Adil Khawaja

Founder & Engineering Manager

IES • Vollzeit

Dec 2015 - Present • 10 yrs 8 mos

Founded Intelligent Engineering Solutions after 20 years of frontline EPC engineering, applying that background to AI-augmented technical work: engineering simulation, workflow automation, and — more recently — research-driven documentary scriptwriting for YouTube channels covering engineering history and business. The same discipline that governed a $1.4B tank farm project — verify every number against a primary source, never assert a claim you can't defend under scrutiny — is what I bring to every script: research checked against original documents, not repeated from popular but inaccurate retellings. Recent documentary work includes a script for a premium automotive/business channel rated 5 stars specifically for precision, alongside completed scripts on the Chernobyl disaster and the Piper Alpha oil platform failure.

Senior Mechanical Project Engineer

Petrofac • Vollzeit

Mar 2010 - May 2014 • 4 yrs 2 mos

Supervised technical execution of the $1.4B Jazan Tank Farm project in Saudi Arabia, coordinating engineering integrity across piping, civil, and mechanical disciplines on one of the region's largest EPC undertakings. Developed 150 tie-in packages — shutdown, hot-tap, and partial-shutdown scenarios — for the GASCO NGL-4 project, where a single miscalculated sequence could halt production or endanger crews. Managed a seawater intake project involving twin 36-inch GRE pipelines, a high-power pump house, and a discharge structure, delivered on schedule inside a multi-contractor site with overlapping safety zones. This is the world I write about when I script engineering-disaster documentaries: the margin-of-error calculations, the shutdown sequencing, the human decisions under schedule and safety pressure that most writers only research secondhand.

Engineering Manager

Mott MacDonald • Vollzeit

Jul 2005 - Jan 2010 • 4 yrs 6 mos

Managed FEED for twin 36-inch nitrogen injection pipelines into the Thamama F reservoir, leading an options study that weighed structural constraints against depressurization requirements — the kind of trade-off decision that defines whether a project stays safe under pressure. Directed fast-track detailed engineering of a cross-country lean gas pipeline from Ras Laffan to Mesaieed, Qatar, as Project Manager, holding vendor documentation and technical holds together under real schedule pressure. Led FEED, detailed engineering, and procurement support for a multiphase pump re-utilization project, personally conducting HAZID, HAZOP, and PHSER safety reviews — the same hazard-identification discipline that sits behind every engineering-failure documentary I write. Managed a safe depressurization and draining study for the ZADCO Zirku Island gas processing facility, solving for three equipment systems that lacked built-in depressurization — the exact category of hidden design gap that, left unaddressed, becomes the story of the next Piper Alpha.