30d → 5min
SIOCS Turnaround
99.7% time reduction · zero manual intervention
Dubai, UAE
Noman Ghani
Principal Software Architect
AIDataEnterprise Systems
About
I don't just design systems, I build them.
Principal Software Architect with 17 years designing and delivering enterprise systems across luxury retail, government, and healthcare — most recently driving digital transformation at Chalhoub Group, one of the Middle East's largest luxury conglomerates operating 50+ global brands. I bridge the gap between strategic architecture and hands-on engineering: I don't just design systems, I build them.
My track record is defined by concrete outcomes: compressing a 30-day inventory reconciliation process to 5 minutes, engineering the region's first mathematically-precise ZATCA e-invoicing compliance engine, and deploying agentic AI pipelines now processing 10M+ records daily across GCP. I apply the same discipline to every engagement — every architectural decision must be justified by clear business value, not technical preference.
Deep expertise across enterprise architecture, AI/LLM orchestration, and modern data engineering (Airflow, dbt, BigQuery). Technical author on Medium covering software architecture and applied AI. Stack Overflow contributor with answers reaching 2.7 million developers globally.
Impact
Outcomes, not adjectives
100%
ZATCA Compliance
First team to solve it · millions of invoices
200+
Hours Saved / Mo
via Agentic AI & automation pipelines
10M+
Records / Day
BigQuery pipelines · 50+ luxury brands
60%
Process Reduction
Govt portals · 500+ employees served
2.7M
Developers Reached
Through Stack Overflow answers
Experience
17 years of shipping
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Principal Software Engineer & Digital Transformation Lead
Jul 2021 – Present · 5 yrs 3 mos
Chalhoub Group · Dubai, UAE
Digital transformation across one of the Middle East's largest luxury conglomerates, operating 50+ global brands.
Show detailsArchitectural Turnaround — SIOCS Inventory Reconciliation
- Inherited a legacy reconciliation process requiring a full team and 30 days of manual effort per cycle.
- Re-architected the data ingestion and automation layer end-to-end, compressing the cycle from 30 days to under 5 minutes — 100% elimination of manual processing effort and near-zero error rates, saving millions of dirhams annually across Level Shoes, Lacoste, Faces, Tangara, and Guess.
Modern Data Infrastructure (GCP / BigQuery)
- Led the transition to a modern data stack on GCP to support 50+ luxury brands across the group.
- Architected high-throughput pipelines using dbt and Apache Airflow with a YAML-driven DAG builder pattern, processing 10M+ daily records into BigQuery with automated quality checks and lineage tracking.
- Built complex dimensional models enabling real-time Looker dashboards — reducing "Time to Insight" from days to seconds.
Agentic AI & RAG Implementation
- Designed and deployed agentic AI workflows using Semantic Kernel and Azure OpenAI Service — integrating RAG pipelines with vector search to automate high-frequency business logic and knowledge retrieval across enterprise datasets.
- Built demand forecasting models using ML.NET and Python to optimise stock levels for tier-1 brands, improving inventory efficiency and reducing overstock costs.
- Automation suite saves 200+ man-hours per month, with near-zero manual intervention across core business processes.
ZATCA Compliance Breakthrough (KSA E-Invoicing)
- Solved a critical regulatory blocker where prior implementations failed due to floating-point discrepancies in cryptographic signing — a problem that had stumped multiple engineering teams.
- Engineered a custom mathematical rounding engine ensuring 100% ZATCA compliance across millions of invoices, eliminating significant regulatory and financial risk for the group.
Leadership, Governance & Stakeholder Communication
- Led and mentored a cross-functional team of 5 engineers; introduced Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) and structured design review processes adopted across the engineering organisation.
- Presented architecture proposals and technology roadmaps directly to senior leadership and C-level stakeholders — translating complex system trade-offs into clear business impact narratives.
.NETC#PythonGCPBigQuerydbtApache AirflowSemantic KernelAzure OpenAILangGraphRAG PipelinesML.NETLangChainBlazorAzureAWSKubernetesDockerSQLNoSQL -
Tech Lead / Solutions Architect
Apr 2019 – Jul 2021 · 2 yrs 3 mos
Education & Human Resources Council (UAE Gov.) · Dubai, UAE
Show details- Architected mission-critical government portals serving 500+ employees across UAE federal entities, with full compliance to UAE national cybersecurity and data residency standards.
- Reduced manual processing overhead by 60% through design and integration of AI-powered chatbots and intelligent recommendation engines — deployed on Azure.
- Led full delivery lifecycle across multiple concurrent programmes — requirements, architecture, development, and Azure production deployment — interfacing directly with government stakeholders.
.NETC#PythonDjangoReactAzureAzure FunctionsSQL ServerGraphQLRabbitMQ -
Senior Software Engineer & Tech Lead
Feb 2016 – Mar 2019 · 3 yrs 1 mo
GTECH Information Technology · Dubai, UAE
Show details- Mediclinic Middle East: Architected a high-availability backend system processing millions of ICD/CPT medical records for concurrent users — optimised to handle individual requests in under 2 seconds with 99.9% uptime SLA.
- GlobalVillage UAE: Architected and delivered the web platform for one of the region's largest visitor attractions, supporting high-traffic seasonal load.
- IBM IoT Project: Built an IoT-connected foosball scoring system for IBM — Raspberry Pi sensors feeding real-time goal events via Python through IBM's IoT platform, with a Node.js + Node-RED backend and NoSQL data layer.
- Guinness World Record Event: Engineered the software and iOS application (Ionic + PHP API) for a Dubai event that broke the Guinness World Record for most energy generated by bicycles.
- Global Women's Forum Dubai: Built a live step-counting pedometer app and API for the forum attended by HH Sheikh Hamdan — participant steps aggregated in real time on the main event screen.
- Computer Vision Donation Box: Developed a motion-detection system using Python and OpenCV for a Ramadan charity installation in Abu Dhabi.
- RTA UAE Captive Portal: Configured and deployed a secure network captive portal for Roads & Transport Authority UAE using Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE) 2.0.
.NETPythonPHPNode.jsNode-REDRaspberry PiOpenCVIonicAzureAWSDockerSQLNoSQLKafkaCisco ISE -
Senior Developer & Tech Lead
2009 – 2016
Previous Senior Roles · UAE & Pakistan
AutoTrader UAE · Time Group Middle East · Invortex Technologies · Next Generation Innovations · Salsoft Technologies
Show details- Delivered software for major brands including RTA UAE, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, UAE National Electronic Security Authority, Michelin, HMD Global, and IBM — across web platforms, government portals, and enterprise integrations.
- Invortex Technologies: allsoppandallsopp.com won "Best New Website in Dubai" at the Terrapinn Internet Show Awards — designed, developed, and launched end-to-end.
- Next Generation Innovations: Built a Facebook application for Martha Stewart's debut on Hallmark Channel (US), reaching a national audience.
- AutoTrader UAE: Led Arabic localisation, mobile website development, and distributed version control (Git) adoption across the engineering team.
- Established early multi-cloud adoption (AWS S3, Google Cloud), implemented fraud prevention (Kount), and introduced the CodeIgniter MVC framework.
PHPCodeIgniterJavaScriptAWSGCPGit
Architecture decisions
Every choice earns its place
Trade-offs I made, and why. Tap a card to see the reasoning.
Projects
Things I've built on my own time, and for the record books
PakAlerts
Community street-safety map for Pakistani cities
A mobile-first, installable web app that maps street-crime alerts across Pakistani cities, combining community reports with incidents read automatically from trusted news sources — in English and Urdu.
Read the story
PakAlerts turns scattered news and community reports into a live risk map, so people can check an area or a route before they go.
Under the hood: a news-ingestion pipeline that reads vetted sources on a schedule, a transparent risk model, vector map tiles, web push alerts, and a staff review panel — all on a lean Node.js + SQLite stack with zero-downtime deploys.
Node.jsSQLitePWADockerCaddyVector Tiles
Cricful.com
Real-time cricket social platform
Conceived, architected, and launched a full-scale cricket social platform using .NET 9 and Blazor, handling real-time sports data at scale.
- Users
- 900+
- Indexed pages
- 5,000+
.NETBlazor
SpeedyCharts
Proprietary Godot / C# bar chart race engine
A custom bar chart race rendering engine built from scratch in C# on Godot — CSV in, cinematic animated video out.
Read the story
Features cinematic cold-open sequences, animated GLSL shader backgrounds, real-time insight tickers, near-miss tension detection, screen shake, and engagement-optimised retention mechanics.
Demonstrates custom engine architecture, real-time rendering pipelines, and data pipeline design.
GodotC#GLSL Shaders
VidScribe
Open-source AI media localisation tool
AI-powered command-line tool that extracts audio from videos and generates subtitles using OpenAI Whisper and GPT-4o, built on .NET 9 and FFmpeg.
.NETC#OpenAI APIsWhisperFFmpeg
HardCredentialsScanner
AI-powered DevSecOps tool
Detects hardcoded secrets and credentials in UiPath RPA workflows using AI-assisted static analysis — addressing a real enterprise security governance gap at scale.
C#.NETNLP
AI-Generated Podcast
Generative AI meets media distribution
End-to-end AI-generated podcast exploring the intersection of generative AI, creativity, and modern media distribution. Published on Spotify.
Read the story
Powered by PodcastGenerator, my open-source tool that turns any text into a full episode with AI: it brainstorms ideas, writes the script, and generates the audio.
C#.NETOpenAI APIs
Guinness World Record
Most energy generated by bicycles
Engineered the software and iOS application (Ionic + PHP API) for a Dubai event that broke the Guinness World Record — real-time tracking of bike energy output across hundreds of participants.
IonicPHP
IBM IoT Foosball
Real-time goal scoring over IBM's IoT platform
Raspberry Pi sensors feeding real-time goal events via Python through IBM's IoT platform, with a Node.js + Node-RED backend and a NoSQL data layer.
Raspberry PiPythonNode.jsNode-REDNoSQL
Computer Vision Donation Box
Ramadan charity installation, Abu Dhabi
Motion detection with Python and OpenCV — Raspberry Pi cameras detect a donor's presence and trigger contextual video content.
PythonOpenCVRaspberry Pi
Technical spectrum
The toolbox
Pick a skill to light up every role and project where I used it.
Data Engineering
Architecture
AI & Agentic Stack
Software Engineering
Cloud & DevOps
Game & Engine Dev
Writing & community
Thinking out loud
Medium Featured · 11 days ago
Stop Building a Data Pipeline for Every New Data Source
A recurring data-engineering trap, and the configuration-driven pattern that replaces one-pipeline-per-source.
Medium Featured · 7 days ago
I Built PakAlerts Because Knowing What Is Happening Around You Matters
Why I built a community street-safety map for Pakistan instead of waiting for someone else to.
Medium Featured
Architect's Calculator: The Simple Math That Kills Unnecessary Complexity
A practical decision framework (Risk = Probability × Impact) that challenges over-engineering in enterprise teams.
Medium · 11 months ago
Why Most Projects Fail: The Two-Sided Coin
Gathering requirements is the cornerstone of every problem, be it a task, project, or whatever you want to call it. And arguably, this is the most important step. Well, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Medium · 9 months ago
The State of Web Development
I’ve been building software long enough to see the same pattern repeat itself again and again. New tools arrive, people panic, roles are declared dead. Then, slowly, the industry adapts, and what actually changes is how
Medium · 11 months ago
Why Most Projects Fail: The Two-Sided Coin
Gathering requirements is the cornerstone of every problem, be it a task, project, or whatever you want to call it. And arguably, this is the most important step. Well, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Medium · 9 months ago
The State of Web Development
I’ve been building software long enough to see the same pattern repeat itself again and again. New tools arrive, people panic, roles are declared dead. Then, slowly, the industry adapts, and what actually changes is how
Recognition & learning
Awards, education, certifications
Game Changer AwardChalhoub Group
Most Valuable Person AwardChalhoub Group
Best New Website in DubaiTerrapinn Internet Show Awards
allsoppandallsopp.com, built at Invortex Technologies
BS in Computer Science
Newports Institute of Communications and Economics
Continuous learning
- Deep Learning Specialization · Coursera
- Machine Learning & AI Fundamentals · Coursera
- Software Architecture Specialization · Udemy
- Foundational C# with Microsoft · freeCodeCamp / Microsoft
- Complete C# Masterclass · Udemy
Contact
Let's build something that lasts.
Architecture reviews, principal and lead roles, AI and data platform work, or just a good engineering conversation.