Eight years of utility-scale solar, from a mechanical engineering lecture hall in Lahore to a preconstruction desk in North Carolina. Every chapter below is a real employer, a real degree, and the work that actually happened there, not a bullet list pretending to be a story.
Before the panels, the blueprints.
Thermodynamics, machine design, the unglamorous math everything else gets built on.
Early exposure on both ends of thermal power: waste heat recovery (Kalina cycle) analysis at DG Khan Cement, and gas generation plant operations, control room monitoring, and preventive maintenance at UET Power House.
Three jobs, one direction: from infrastructure generalist to solar specialist.
Supported planning and proposal development on 100 MWp Quaid-e-Azam Solar and 48 MW Jagran II Hydro, two of Pakistan's largest public-sector renewable energy bids. Site assessments and technical/BD documentation across national-scale infrastructure.
PVsyst design and BOQ/proposal work, first team lead role: 4 engineers, 10 technicians, 20+ MW of rooftop, commercial, and BESS installations.
Structural design, site surveys, regulatory approvals across 100+ MW of industrial and commercial PV. Solar became the whole job.
Left the field for the lab, and Pakistan for Oregon.
Thermo-fluid sciences, renewable energy focus, US and international energy policy.
Solar thermal desalination research for hypersaline wastewater, DOE and ARPA-E sponsored. Designed and tested rotating polymer heat exchangers for zero liquid discharge systems. Published in Water Research (2024).
Two jobs, one campaign: re-establish a career from zero, this time in US utility-scale solar.
PVsyst modeling and AC/DC optimization across 220+ MW, RFP and equipment spec analysis to define project scope, and vendor proposal and drawing review for design compliance.
Owned scope definition across design teams, aligning engineering scope and permitting with developers, subcontractors, and AHJs. Built the proposal templates and tracking tools later adopted org-wide during the transition to Enervia. PMP earned January 2025.
Less about doing the engineering now, more about making sure the right engineering gets done.
Full-cycle proposal development, contract negotiation and redlines, and vendor bid-leveling across a 200+ MW active portfolio. Monthly cash flow forecasting to keep multi-year contracts net-positive. 3-person team, reporting directly to the company president.
Still being written. Here's the direction it's headed.