Head of Projects

Combustion Research Associates; India; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Combustion Research Associates is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead project delivery in Noida. The ideal candidate will have 12-18 years of experience in managing custom-engineered process equipment projects, owning P&L responsibilities, and directly leading teams. Responsibilities include overseeing project schedules, costs, and quality while ensuring client satisfaction. A B.E./B.Tech in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering is required. This position offers an opportunity to manage complex projects in a rapidly growing sector.

Qualifications

• 12–18 years of project management experience in custom-engineered process equipment manufacturing.
• Proven P&L ownership and direct accountability for project margins.
• Site commissioning experience for process equipment.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of all active projects from purchase order through to site commissioning.
• Track actual costs against budget and drive corrective action.
• Manage vendors and subcontractors against delivery, quality, and cost targets.

Skills

Project management

Client management

Team leadership

Vendor management

Multi-project management

Education

B.E. / B.Tech in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering

Tools

MS Project

Primavera

Job description

Overview

CRA Energy is a Noida-based manufacturer of custom-engineered process equipment for oil & gas, chemical, biogas/CBG, food & beverage, power, mining, and defence sectors. Our product range includes gas flaring systems, thermal oxidisers, vapour combustion units, biogas compression and upgrading skids, gas processing skids, burner management systems, and industrial burners. We deliver across India and to international markets.

The Role

As CRA’s order book grows in volume and complexity — including international deliveries and multi-system packages — we are strengthening our Projects function with senior leadership. This role owns end-to-end project delivery across all active orders, leads and develops the project engineering team, and carries full accountability for schedule, cost, quality, and client satisfaction.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of all active projects: from purchase order through design coordination, procurement, manufacturing, inspection, dispatch, and site commissioning.
• Own project P&L: track actual costs against budget, flag deviations early, and drive corrective action.
• Maintain a consolidated master schedule across all active orders; identify resource conflicts and critical-path risks.
• Serve as the primary client interface during execution: progress updates, inspection coordination, FAT/SAT, change order management, and escalation handling.
• Manage vendors and subcontractors for bought-out items and outsourced fabrication against delivery, quality, and cost targets.
• Coordinate across design engineering, procurement, production, and QA/QC to meet project milestones.
• Build and lead the project engineering team — hiring, onboarding, and developing project engineers as the function scales.
• Plan and oversee site installation and commissioning; manage commissioning crews and client sign-off.
• Establish repeatable project execution processes, templates, and review cadences.

Requirements

Must Have

• B.E. / B.Tech in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering.
• 12–18 years of project management experience in custom-engineered process equipment manufacturing. Relevant backgrounds include: pressure vessels, heat exchangers, fired heaters, flare systems, gas processing skids, thermal oxidisers, scrubbers, boilers, or similar fabricated-to-order capital equipment.
• Proven P&L ownership — direct accountability for project margins, cost tracking, and overrun management.
• Multi-project management: experience running 5–10+ concurrent projects at different execution stages simultaneously.
• Team leadership: directly managed 4+ engineers or coordinators (not just dotted-line or matrix reporting).
• Client-facing credibility: comfortable running progress reviews, handling escalations, and managing client expectations independently.
• Vendor and subcontractor management against schedule, quality, and cost.
• Site commissioning experience for process equipment.
• Structured project tools: MS Project, Primavera, or equivalent; disciplined documentation and reporting.

Preferred

• PMP, PMI, or Prince2 certification.
• Defence sector project experience (DRDO, BrahMos, armed forces).
• ERP-based project tracking experience (SAP, ERPNext, or similar).
• Familiarity with ASME, API, PESO, or CCOE compliance in a project delivery context.
• Leadership role in a growing Projects function — bring structure, raise the bar, and scale the team as order complexity increases.
• Diverse project portfolio: combustion systems, gas processing, biogas, defence— technically varied work across multiple sectors.
• Growing international order book with increasing project complexity.
• Direct access to senior leadership; high ownership and visible impact.