From oil and gas in India to life science engineering in Ireland – Sajan Kumar’s journey with NIRAS
Not knowing that working for a Danish company was something that would be symptomatic of his career, Sajan started as a mechanical engineer in 2003 in India with a company founded by Danish engineers working with shipyards and consultancies.
In 2017, he and his wife made the decision to move to Ireland to start a life there, and Sajan spent the first few years working different jobs for smaller consultancies. In 2019, he joined Dolmen Engineering, now NIRAS, where his focus initially was on shipbuilding, marine piping, and industrial piping.
From one corner of the world to another
Moving from India’s hot and humid climate to Ireland’s green hills is a big change, but to Sajan’s benefit, he had experience working with international clients in India, which made the transition to Ireland easier. He also finds it easy to work with his Irish and Scandinavian colleagues, because as he says:
“We’re all quite different, and people come from all over, so we focus on communicating well and on the human interaction side. That’s our method of success, trying to understand everyone’s point of view and realising that our differences make us stronger. When you understand how to interact, you will get the results you need.”
Coming to Ireland also meant stepping away from the ship-building and oil and gas business. However, Sajan quickly discovered that the life science industry was booming here and that the work that’s needed on piping engineering and design is vast and not about to diminish anytime soon.
“The capital spending is palpable and the life science industry is being boosted by heavy investments. This is especially true for Ireland, where NIRAS and many other companies involved in life science development and manufacturing have been building business for decades, so you have the benefit of both an established market and a historic perspective and experience”.
“We’re all quite different, and people come from all over, so we focus on communicating well and on the human interaction side. That’s our method of success, trying to understand everyone’s point of view and realising that our differences make us stronger. When you understand how to interact, you will get the results you need.”
Branching out and growing big
Since joining NIRAS, Sajan has seen a development in how new clients are added to the portfolio and just a general increase in capacity. To him, being part of an international company presents more opportunities and provides for even more diversity and meeting new colleagues who bring different skills and approaches to challenges to the table, something which is a great strength in his eyes.
“NIRAS works with large-scale clients both in Ireland, Denmark, and throughout Europe, and due to the size and number of colleagues, we have skills and expertise across the line, which makes for a larger capacity as one, and more strength. We have a great collaboration with the Danish teams, and people know each other across the Irish/Danish/European branches. We’re on a growth track together, and it’s really interesting being part of that journey, both professionally and personally”.
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