creative, and targeting management.
   • Migrated legacy monolith systems into cloud-native microservices, improving scalability and cutting operating costs by 20%.
   • Built CI/CD pipelines (CircleCI, AWS Elastic Beanstalk) with automated rollback and multi-region deployment support.
   • Designed data pipelines (ELK + Grafana) for monitoring and alerting on system performance metrics.
   • Achieved 80%+ unit/integration test coverage and continuous-delivery resilience via Jest/Cypress.
   • Strengthened database performance (Oracle, SQL, MongoDB) by 30% through indexing, profiling, and optimisation.
   • Acted as incident manager for critical application downtime; coordinated root-cause fixes.

5. Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer

   Axadvisory · Dallas, USA

   Aug 2017 - Dec 2019

   • Oversaw planning, implementation, testing, and timely delivery of 80+ projects across finance, education, and logistics for US clients.
   • Designed and implemented an AI deduplication engine using machine learning in Python (Azure Functions + fuzzy logic) for entity resolution within Microsoft Dataverse - 60% error reduction.
   • Developed cross-platform Power Platform apps (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI) automating manual workflows.
   • Integrated Dynamics 365 with custom X++ plug-ins, reducing manual tasks by 40%.
   • Led the ETHOSS EFTA (Emirate Flight Training Academy) project end-to-end on Power Platform under tight timelines.
   • Defined project scopes via UML and Agile backlog planning; mentored teams on architecture patterns and code quality.

6. Team Lead

   Teacharabia · UAE / Syria

   Jul 2015 - Jun 2018

   • Designed, implemented, and deployed web platforms using PHP (CodeIgniter / Yii) and Java backends.
   • Built a multilingual education platform with optimised SQL and RESTful architecture.
   • Developed an OCR-based Arabic-text mobile app using OpenCV + Java + C++.
   • Created real-time notification and messaging modules using WebSockets and event-driven design.
   • Led Agile sprints, GitLab CI integration, and client communication.

7. Associate Professor / Assistant Teacher

   HIAST (Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology) · Damascus, Syria

   Jan 2014 - Jun 2021

   • Taught Introduction to AI, Algorithms & Data Structures, Software Quality (TDD/BDD), and software engineering principles.
   • Co-developed curricula for C++, C#, Lisp, and Prolog programming courses.
   • Supervised student capstone projects integrating ML and cloud components.
   • Coordinated academic activities and assessments; mentored students for ACM programming contests.
   • Supported AI research initiatives integrating neural networks and optimisation methods.

Education

• M.Sc. in Computer Science - HIAST (Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology) (2014 - 2016)
• B.Sc. in Software Engineering - HIAST (Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology) (2009 - 2014)

Certificates

• PMP - Project Management Professional (Project Management Institute)
• Mendix Intermediate
• Microsoft AI Product Manager (in progress)

Project Management Skills

• Sprint Planning & Backlog Management
• Risk & Dependency Management
• Stakeholder Communication & Reporting
• Agile (Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP)
• Engineering Process (CI/CD, QA, Code Reviews)
• Roadmap & Delivery Metrics Tracking
• Change & Release Management
• Cross-Functional Team Coordination
• Budgeting & Cost Management
• Procurement Management
• Servant Leadership
• Quality Assurance & Control
• Portfolio Governance & Initiative Charters
• OKRs & KPI Design
• Vendor Management
• AI Business Cases & ROI Modelling
• Build-vs-Buy Evaluation
• Jira & Confluence

Technical Skills

Languages

• Arabic (native)
• English (fluent)
• French (working)