The steroid drug industry is increasingly utilizing microbial biotransformation, employing genetically modified mycobacteria to convert phytosterols into steroid intermediates, with an emphasis on improving yield and purity. This study enhances the production of 9α-hydroxy-4-androstene-3,17-dione (9-OH-AD), a vital C19 steroid intermediate for glucocorticoid synthesis, by genetically modifying Mycobacterium fortuitum ATCC 6842. The study involved the targeted disruption of five 3-ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenase (kstD) genes to prevent Δ1-dehydrogenation. The purity of 9-OH-AD is initially low at 81.85 % due to two main by-products: 9,22-dihydroxy-23,24-bisnorchol-4-ene-3-one (9-OH-HP) and 9,24-dihydroxychol-4-en-3-one (9,24-DHC). To address this, the steroid aldolase (sal) gene was deleted to block the C22 metabolic pathway, which completely eliminated 9-OH-HP and increased the purity of 9-OH-AD to 88.19 %. To further reduce 9,24-DHC levels, acyl-CoA dehydrogenases ChsE1 and ChsE2 were overexpressed. The resulting strain, MFKS_chsE1-chsE2, achieved a high purity of 9-OH-AD at 94.96 %, with a molar yield of 87.17 % from 10 g/L phytosterols, and converted up to 30 g/L of phytosterols into 15.91 g/L of 9-OH-AD. This method effectively enhances both the production and purity of this important steroid intermediate.