PM Environmental’s Senior Engineer of Site Investigation Services sits down with us to share about his role, as well as some of his thoughts on leadership.

Q: Name, Title, Location 

Jogi Panda, Senior Engineer, Berkley

Q: Tell us a little about your role and what you do. 

• Write engineering proposals and provide solutions to client’s engineering problems
• Review engineering evaluations of data and vapor mitigation and remediation designs
• Develop remediation strategy, develop and review work plans
• Develop engineering practices by developing SOPs, tools, templates, and processes
• Supervise, coach and mentor junior engineering staff
• Serve as the go-to person for all things engineering
• Coordinate engineering projects with SIS, LUST, and Brownfields departments
• Collaborate with Pinchin’s engineering team
• Serve as the compliance lead for storm water and SPCC regulations
• Client management

Q: What’s one thing you wish people knew more about your role?   

The engineering team serves the engineering needs for all service lines, even though it is housed under SIS. The engineering team deals with a wide scope, and often a well-planned day gets interrupted by unexpected high priority client or project requests. Sometimes templates and tools are not available and need to be developed from scratch.  Real-world engineering problems are typically unique and almost always require a unique solution as opposed to a no-brainer or a cookie-cutter solution. Due to these reasons, it is sometimes challenging to accurately predict the time and effort it will take to complete a certain task.

Q: What does a normal day look like for you? 

Long. A typical day in the last 3 years would be: reviewing data evaluations/designs/reports, writing proposals, devising engineering solutions to difficult VI and remediation problems, providing oversight and assistance to junior staff, managing clients, assisting managers across service lines with their engineering questions, and more.

Q: What has been your favorite part about your career? 

Finding innovative solutions to difficult engineering problems.

Q: What is something you wish you had known earlier in your career?

I wish I had convinced myself about the IT boom that was about to occur. I was quite good in computer programming but loved engineering so much that did not opt for the IT field, where the real growth occurred in that last three decades.

Q: What do you keep on your desk?

I have always wanted a clean desk, but that goal keeps slipping away from me.

Q: What do you think makes a great leader?

A great leader, in my opinion, is one who passionately believes in the mission, motivates the team about the mission, and shares the rewards when the mission is accomplished.