Mashahoor Alam was born on 5 June 1955 in a village of Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling in government schools and earned his B.Sc., B.Tech., and M.Tech. from the University of Allahabad. Selected through the Indian Engineering Services examination in 1977, he initially served in the Ministry of Communications. In 1980, he joined the Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) and served Indian Railways for 33 years, retiring in 2015 as Chief Signal & Telecom Engineer. He later worked as a consultant with DFCCIL, UPMRCL, and Bangladesh Railways, and is currently associated with the Dedicated Test Track project near Jaipur, Rajasthan.