Sr. Engineering Manager Thermal

Responsibilities & Role Requirements:

• Lead and develop the local Thermal Management engineering team in Pune and/or Chakan, ensuring strong ownership, accountability and technical excellence.


• Be responsible for the engineering execution of Chilled Water products, including chiller, CRAH and Thermal Wall product lines.


• Support NPDI programs from concept to launch, ensuring timely delivery of engineering deliverables, design reviews, validation plans, cost targets and product documentation.


• Coordinate sustaining engineering activities for existing CW platforms, including product improvements, cost reduction, localization, quality issues and component substitutions.


• Ensure alignment between the regional engineering team and global Chilled Water engineering strategy, standards, design rules and product roadmaps.


• Drive decisions on key technical issues to avoid project delays and to support business priorities, customer commitments and manufacturing readiness.


• Provide technical leadership on thermodynamic design, air/water side performance, refrigeration circuits, controls integration, electrical interfaces and design for manufacturability.


• Coordinate laboratory tests and product validation activities in cooperation with global engineering leaders, test laboratories, quality and operations teams.


• Support regional engineering team and customer-specific requests by ensuring fast, technically robust and platform-consistent engineering responses.


• Review and approve technical documentation including specifications, drawings, bills of material, user manuals, test reports, rating tools and engineering change documentation.


• Ensure compliance with applicable safety, quality, regulatory and engineering standards relevant to CW products and local manufacturing requirements.


• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Quality to support product industrialization, localization, supplier development and resolution of production issues.


• Develop team members through coaching, performance management, technical mentoring and structured capability growth.


• Promote continuous improvement, standard work, engineering discipline, cross-functional collaboration and customer-focused execution.


• Work in a multi-disciplinary and global engineering environment focused on high performance, cost-effective design, product reliability and market-leading innovation.


• Availability to travel on request within India and internationally to support global engineering reviews, supplier activities, customer projects, factories and test facilities.

Qualifications & Experience

• Master degree in Mechanical, Energy, Refrigeration, HVAC or equivalent engineering discipline is required; master’s degree is preferred.


• Minimum 10-15 years of engineering experience in HVAC, data center cooling, refrigeration or industrial thermal products, with proven people management responsibility.


• Strong technical knowledge of chilled water systems, chillers, CRAH units, Thermal Wall solutions, thermodynamics, refrigeration circuits, air handling and hydronic systems.


• Experience with NPDI processes, product lifecycle management, design reviews, validation planning, engineering change management and sustaining engineering.


• Solid understanding of manufacturing processes, design for manufacturability, cost reduction, localization and supplier collaboration.


• Knowledge of applicable technical norms, safety standards, quality requirements and regulatory expectations for industrial cooling equipment.


• Demonstrated leadership skills with the ability to build, motivate and develop high-performing engineering teams in a matrix and global organization.


• Strong communication skills in English, both written and spoken, with the ability to interact effectively with global stakeholders, customers and cross-functional teams.


• Result-oriented, structured, detail-focused and able to operate in a fast-paced, customer-focused and competitive environment.


• Ability to influence without direct authority, manage priorities, resolve technical conflicts and drive decisions across functions and geographies.


• Travel: less than 20%