finagra
Agricultural Engineer - India Location: All India. Based in Bengaluru, with project sites across the country and extensive travel. Employment: Full-time Function: AgOps, working closely with Agronomy and Supply Chain Reports to: Head AgOps About FinAgra FinAgra is building a new model for commercial agriculture in emerging markets. We combine financing, agronomy, technology, and farm operations to turn underperforming farmland into professionally managed, productive farming businesses. About the Role FinAgra is looking for an Agricultural Engineer to own two engineering pillars at our project sites: irrigation and mechanisation. You will decide how water reaches each crop and how every mechanised operation in the crop calendar gets done, from land preparation through harvest and post-harvest handling. This hands-on technical role spans horticulture and agri crops. You will assess fields and existing infrastructure, design and specify the systems and machinery each site needs, evaluate supplier proposals on technical merit, supervise installation and commissioning, keep everything running through the season, and train REPs and operators to use it properly. Quotations, negotiation and supplier selection sit with the supply chain team, with whom you'll work closely. What You Will Do Site assessment Survey each new project site for topography, soil type, water source, quality, discharge and availability, and determine irrigation requirements for the crop and acreage. Assess existing irrigation infrastructure and machinery at or near the site — REP-owned, locally hired, or available through custom hiring centres — and determine what can be reused, upgraded, or must be brought in. Irrigation design Match the irrigation method to crop economics. For high-value crops, specify the system that maximises yield, uniformity and fertigation control, justifying higher capital cost per acre. For low-value and bulk crops, design the lowest-cost workable system that still delivers adequate, timely water. Cost is optimised against crop value, but water adequacy is never compromised. Select and justify the irrigation method for each site on agronomic and technical grounds: drip (inline and online), sprinkler, micro-sprinkler, rain gun, mini-sprinkler, furrow and surface, and, where relevant, centre pivot or semi-permanent portable systems. Prepare hydraulic designs, layouts and Bills of Quantity: mainlines, sublines, laterals, emitters and spacing, filtration (screen, disc, sand, hydrocyclone), venturi and fertigation units, valves, air-release and flush assemblies, pump and motor sizing, and head-loss calculations. Design for relocatability wherever crop and inter-row spacing allow, maximising salvage value of laterals, sublines and filters when a system moves sites. Work with Agronomy to convert crop nutrition plans into workable fertigation schedules, including injection rates, compatibility and timing. Mechanisation planning and deployment Build each site's mechanisation plan: the full sequence of machine operations for the crop and season, implements required at each stage, and the field capacity and timing needed. Cover the full crop cycle: ploughing, harrowing, rotavation, levelling, ridging and bed forming, sowing and planting, inter-cultivation and weed management, earthing up, fertiliser application, plant protection spraying, harvesting, digging and threshing, and post-harvest handling. Match implements to available tractor power and field conditions: horsepower, PTO speed, hitch category, hydraulic capacity, tyre and ground-pressure considerations, soil type and moisture. Schedule machine and operator deployment across sites so time-critical operations — sowing, spraying, harvest — happen within their window. Set operating standards and SOPs for each operation (depth, speed, spacing, calibration, finish quality) and check field work against them. Recommend mechanisation options that reduce labour dependence and cost per acre Maintenance, repair and troubleshooting Own preventive maintenance for all irrigation systems and machinery: service schedules, flushing and filter cleaning, lubrication, hydraulics, wear parts, and season-start/season-end overhauls. Diagnose faults across tractors, implements, pumps, sprayers, harvesting equipment and irrigation systems — clogging, pressure variation, uneven discharge, leakages — identifying root cause, not symptom. Carry out repairs directly where practical; where a repair needs a workshop or specialist, mobilise and supervise local mechanics, dealer service teams and fabricators to restore service quickly. Build and maintain a network of local mechanics, workshops, spare-part dealers and custom hiring operators around each project cluster, and keep a working inventory of critical spares and wear parts. Technical specification and evaluation Draft technical and functional specifications for irrigation systems, machines and implements, in a form the supply chain team can take to market. Assess supplier proposals on technical merit against that specification, flag gaps and deviations, and provide a written recommendation. Support Total Cost of Ownership and Cost Benefit Analysis calculations, including cost per acre or per hour and expected payback, where needed. Inspect delivered material and machines against approved specification, and supervise installation, commissioning and handover. Coordinate closely with the supply chain team, which owns quotations, negotiation and supplier selection. Training, data and reporting Train REPs, operators and field teams on correct operation, calibration, daily checks, routine maintenance and safe practices around machinery. Track water use, system uniformity, machine utilisation, fuel consumption, downtime and output using company digital tools and ERP. Report performance and cost to Programme Management, and use each season's data to improve the next design and deployment. What We Are Looking For Required B.Tech or B.E. in Agricultural Engineering, Farm Machinery and Power, Irrigation and Water Management, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or an equivalent discipline. 4-8 years of hands-on experience across irrigation engineering and farm mechanisation at comparable scale. Deep expertise in one of the two is essential, with solid working competence in the other. Individual project sites of 50 acres and above, and a portfolio running into several hundred acres. Strong, demonstrable expertise in drip irrigation: design, hydraulics, installation, fertigation integration and in-season maintenance. Working knowledge of the full range of irrigation methods listed above, and the judgement to pick between them for a given field and crop. Thorough working knowledge of agricultural machinery and implements: tractors and power tillers, mould board and disc ploughs, cultivators, disc harrows, rotavators, laser levellers, ridgers and bed formers, seed drills, planters and transplanters, power weeders and inter-cultivators, fertiliser spreaders, knapsack, boom and air-assisted sprayers, combine harvesters, diggers, threshers, balers and post-harvest cleaning and grading equipment. Practical repair and troubleshooting ability. You can diagnose and fix common faults in engines, transmissions, hydraulics, PTO drives, pumps and sprayer systems yourself, and you know when and how to route a job to a workshop or specialist instead. Sound understanding of farm-level water infrastructure: borewells, open wells, farm ponds, sumps, pump and motor selection, water quality and filtration requirements. Ability to operate a tractor and common implements competently, and to demonstrate correct operation to an operator in the field. Understanding of farm engineering economics: cost per acre and per hour, custom hiring rates, utilisation, depreciation, payback and replacement decisions. Familiarity with the product ranges and technical specifications of major irrigation and machinery OEMs, and the ability to compare systems on technical merit. Comfort with design and digital tools: irrigation design software, AutoCAD, spreadsheets and ERP or field data systems. Preferred Prior experience with horticulture, plantation or high-value field crops, where systems and implements often need adaptation to bed geometry and row spacing. Experience with relocatable or modular irrigation systems. Exposure to precision agriculture: soil moisture sensing, automation, drone spraying, GPS-guided operations and remote monitoring. Experience running or working with a custom hiring centre or farm machinery service operation. Experience with fabrication or modification of implements to suit local field conditions. Familiarity with government micro-irrigation and farm mechanisation schemes and their technical documentation. Experience preparing technical specifications and evaluating vendor proposals for an owner or client organisation rather than for a supplier. Who Will Thrive in This Role You are an engineer first, comfortable in the field and in the workshop. You can stand in a field, read the water, the soil and the crop, and tell the team what system it needs and what it will cost to run over its life. You would rather open a gearbox than send an email about it, and you understand that a harvester standing idle in the wrong week costs more than the repair ever will. You write specifications that leave no room for a supplier to under-deliver, and you can defend a design on technical merit without reaching for commercial arguments. You are organised enough to plan a season across dispersed sites with limited supervision, and you stay with a system through the season rather than handing it over and walking away. Other Requirements Willingness to travel extensively and spend the majority of working time at project sites anywhere in India. Valid driving licence (four-wheeler preferred).