Building an Entire Solar EPC Team for Two 500 MW Utility-Scale Solar Plants

Client Overview

A leading renewable energy EPC company had just won the contract to execute two utility scale solar power plants, one in Gujarat, one in Tamil Nadu. Each was planned at 500 MW, so together this was a 1 GW pipeline, and not a small one.

To hit the timelines on this, the client needed to build out full engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and project management teams at both locations, fast.

 

The Challenge

Renewable energy in India has a talent problem right now. Most professionals with real utility scale solar EPC experience are already tied up on active projects somewhere else in the country. That makes the pool small, and the competition for it fierce.

It wasn't just about technical skill either. Candidates had to be willing to relocate to the actual sites, work through demanding construction schedules, and be productive from day one, no long ramp up period. And since both plants were running at the same time, the client needed a partner who could build two teams in parallel, without one project's hiring slowing the other down.

That's where Prism HRC came in, as the strategic hiring partner for the entire program.

 

Roles Hired

Prism HRC successfully recruited professionals across the complete EPC project lifecycle, including:

Project Leadership

• Project Directors
• Engineering Managers
• Construction Managers
• Procurement Managers
• QA/QC Managers
• HSE Managers

 

Engineering & Design

• Solar Design Engineers
• Electrical Design Engineers
• Civil Design Engineers
• PVsyst Engineers
• SCADA Engineers
• Protection & Relay Engineers
• Substation Design Engineers
• Transmission Line Engineers

 

Project Execution

• Project Managers
• Site Managers
• Electrical Site Engineers
• Civil Site Engineers
• Commissioning Engineers
• Planning Engineers
• QA/QC Engineers
• HSE Engineers
• Survey Engineers

 

Procurement & Commercial

• Procurement Engineers
• Contracts Engineers
• Vendor Development Specialists
• Supply Chain Professionals
• Logistics Coordinators

 

Prism HRC's Approach

Given how big and urgent this was, we put together a dedicated renewable energy recruitment team just to handle it.

We didn't lean on job portals for this one. Instead, our consultants started by tracking down other large utility-scale solar projects already running in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. From there, we mapped out the EPC companies, contractors and engineering firms behind those projects, and built a solid talent map of professionals with genuine utility-scale solar experience.

That market intelligence is what let our recruiters go straight to engineers and project professionals who'd already delivered similar MW-scale solar work. Most of these people don't show up through normal recruitment channels. Proactive mapping was really the only way to reach high-quality passive candidates like this.

We split hiring into separate streams, leadership, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and commercial, and ran them in parallel. Every shortlisted candidate went through detailed technical screening covering utility-scale exposure, EPC experience, commissioning expertise, substation knowledge and how involved they'd been across the full project lifecycle.

All the way through, we stayed in close, ongoing contact with candidates to keep offer dropouts down, while working hand in hand with the client's leadership to keep hiring in step with the mobilisation schedule at both sites.

 

Results

Within five months, we'd built out the majority of the engineering and execution workforce needed for both projects.

Here's what that added up to:

• Hired 75+ experienced renewable energy professionals
• Built complete project teams for two 500 MW solar plants in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu
• Filled leadership, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and commercial roles within an aggressive timeline
• Cut average hiring time by roughly 35% through targeted mapping and parallel hiring streams
• Kept a strong offer to joining ratio through consistent candidate engagement
• Got project mobilisation done without recruitment becoming the bottleneck

 

Business Impact

The client successfully mobilised project teams for both solar plants on schedule, allowing construction activities to commence without workforce shortages impacting execution.

By functioning as an extension of the client's talent acquisition team, Prism HRC ensured that hiring kept pace with project milestones while maintaining a high quality of talent. The engagement demonstrated our ability to deliver specialist recruitment solutions for large-scale infrastructure and renewable energy projects where speed, technical expertise, and execution capability are critical.

 

Why Prism HRC

Large renewable energy projects need more than standard recruitment. They need real market intelligence, proactive talent mapping, and the ability to find specialists already working on comparable projects across the industry.

That's what Prism HRC brings together, technical recruitment expertise combined with genuine sector knowledge, to help EPC companies, renewable energy developers, infrastructure firms and clean energy organizations build teams that can actually deliver at scale. Whether it's a handful of specialists or an entire project organisation, we help projects move from planning into execution with confidence.