Job Purpose
- Lead the organization’s centralized Product Development & Innovation function by driving the complete lifecycle of new product development from identifying market opportunities and evaluating technical feasibility to prototype development, testing, commercialization and standardization across all business verticals.
Company Background
- Leading capital goods manufacturer and technology provider.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and manage the complete product development lifecycle from concept to commercialization, ensuring alignment with business and technical objectives.
- Identify new product opportunities based on customer requirements, market trends, competitor analysis, and global business inputs.
- Evaluate technical and manufacturing feasibility, design optimization, manufacturability, cost, quality, and customer requirements.
- Plan, manage, and coordinate multiple product development projects across cross-functional teams.
- Lead engineering design, product development, prototype creation, guidance for fabrication, testing, validation, and product performance evaluation.
- Define and drive the prototype development process to identify and eliminate design, performance, and manufacturability risks before production.
- Oversee design, engineering analysis, fabrication, and testing of mechanically fabricated and rotating process equipment, ensuring reliability, performance, and compliance with applicable standards.
- Guide manufacturing teams during prototype fabrication, industrialization and commercialization.
- Standardize successful products into commercially scalable product families.
- Develop innovative and customer-specific solutions across all business verticals.
- Collaborate closely with global engineering teams on product development initiatives.
- Coordinate with procurement, vendors, manufacturing partners, consultants, and external technical experts during product development.
- Support customer trials, site visits, application engineering and post-trial product improvements.
- Support patent filing and intellectual property protection for new innovations.
- Monitor emerging technologies, industry trends, and competitor developments.
- Represent the organization at national and international technical exhibitions to identify future technologies and product opportunities.
- Support all functions and departments for new product development and existing product modifications.
- Prepare project estimates and manage development projects within approved budgets.
- Present innovative product concepts and business cases to management for approval and development.
Key skills & experience
Product Development & Innovation
- Proven experience managing the complete product development lifecycle, from concept generation and prototyping through testing, industrialization and commercialization.
- Strong mechanical design and engineering fundamentals, including engineering calculations, drafting, engineering analysis, and manufacturing feasibility assessments.
- Expertise in developing, validating, and commercializing innovative products and customer-specific solutions.
- Understanding of the process and ability to translate customer requirements into commercially viable products.
- Strong focus on product innovation, technology development, standardization and commercialization.
Rotating Equipment
- Strong knowledge of rotating process equipment and its application in industrial manufacturing and process industries.
- Excellent understanding of drives, motors, gearboxes, mechanical seals, and associated rotating machinery, including design, operation, troubleshooting, maintenance and performance optimization.
- Experience in rotating equipment design and product development.
Manufacturing, Fabrication & Industrialization
- Strong background in fabrication engineering, fabrication methods, machining, manufacturing processes and mechanically fabricated equipment.
- Proven ability to optimize designs for manufacturability, quality, reliability & cost-effectiveness.
- Experience in prototype engineering, testing, manufacturing engineering and product industrialization.
Design Tools & Engineering Analysis
- Working knowledge of AutoCAD, Inventor, or equivalent 2D/3D CAD software.
- Proficiency in interpreting FEA and CFD simulation results.
- Strong capability in engineering analysis, technical documentation & design validation.
Engineering Standards & Compliance
- Strong knowledge of ASME, IS, ANSI, ASTM, API, TEMA, European Codes, and other relevant international engineering standards applicable to pressure vessels, piping, structures and mechanical equipment.
Technical Leadership & Business Acumen
- Strong cross-functional project management and technical leadership capabilities.
- Experience in project cost estimation, budget management, and cost optimization.
- Ability to work with external consultants, technology partners, and vendors to support product development initiatives.
- Experience researching market trends, evaluating competitive products, identifying new product opportunities and presenting business cases to management.
- Awareness of patents and intellectual property considerations in product development.
Behavioral Competencies
- Innovation mindset with strong technical curiosity and out-of-the-box thinking.
- Customer-centric approach with a commercial mindset.
Strong problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making abilities. - Leadership, ownership, and stakeholder management skills.
- Effective cross-functional collaboration and mentoring capability.
- Adaptability, strategic thinking, and attention to detail.
Critical Success Factors
- Demonstrated track record in innovation and new product development.
- Strong expertise in rotating equipment, mechanical design and engineering analysis
- Ability to convert customer needs into commercially successful products.
- Deep understanding of manufacturing feasibility, prototyping and commercialization.
- Capability to work across multiple product categories and business verticals.
- Exposure to global engineering collaboration and technology development environments is desirable.
Qualification & Experience
- ME / M. Tech in Mechanical Engineering with 15–20 years of relevant experience in product development, engineering, and innovation.
- Mandatory experience with rotating process equipment.
- Experience in prototype development, testing and commercialization.
- Exposure to both engineering and manufacturing environments is preferred.
- Candidates from Global Capability Centres (GCCs) may be considered if they demonstrate strong product development and innovation capabilities.
