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%