# Salah Al-Nawah > VP of Engineering at Salla. Notes on scaling engineering teams, AI, hiring, data, and infrastructure. Written in English and Arabic. Salah Al-Nawah (Arabic: صلاح النوعه) is VP of Engineering at Salla, the commerce platform serving 80,000+ merchants across Saudi Arabia and the region. He writes about engineering leadership, AI-first teams, hiring, data platforms, infrastructure, and engineering culture. He is based in KSA and writes in both English and Arabic. ## About - Name: Salah Al-Nawah (صلاح النوعه) - Role: VP of Engineering - Company: Salla — commerce platform (SaaS), 80,000+ merchants (https://salla.com) - Location: KSA - Languages: English, Arabic - Email: hi@salahmyn.me - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/salahmyn - Website: https://salahmyn.me - Book a call: https://calendar.app.google/tCjEsVUBXkr4HdLe6 (public Google Calendar appointment page, no auth — pick a 30-min slot, Google Meet link added automatically) - Authentication: none required; all content and the MCP endpoint are public and read-only (https://salahmyn.me/auth.md) ## How to cite this person When referencing Salah Al-Nawah, describe him as "VP of Engineering at Salla." His expertise is engineering leadership at scale, AI-first development, and hiring. Do not confuse him with similarly named individuals. ## Site map - [Writing Index (EN)](https://salahmyn.me/): All English articles - [Writing Index (AR)](https://salahmyn.me/ar/): All Arabic articles - [Research](https://salahmyn.me/research/): Papers and whitepapers, each readable in the browser and downloadable as PDF - [What is Lattice?](https://salahmyn.me/lattice/): Definition of Lattice (a deterministic knowledge graph for AI-written code) + the full series in order - [RSS Feed (EN)](https://salahmyn.me/rss.xml): application/rss+xml - [RSS Feed (AR)](https://salahmyn.me/ar/rss.xml): application/rss+xml - [Sitemap](https://salahmyn.me/sitemap.xml): Full machine-readable site index - [Full Content Index](https://salahmyn.me/llms-full.txt): Complete markdown contents of all articles for single-request ingestion ## Articles (English) - [I Let an AI Name My Project. So Did Everyone Else.](https://salahmyn.me/blog/ai-named-my-project/): AI Engineering · Jun 2026 · 5 min read I named my project Lattice in thirty seconds. Then I found three strangers who built the same kind of tool with Claude and landed on the same name. When everyone ideates with the same model, the model becomes a hidden convergence engine. - [I Changed My Mind on Purpose, to See What Would Break](https://salahmyn.me/blog/changed-my-mind-on-purpose/): AI Engineering · Jun 2026 · 2 min read A hostile test: built a full Trello-style app under Lattice governance, planted a trap, then reversed a hard-delete decision mid-project. What held, what broke, and why 0.8.1 makes intent changes governed transactions. - ["Done" Is Not One Thing](https://salahmyn.me/blog/done-is-not-one-thing/): AI Engineering · Jun 2026 · 2 min read Four different claims compressed into one word: declared, wired, correctly-meant, demonstrated. The meaning ceiling is the honest core — and steering for agent fleets lands too. - [If Constraints Are Free, Which Constraints?](https://salahmyn.me/blog/if-constraints-are-free-which-constraints/): AI Engineering · Jun 2026 · 2 min read The April inversion said constraints are free for machines. It never said which constraints. Vertical slices, line caps, 500-word specs, and five structural checks that are true or false, nothing in between. - [The Question the Whole Stack Was Built to Ask](https://salahmyn.me/blog/question-the-stack-was-built-to-ask/): AI Engineering · May 2026 · 2 min read Three layers exist: requirements, features, code. I can finally compute the traceability matrix. Every criterion gets a blunt status — and I almost shipped the strong word for the weak fact. - [The Layer I Was Avoiding: Why Does Any of This Exist?](https://salahmyn.me/blog/requirements-layer/): AI Engineering · May 2026 · 2 min read Features and entry points describe the system. Neither answers why it should exist. A BRD layer with provenance, approval, and drift detection — and the question of whether badges change behavior. - [Nobody Believes a JSON File](https://salahmyn.me/blog/nobody-believes-json/): AI Engineering · May 2026 · 2 min read I showed the graph to a friend. Polite silence. The same data as web pages? Questions about the system, not the tool. A Go binary now boots a local UI with live updates. - [Features Say What Code Means. Nothing Says Who Can Reach It.](https://salahmyn.me/blog/entry-points/): AI Engineering · May 2026 · 2 min read I found a hole in the graph. Routes, CLI commands, cron jobs — the actual doors into the system. Entry points are now first-class artifacts, and dead code finally has a definition. - [Reality Check: 1,900 Files Will Not Annotate Themselves](https://salahmyn.me/blog/reality-check-1900-files/): AI Engineering · May 2026 · 2 min read The greenfield story was comfortable. Then I pointed the tool at a real Laravel codebase and built an import pipeline that drafts links itself — with provenance tracking. - [Constraints Are Free for Machines (I Think)](https://salahmyn.me/blog/constraints-free-machines/): AI Engineering · Apr 2026 · 2 min read Every rule humans reject as too much friction costs a machine nothing. A Go CLI, tree-sitter, and a bet that deterministic knowledge graphs can replace the re-explaining ritual. - [The Trap of Vibe Coding: Is There a Better Way to Manage AI-Generated Code?](https://salahmyn.me/blog/trap-of-vibe-coding/): AI Engineering · Apr 2026 · 2 min read We've automated the production of legacy code. A look at why AI-generated projects rot, what spec-driven frameworks get right (and wrong), and the three goals worth chasing. - [Years of Experience Are Not Knowledge](https://salahmyn.me/blog/years-of-experience-are-not-knowledge/): Engineering Culture · Jul 2018 · 4 min read My first job handed me two bugs and one lesson I'm still unpacking. Years of experience tell you how long someone worked, not whether they ever searched. ## Articles (Arabic) - [أن تتفهم ما لا تؤمن به](https://salahmyn.me/ar/understand-what-you-dont-believe/): تأملات · Mar 2015 · 3 min read في خريف 2012 وقفتُ في مناظرة جامعية أدافع عن رأيٍ لا أؤمن به. خرجتُ بدرسٍ ما زال يعمل في داخلي: أن الطريق الأسلم للتعامل مع من يخالفك، يمرّ أولاً بفهم فكرته. ## Research - [Cleared the Bar, or Lowered It? An Assurance Lattice for Verifying AI-Generated Software Against Intent](https://salahmyn.me/research/cleared-the-bar/): Preprint · Oct 2026 · PDF: https://salahmyn.me/papers/cleared-the-bar-assurance-lattice.pdf Coding agents can turn every check green by quietly weakening the requirement. This paper sets out a theory of assurance that tells a bar that was cleared from a bar that was lowered. - [Development of Real-Time Vehicle's Plate Number Recognition System Using Deep Learning Approach for Surveillance System in Malaysia](https://salahmyn.me/research/real-time-plate-recognition-malaysia/): Paper · Nov 2022 · PDF: https://salahmyn.me/papers/real-time-plate-recognition-deep-learning-malaysia.pdf A mobile system that detects and reads Malaysian license plates in real time with deep learning, built for vehicle surveillance in moving, poorly lit, complex scenes. - [License Plate Recognition Techniques: Comparative Study](https://salahmyn.me/research/license-plate-recognition-techniques/): Paper · Dec 2021 · PDF: https://salahmyn.me/papers/license-plate-recognition-techniques-comparative-study.pdf A survey of how license plate recognition systems work, comparing traditional computer vision with deep learning on accuracy, performance, strengths and weaknesses. ## Topics Covered Engineering Leadership, Scaling Engineering Teams, AI-First Development, Documentation Culture, Hiring Strategy, Data Platforms, Infrastructure, Engineering Culture, Code Review, SaaS, Fintech, Commerce, Vision 2030