Application Engineer, Johnson Controls Inc.; BS, Mumbai University
As a diligent building automation engineer, Dhanraj Katkar is known for delivering building automation system (BAS) projects to fixed occupancy dates with clean and stable turnover. During his tenure at Johnson Controls that ended in 2025, he supported Metasys deployments across diverse commercial and industrial facilities, completing more than 100 control systems end-to-end. His work centers on the execution elements that determine field success: disciplined programming strategy, prefunctional readiness, commissioning coordination and rapid resolution of installation and integration issues before they create schedule risk. Katkar has served in both senior design engineer and application engineer roles, strengthening on-site execution by training more than 75 internal team members, subcontractors and client operators on tools, workflows and turnover best practices. On a large corporate headquarters project in Cleveland, he led onsite BAS execution through phased occupancy, overseeing heating, ventilation and air conditioning programming; functional testing; blackout readiness support; alarm monitoring and graphics verification while coordinating cross-functional teams of technicians and engineers. At an electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Kentucky, he led hardware submittals and direct digital control programming packages for approximately 430 controllers. He also supported a multibuilding university campus deployment in Texas, standardizing sequences and graphics across roughly 200 controllers to reduce commissioning churn. A named inventor on a patent for intelligent load shedding in building controls, Katkar has earned both innovation and performance awards. Outside of work, he enjoys competitive go-kart racing, swimming and hiking to unplug, staying active and coming back sharper for work and study. Katkar is currently pursuing a master of science in engineering management at Trine University.
