Quest Global plans to double India headcount to 20,000 in next 3-5 years

Quest Global is also betting on semiconductor chip design and fabrication machinery

Product engineering services company Quest Global plans to employ 20,000 individuals in India within the next three to five years — double its current local workforce — buoyed by steady business growth as clients continue to invest in engineering. At present, it has a global headcount of around 17,500, with about 10,000 employees based in India.

“Because we are in the product engineering space, we are supporting long-term development cycles. For instance, if you need to develop an aircraft from scratch, it takes a minimum of five to eight years. So, it is a long cycle and therefore customers cannot pull back on the investments very quickly,” Shrikant Naik, global delivery head at Quest Global, explained to Business Standard.

“For several years, we have enjoyed steady growth. It is not a case of growth that peaks and drops very quickly. It is consistent, so we are expanding quite steadily and rapidly,” Naik added.

North America is Quest Global’s largest market, followed by Europe. Japan is the third largest market, followed by India. “The Indian local market is improving and increasing significantly as well,” Naik said.

Founded in California in 1997 and later headquartered in Singapore, some of Quest Global's competitors in India include L&T Technology Services, Coforge, KPIT Technologies, and Nucleus Software.

The growth in India is primarily driven by global capability centres, or GCCs, which are heavily investing in engineering. Naik added that the ongoing metro rail projects in many Indian cities also present multiple opportunities.

Currently, Quest Global is experiencing the most traction from the aerospace and energy sectors. "The geopolitical situation worldwide is prompting many government agencies to invest in defence. Additionally, civil aviation is picking up after Covid and everybody is investing more. We work in aerospace in the US, Europe, particularly in the UK, and in India," said Naik.

In the energy sector, growth is driven by the push towards renewable energy. "The energy segment is undergoing a significant transformation with a huge focus on renewable energy where we are quite big. Many of our customers are supporting that from both a mechanical engineering and digitalisation perspective," Naik said.

Quest Global is also focusing on semiconductor chip design and fabrication machinery. The firm is an engineering partner for companies manufacturing custom systems on chip (SoCs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC). It provides end-to-end services for high-performance integrated circuit development from concept to production.