Mahroof trained as a Civil Engineer from the Regional Engineering College (now NIT) Calicut and as an Urban and Regional Planner from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Mahroof has over 15 years of experience working in varied capacities across Infrastructure consulting, Spatial Solutions, teaching, and research. At CEPT University, he taught postgraduate and undergraduate courses at the Faculty of Planning, and worked with the Performance Assessment System action research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently he heads the Information Services office there. Being a data enthusiast, he was a co-organiser of the Data {Meet} Ahmedabad Chapter, and provided technical support for the damage assessment surveys in three districts during the floods in Kerala in 2018.