Castillo Engineering is investing in expanding its utility-scale solar capabilities. The engineering firm announced an investment of $2.5 million in project and process management software tools to better serve its customers, while also expanding its senior leadership team to better meet growing demand in the utility-scale solar market.
With 356 GWdc of utility-scale solar expected to come online by 2035, fueled by surging energy demand from AI applications and data centers, Castillo Engineering made some changes to its executive leadership team to support rapid growth and evolving industry needs. The company appointed Gary Joseph as VP of sales and marketing and Arun Ramadass as VP of operations. Additionally, the firm’s founder Rick Castillo has transitioned into the role of chief operating officer, where he now leads a newly enhanced Project Management Office (PMO).
In a virtual press event on May 7, CEO Christopher Castillo provided a brief overview of the company’s new proprietary software platforms: PMO 360 and DesignIQ. The company hired a third-party firm to develop the software to meet its needs.
Castillo Engineering PMO 360
The PMO 360 software is a customer-facing software that provides clients a dashboard to keep track of important information, dates and deliverables.
“The industry standard is to send a ton of emails, and what happens is that data and dates get lost in those emails,” Christopher Castillo said. “Now, all the information and dates are on the dashboard, and customers have real-time visibility. This is the first of its kind in the industry.”
Under Rick Castillo’s leadership, the PMO gains strategic guidance and daily mentorship, complemented by the launch of PMO 360, which is designed to enhance visibility and efficiency. The software’s intuitive dashboard provides clients with greater ease of communication and complete transparency into engineering information, timelines, and plans.
PMO 360 also equips project managers (PMs) with the data and insights they need to make informed decisions, improve timelines, control budgets, and boost client satisfaction. Castillo’s Project Management Institute (PMI)-certified PMs align their strategies with PMI’s gold standard to help clients minimize risk, optimize budgets, and stay on schedule throughout a project.
“We wanted to make sure we created something that is unique in the construction space,” Rick Castillo said. “From all my years dealing with customers and listening to their concerns and questions, we wanted to come up with something that is very transparent. The dashboard provides everything that is expected from a project, and it’s presented in real time with all the deliverables, managing all the substantial information we share with clients, submittals, RFIs. All of that is tracked. All of that is followed up in real time with reminders.”
Castillo Engineering Design IQ
Design IQ automates the real-time collection of calculations and design assets from multiple sources, making them available in a single interface for the Castillo team. This automation of engineering calculations and AutoCAD drafting enables the company’s engineers to reduce human error, standardize workflows, and increase scalability, allowing the company to deliver projects faster with superior quality.
“In our discussions with utility-scale EPCs, almost every leader expressed an urgent, unmet need for an Engineer of Record that can offer excellent project management and unwavering quality at the utility scale as the market grows,” Christopher Castillo said. “Our response is a bold investment in talent, tools, and technology that ensures our ‘A Team’ is ready to support EPCs as their pipelines expand, without sacrificing quality.”
The two software platforms enhance communication for Castillo Engineering and its clients.
“We’re providing the same visibility that we have on our side to their side,” Joseph said. “From all of our lessons learned on projects, one of the key challenges was in communication. That was the key word. There is a huge information flow on both sides, and if communication doesn’t flow efficiently, people end up on different pages. So, we wanted to look at how can we make that quicker. If we can improve the flow, we can eliminate errors, and we’ll have a happy engineering team and happy customers.”
One of the driving forces behind developing the DesignIQ software was to address the industry shortage in qualified engineers.
“That’s a predominant issue in the industry,” Ramadass said. “There’s definitely need for engineers in the solar space, where you have a need for electrical, civil and structural design. We need engineers with experience with designing these types of projects. For us, it was about designing a platform to address those shortcomings.”
Castillo Engineering’s revamped senior leadership team
Rick Castillo, PE, SE, Chief Operating Officer
Gary Joseph, Vice President of Sales & Marketing
With 14 years of leadership experience in the utility-scale solar industry, most recently as Vice President of Sales at Voltage LLC, Gary brings a unique perspective that bridges deep technical knowledge with global commercial experience. Born in England, Gary began his career as a licensed electrician and became a seasoned sales leader working with EPCs, developers, and manufacturers for distributed generation and utility-scale projects in domestic and international markets.
Arun Ramadass, Vice President of Operations
Arun brings over 15 years of diverse solar industry experience, including leadership roles at Primoris, Pivot Energy and Scale Microgrids. Focused on engineering utility-scale projects, strategic growth, and technical excellence, he has been instrumental in delivering innovative renewable energy solutions by guiding teams through complex challenges and scaling processes for large-scale operations.
Tags: Castillo Engineering, software
