Tech without Sugarcoating
A regular column in Bahrain's national newspaper. A transparent take on technology, written the way he talks about it: no fluff, no sugarcoating.
Read the column
Fifteen years building it, before talking about it.
CEO of INFINITEWARE. Google Developer Expert in machine learning. Bahrain's first and only Cyber Security Forensics Arbitrator.
Ameen Altajer founded INFINITEWARE in 2008, the first artificial intelligence company in Bahrain, with a client list that runs to Saudi Aramco, stc, Zain and the government of Bahrain.
His background is unusually wide for the field: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and penetration testing, decentralization, 3D programming and simulation, self-taught electronics and hardware design, and system architecture. More than twelve of those years were spent inside banking technology, which is where most of the unromantic opinions come from.
He trains more than 150 days a year inside banks, regulators and ministries across the Gulf, lectures in Scotland, and has spoken at Google and AWS.
Where he sits now, and what built it.
INFINITEWARE has run since 2008. For most of that time he also held a full-time post, eleven years of it inside BNP Paribas, and the rest across Saudi Aramco and United Gulf Bank.
Now
Google Developer Expert, Machine Learning
Cyber Security Forensics Arbitrator
Official trainer
Lecturer
Standing roles, not one-off engagements.
Before that
Head of Software Engineering and Architecture
Owned the technology vision, engineering and implementation for BNP Paribas across the Middle East, and the architectural decisions behind the bank's business solutions.
- Led a team of seven to eight engineers spanning the MENA region
- Worked with regulators in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain
- Set the technical standards used across corporate products
Senior Information Security Consultant
Approached by BNP Paribas after they saw the cybersecurity work delivered for stc Bahrain. Ran the bank's entire Application Security domain in the Middle East as project manager.
- Security tooling assessment and penetration testing
- Established the security policies for the whole region
Regional Analyst Programmer
Reported to the Regional Head of IT Development. Built and maintained the payment applications, financial reporting and internal tooling the bank ran on, along with the automation around them.
Senior Consultant, System Analyst
Reported to the Deputy President of the EXPEC Advanced Research Center. Sent to California to work inside Oblong Industries on Aramco's behalf, building and testing multi-platform 3D simulation and real-time applications.
- Maintained the code base across applications built in-house and by US vendors
IT Officer
Built the internal software the bank ran on, including check payment, payroll and HR systems, and carried the core banking close of business, backups and restores.
- Built a confidential whistleblowing system for the compliance department
- Ran the virtual and physical server estate and the SQL Server replication to the disaster recovery site
Education
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Communities founded
Founder, Bahrain Game DevelopersTeaching and hosting events for game development in Bahrain.
Founder and organizer, GCC Game Jam and Game ConferenceBahrain's first game development conference, run with Polytechnic Bahrain as part of StartUp Bahrain Week.
Founder and organizer, Linux FreaksThe Linux kernel community in Bahrain.
Certifications
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
Microsoft Certified Professional Developer
Microsoft Certified Professional
Writing that carries a byline.
Contributor
Articles and research on education, governance and technology across the Gulf, published by one of Washington's leading Gulf policy institutes.
Read the researchAlso written by Ameen
- Artificial intelligence as an imperative tool for startups
- AI Offers a New Path for Personalized Education in Bahrain
- Constructing Game Loops
- Sovereign AI, a running newsletter on frontier models and what they mean for the Gulf
- Contributed articles on startups and technology in Bahrain
- Contributed articles
Written about him
- AI sparks concerns, discourse
- Ameen Altajer becomes the second Bahraini declared a Google Developer Expert
- On data and social media
- On crypto regulation in the Gulf
- Artificial intelligence, interviewed for Oxford Business Group and the BCCI
What he actually works on.
Artificial intelligence and automation
Cutting-edge AI put to actual work: where it earns its cost, where it quietly fails, and how to automate a business workflow without pretending the hard parts do not exist.
Cybersecurity
An ethical hacker by background. Cyber offense, penetration testing and defensive posture, from someone who has done all three. Security stopped being optional some time ago.
Decentralization
Fifteen years inside banking, which makes for an unusually unromantic view of blockchain: what it genuinely changes about the financial system, and what it does not.
Game development and 3D simulation
A veteran game programmer and game engine architect. The tooling behind 3D simulation, training environments and games, from someone who built an engine rather than read about one.
Internet of Things and hardware
A hardware engineer as well as a software one, down to microprocessor and silicon design. Useful when a project needs supervision from someone who has physically shipped hardware.
System architecture and reverse engineering
Designing systems that hold up, and taking apart systems that do not. Reverse engineering is an underrated way to understand what software is really doing.
Teaching, in public.
Hard subjects made reachable, across every medium he can get his hands on.
YouTube
Years of experience in short, digestible nuggets. A show that mixes learning with a bit of comedy: #YouGuysGotIt.
Watch on YouTube
Ideas and updates aimed at professionals. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, hacking and security, payments and the global economy.
Connect on LinkedIn
The casual channel. Cyber security, data privacy and live sessions answering questions from people outside the industry.
Follow on Instagram
Podcasts
A frequent guest on local and global shows, on artificial intelligence, security and the business of technology.
Listen
Writing
Sixteen years of essays on artificial intelligence, engineering and the state of the technology industry.
Read the archive