Project Head / Industrial Water & Wastewater EPC

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Job description: Principal Projects

Indra Water • Mumbai • Reports to the Chief Operating Officer • Full time, permanent

About the role

Indra treats industrial wastewater with electricity instead of chemicals. Our patented ElectroX reactor sits at the heart of effluent treatment plants we design, manufacture and commission for manufacturers in India and abroad — food and beverage, pharma, consumer goods, textiles. We have 13 plants in execution today and are building the organisation to deliver 5 project handovers a month.

The Principal – Projects is the senior-most delivery leader at Indra. The role exists so that every project we take comes out on the committed date, within the costed margin, with zero client escalations and zero quality errors — run by a projects organisation that works without founder intervention.

Role

Your role is to build and run Indra’s projects organisation: seven department heads across project management, design and engineering, procurement, manufacturing, quality, logistics and installation and commissioning. You own the gated delivery process — the Project Pathway — from purchase order to signed handover, the scorecard of every position in it, and the outcome of every project in it. You are the single point of accountability for delivery to the client, the executive team and the board.

What success looks like

You will be measured on a published scorecard. In outline:

First six months — the machine is installed. Every live project on a schedule agreed in writing with its client. The four delivery gates live with named signatories. Engineering released within 14 days of every new order. Project Managers and a Design Manager hired and in seat. Escalations stop reaching the founders.

Twelve months — the machine yields. Every project that entered the Pathway after you joined is handed over on the published date, within 5% of costing, with zero client escalations and zero quality errors raised by the client. A run-rate of three or more handovers a month, with the plan to five approved. Zero repeat root causes in the project RCA register.

Responsibilities

1.

Run the Project Pathway. Chair the weekly gate review across all live projects: costing co-sign before PO, Engineering Release at PO + 14 days, Gate-Out from factory with QC sign-off, Gate-In and handover with the client’s signature. No gate is skipped without your written override.

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2.

Own every project outcome. Publish the schedule and cost baseline for each project at PO; track both to handover; carry the liquidated-damage, margin and escalation outcome of every project as your own.

3.

Lead the seven department heads. Set and review each manager’s scorecard monthly. Hire, develop and, where needed, replace. Complete the critical-hire plan — twelve positions — within your first three months.

4.

Reset the projects in flight. Within 30 days, a written recovery schedule agreed with each client for every live site; within 60 days, the exposure on each quantified and capped.

5.

Close the loop on every miss. Every missed goal has a root-cause analysis within 48 hours; you review the register weekly; a root cause that repeats is yours.

6.

Be the client’s escalation point. Above the Project Manager, and the last one before the COO. Clients, execution partners and the sales team route delivery matters through you.

7.

Report to the COO monthly on schedule, cost, escalations, quality and safety for the portfolio — with the numbers, not the narrative.

What we look for (attitude first)

We hire for attitude, not just skill. Skills can be taught; attitude cannot. The right candidate demonstrates:

Self-initiative — has built a delivery process somewhere without being asked to, and can show the before and after

A hardworking approach — sees thirteen live sites through to handover, not just the easy ones

A self-starting mindset — publishes a date and defends it; refuses a PO before engineering is released, in writing, and is proved right

Critical and analytical thinking — reads a cost baseline and an RCA register and fixes the process, not the project; decides on evidence, not opinion

And, specific to this role: comfortable being scored monthly on a published scorecard, and scoring others the same way.

Desired candidate profile

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Chemical, Civil or Environmental Engineering; a management qualification is a plus, not a requirement

12–18 years in industrial water or wastewater EPC, industrial process EPC (pharma or F&B utilities) or packaged-equipment OEMs

Delivered 20 or more projects a year, or a portfolio of 50 Cr or more, from purchase order to client handover

Owned margin or a P&L for a delivery business

Led multi-discipline teams — design, procurement, manufacturing, QC, logistics and site — across multiple concurrent sites

Has hired, developed and removed managers

Export project experience (South-East Asia, Middle East) is a plus

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Competencies required

Gated project delivery (stage-gate / release-to-buy) and schedule control across engineering, procurement, manufacturing and site

Cost baselining and margin control at project level

Reading P&IDs, layouts, BOQs and costing sheets well enough to challenge them

Client and partner management at plant-head and procurement-head level

Building and running scorecards, registers and RCA loops Our commitment to you. This role is 100% Projects. From your first month the founders step out of the project site groups and route client matters through you. You run the delivery system; the Execution Manager and the Project Managers run the sites.

Perks and benefits

Industry type: Waste water treatment (ETP / STP / ZLD)

Functional area: Project delivery and operations leadership

Employment type: Full time, permanent

Location: Mumbai, with travel to project sites across India and occasional export sites