Women Achievers – Neema Nair, Cummins India

Could you tell us something about your professional achievements and career progression?  

I have been leading the Design and Analysis Engineering Organization for the Engines Business (EBU) for Cummins India for the past three years. I primarily design and develop engine hardware from concept, through validation and verification, to production as part of new product development and current product support. In addition to this, I have also co-led the efforts on Simulation-Based Product Development (SBPD) for the Engine Business globally by creating the strategy and facilitating the development and usage of simulation in the product development process for medium and heavy-duty engines globally. I am also the Inclusion Champion for the PRIDE employee resource group within Cummins India, the Global Sub-committee leader for the Cummins SWE Executive council and the representative for Cummins on the SWE India Corporate Council.

I have completed my Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, University of Mumbai. I further pursued MSc. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in advanced fluids at the University of Louisville (UofL), US, and was campus recruited into Cummins Inc. I was fortunate to work for more than seven years at Cummins in Columbus, Indiana in Customer Engineering from developing engine calibrations for regions outside the US, to implementing new customer engineering organization structures across the globe.

I moved to India as the Customer Engineering Leader for the complete Engines Business which spanned from 3.3 litre engines to 60 litre engines. Post my second maternity, I moved to lead operations for the hardware development functions.

Professional Achievements Demonstrating Technical Leadership

I started my journey in Cummins as a performance development engineer in Customer Engineering with hands-on application of the combustion and calibration development process and tailoring of existing products for new customers and applications. I found my spot as a hands-on engineer and worked my way up to leading projects on the development of engines from the U.S.A. for global customers, including new emissions product development for regions like Australia and Mexico.

In 2011, I moved to a strategic role, to take customer engineering global. I ran a six-sigma project to develop the strategy to build the global customer engineering team in the US and the functional structure for customer engineering in other regions with technical teams. The strategy and resulting projects gave me an opportunity to interact and grow as a leader, engaging across all the business units, regions, and Cummins leadership.

As the global customer engineering organization developed, I became a global liaison for India, Mexico, Brazil, the US, and South Africa. As a liaison, I helped the regions set up and grow their customer engineering strategy and helped resolve localized customer issues and communicate remotely and in person.

I moved to India in 2014 as the customer engineering functional excellence leader for the region.

After 11 years in customer engineering, I moved to lead the operational engineering organization with the design and analysis functions for the engine business for Cummins India. I work with my counterparts in the US, UK, and China to optimize the use of right engineering resources across multiple product development programs of varying complexity with a combined strategy for efficient and effective use of capacity and capability across the regions.

My core strength lies in focusing on opening communication channels to help build capability and credibility for the organizations in India and the design and analysis functions. My vision for product development through greater use of simulation vocalized the global voices in the same direction and was evolved into a global initiative on optimized product development through simulation in 2019. I now lead the effort for the India technical organization and co-lead Simulation-Based Product Development for the engine business globally. This has more than doubled the intellectual property and innovation from my teams over the last 3 years.

In the process of expanding, I have groomed the managers and team members to become leaders and role models to the rest of the organization. Under my guidance, the technical expertise in teams has expanded to be on par with global expertise in many arenas while leading the way in some new and upcoming areas like performance and simulation-based analytics. I am a big believer in team-based work systems and am a certified trainer and vocal sponsor of the same. I sponsor the health and safety efforts for the employees in the Engine Business Engineering organization and co-lead the middle management development program.

What are the attributes that helped you to reach where you are in your career?

One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle for me has been discovering myself in the process of growing in the company. There are several people who are vouching for you and pushing you to succeed in places, you are not even sure about. The most incredible part has been the enjoyment of working for a company where I feel my values and that of the company are aligned. Having seen success in leaders who walk the talk has inspired me to do the same and aim more for myself, the people around me, and the product. It makes me want to do lasting and great things.

How far have you succeeded in challenging the stereotypes?

Honestly, when I started, I didn’t even see the stereotypes. I think partly I refused to see them. But, I had great leaders who pushed me to be more aware of my environment and myself. For me to lead with courage for those who may not have all the privileges I have, this has become my purpose – to help people achieve their potential, wherever it might lead them. To help people believe in themselves, beyond the stereotypes and biases. I am a woman mechanical engineer who is an engineering leader in the manufacturing industry, who has kids and a family and believes in the goodness of the world. We are all unique – we need to believe we do not fit any stereotype.

In both essential and digital functions, women suffered the repercussions of the economic and social effects of the pandemic. Your comments.

There is a lot of research and data on the increased impact on women in the workforce due to the pandemic. The SWE research on the COVID impact on women in STEM in India showed in addition to the physical impact of increased work in creating a delicate balance between work and the quarantined home, women were mentally stressed about losing work opportunities and quitting. There was a call for companies to re-emphasize their stance on maintaining and growing their diversity focus while the world waged a war against a virus. Cummins took many such stances including working out the long-term dynamics of the new ways of working that looked very different from its last 100 years. Community focussed programs like Cummins Powers Women and Nurturing Brilliance continued to remain in focus while programs like “It’s OK” were launched to focus on the mental health of the employees working from home.

What’s the message you want to send to young working women?

A career is more than a job – you are allowed to have good and bad years. Don’t let this get to you as you are not alone. The job I do means more to me every day, the sense of accomplishment gives me wind beneath my wings. It allows you to grow as a woman and a human every day. Ask for the help you need to make this happen.