ISRO, U R Rao Satellite Centre | Bengaluru

Project Manager (Mechanical Systems-Gaganyaan) - ISRO, U R Rao Satellite Centre

• Led system engineering of India's first human-rated spacecraft (₹500 crore Service Module within a ₹5,500 crore programme), directing 20+ teams and 100+ engineers across 6 centres to finalise architecture, trade-offs and integration through to the first crewed mission
• As Member Secretary of an 8-expert docking committee, led India's delegation in joint-venture negotiations with NASA and ESA, securing ESA's Letter of Intent (May 2025) for joint development of an international docking system for India's crew module
• Drove budget planning (₹500 crore), procurement strategy and master scheduling (WBS/PERT) across 20+ teams, maintaining zero critical-path slippage over a multi-year programme including COVID-19 lockdowns
• Delivered 250+ flight-qualified avionics housings (₹20 crore) across four mission variants under zero-fault-tolerance conditions, managing a multi-vendor supply chain
• Established India's first digital Configuration Control Board for human spaceflight (Siemens Teamcenter PLM), achieving 100% change traceability

Project Manager (NISAR) & Design Engineer - Spacecraft Mechanisms (Chandrayaan-2 Rover)

• Held end-to-end ownership of all four Chandrayaan-2 Moon rover mechanisms (₹978 crore mission), leading a 5-member team from design to flight clearance and delivering Engineering, Qualification and Flight models with all tests passed
• Diagnosed a critical rover mechanism anomaly mid-programme; root-cause redesign eliminated a 1.5 kg counterweight on the 25 kg rover (6% mass saving, ~₹1 crore cost saving) with zero schedule impact
• Project-managed a mission-critical mechanism (₹2 crore) on the $1 billion NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite, driving requirements to an optimised design that deployed successfully on orbit after the 2025 launch
• Drove a 5x production scale-up of ISRO's in-house paraffin actuator (4 to 20 units/year) with no new capital investment, achieving 100% on-orbit success across 5 satellite missions
• Led vendor selection and price negotiation to transition mechanism production (12 satellites, ₹15 crore) from ISRO to L&T, helping build India's private aerospace supply chain

Quality Assurance Engineer - Spacecraft Mechanisms & Integration

• Served as quality gatekeeper for 10+ satellite programmes (over ₹2,000 crore) spanning India's strategic space infrastructure (IRNSS, GSAT-7, AstroSat, Mars Orbiter Mission), with zero on-orbit failures across all cleared mechanisms
• Cleared 19 solar array deployment mechanisms for flight with zero quality failures and 100% on-orbit deployment success
• Led QA surveillance through assembly, integration and test for Mangalyaan (₹450 crore), the mission that made India the first country to reach Mars on its debut attempt (2014)
• Conducted FMECA and FTA reliability analyses and drove Non-Conformance Report closure to board sign-off, reducing programme risk through corrective action

• ⁠ Led system engineering of a ₹500 cr human-rated Service Module (₹5,500 cr programme), directing 100+ engineers across 6 centres
• ⁠ Brokered the ISRO-ESA Letter of Intent (May 2025) for joint docking-system development, negotiating with NASA and ESA
• ⁠ Delivered a mission-critical mechanism on the $1 billion NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite; deployed on orbit successfully (2025)
• ⁠ Removed 1.5 kg from the 25 kg Chandrayaan-2 Moon rover (6% mass, ~₹1 cr saved) through a root-cause redesign
• ⁠ Cleared 19 solar array deployment mechanisms for flight with zero on-orbit failures, across 10+ satellites (₹2,000 cr+)
• ⁠ Delivered QA clearance for Mars Orbiter Mission mechanisms (₹450 cr) through assembly, integration and test
• ⁠ Delivered 250+ flight-qualified avionics housings (₹20 cr) under zero-fault-tolerance conditions
• ⁠ Cut Gaganyaan orbital mass by 10% in a record 6 months; scaled actuator output 5x (4 to 20/yr) at 100% on-orbit success
• ⁠ Established India's first digital Configuration Control Board for human spaceflight, achieving 100% change traceability
• ⁠ Published 6 papers (2015-2026), including ESMATS 2025 (Europe), First Prize at IEEE SPACE 2024, and the latest in Springer proceedings (NCRS 2025)

• ⁠ B.Tech (Aerospace Engineering), IIST Thiruvananthapuram, on full Government of India scholarship

• ⁠ GMAE-09, General Management (Aerospace), IIM Bangalore & Toulouse Business School, France
• ⁠ Project Management; Structural Analysis & Design Optimization; Vibration & Noise Control; French Language — Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), IISc Bengaluru

• ⁠ Reviewed a human-spaceflight startup pitch under IIMA Ventures — evaluated technology readiness, business model and go-to-market strategy
• ⁠ Participated in the INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC-2024); won $1,000 in AWS credits
• ⁠ Life Member, INSARM (Indian National Society for Aerospace and Related Mechanisms)