Akmal has an MSc in Naval Architecture from Newcastle University and is an Associate Member of RINA and a Member of the Society of Consulting Marine Surveyors. He is experienced in performing comprehensive mooring design and analysis, Third Party Verification (TPV) review of marine structures and marine renewable technology, floating platform design, and  marine structures design. He has a good understanding of the standards used for mooring design and review and the Common Structural Rules for structural strength and fatigue assessment. He is competent in stability and lightship assessments for small workboats and assessment of structural design requirements.

He is experienced in using specialist maritime and engineering software such as Inventor and ProteusDS for design and analysis tasks. Other specialist maritime software that he has experience using included ANSYS, MAXSURF and AutoCAD. He is experienced in research and development techniques and he also conducts ballast sampling work on inbound tankers into Scapa Flow. He is an active volunteer as a Coastguard Rescue Officer (CRO) with the HM Coastguard SAR service in Kirkwall.