About
My story
I'm Mohamed (Mo) Eltahir, a senior software engineer based in Gent, Belgium, with a Belgian work permit. I work across full-stack product engineering, cloud and DevOps, identity and access management, and application security.
I studied Computer Science at the University of Debrecen in Hungary. My BSc thesis, RF-LAB, is a web interface for hardware-based physical penetration testing tools such as the Proxmark3 and the Chameleon Mini.
Before Belgium I built websites for clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oslo. In Liège I joined Cytomine, working on digital pathology microservices for an on-premise deployment with 20,000+ active users. In Gent I then worked at ToquaAI and Qargo on cloud platforms, identity federation and data-heavy back ends.
As founder, COO and CTO of Fonda, I led the platform for Reef National Foundation in Saudi Arabia, which serves 500,000+ users. I also led AI implementation for Mentra AI, which won 1st place in the AI League hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Sport, SDAIA and the Center of Digital Entrepreneurship.
I care about secure-by-default systems, clear specifications and fast, accessible software. This site ships zero JavaScript.
How I work
Discovery
Understand the users, the constraints and what success looks like before writing code.
Planning & design
Write the spec, choose the architecture and agree on budgets for security, performance and cost.
Development
Ship in small, reviewed, tested steps, with security checks in the pipeline from day one.
Deployment, handover & aftercare
Automate the deploy, add observability, document it, and stay around until the team owns it.
Experience
Jan 2026 – Oct 2026
Senior Software Engineer
Qargo · Gent, Belgium
Aug 2024 – Jan 2026
Senior Software Engineer & DevOps
ToquaAI · Gent, Belgium
Dec 2023 – Aug 2026
Founder, COO & CTO of Fonda (delivery agency)
Reef National Foundation · Saudi Arabia
Sep 2023 – Aug 2024
Software Engineer
Cytomine · Liège, Belgium
Jan 2023 – Nov 2023
Full-stack engineer
Confidential client · E-commerce, Antwerp
Nov 2021 – Jan 2022
Full Stack Web Developer (contractor)
LimeLightr · Oslo, Norway
Jul 2021
Web Developer (private contract)
EmSAT prep e-learning site · Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dec 2017 – Feb 2018
Junior Web Developer
Rouckanbill Inc. · Dubai, UAE
Skills
- Languages
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Python
- Java
- Go
- C
- PHP
- Groovy
- Bash
- Front end
- React
- Vue
- Svelte
- Astro
- Tailwind CSS
- shadcn
- Bootstrap
- Back end
- FastAPI
- Flask
- FastMCP
- Spring Boot
- Django
- Express
- NestJS
- Gin
- Grails
- Data
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- MySQL
- SQLite
- MinIO
- ElasticSearch
- Hasura
- Testing
- Pytest
- Jest
- JUnit
- Playwright
- Cypress
- Selenium
- Behave
- JMeter
- k6
- DevOps & platform
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Nomad
- Terraform
- AWS
- Azure
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI
- Argo
- Ansible
- RabbitMQ
- Kafka
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Traefik
- AI
- LangChain
- DSPy
- TruLens
- PostHog
- Datadog
- Security
- OAuth2/OIDC
- SAML2
- LDAP
- PKI/X.509
- Burp Suite
- Nessus
- Metasploit
- Nmap
- Wireshark
- Ghidra
- MITRE ATT&CK
- ISO 27001
Education & research
BSc Computer Science
University of Debrecen, Faculty of Informatics, Hungary
Graduated: 2019
Thesis: RF-LAB, a web app UI for hardware-based physical penetration testing tools
A Flask web app for teams of physical penetration testers to manage cloned RFID credentials, driving a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, a Proxmark3 RDV and a Chameleon Mini. Supervised by Dr. Adamkó Attila.
Thesis record in the University of Debrecen repository(external link)
Certifications
eJPT (eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester)
eLearnSecurity · Jan 2022
Fortinet NSE 1 & NSE 2
Fortinet · Jun 2021
Languages I speak
- Arabic
- Native or bilingual
- English
- Native or bilingual
- Dutch
- Basic, learning towards B1
- Hungarian
- Basic
- French
- Learning (A1)