Together We Transform: A Word from Monika Verma

My name is Monika Verma, I am a senior principal architect at Jacobs based in Gurgaon, a city southwest of New Delhi in northern India.

I have worked at Jacobs for more than 20 years as part of the architecture team. In that time, I have worked across different areas of the business. In 2016, I got an opportunity to work with the Jacobs life sciences architecture department, and I have been there ever since.

In my previous roles, I worked on amazing projects including metros, airports, hospitals and educational institutes. When I initially got the opportunity to work with life sciences, I didn’t really know much about this side of the business but after a two-week training program and working on my first pharma project I realized that these were the types of projects that I wanted to work on. Previously I was working on projects that would raise the standard of living for people, but now I am working to save lives.

At Jacobs, we provide support to large pharmaceutical clients and help them bring new medicines to market quickly. As an architect, I am involved from the very beginning, working as part of a global team to design pharmaceutical facilities for research and development and the manufacture of medicines for people around the world.

In life sciences, we understand the work that we do benefits society as whole. This was never as apparent as during the pandemic. To support the roll-out of vaccines globally, our clients needed urgent support to redesign and refit existing facilities to enable them to manufacture vaccines – for the betterment of human life. I’m proud of our team and the important role we played in helping clients respond quickly to the collective demand for vaccines.

From a personal perspective, I’ve seen the real every day benefit modern medicine can have through my father in-law who had diabetes and was able to self-manage his disease through the use of an insulin pen. Unfortunately, he passed away in the first wave of COVID-19 and we miss him every day, but in the years prior to his passing he used his insulin pen twice daily to manage his disease, enabling him to lead a normal and happy life. For me, it shows how modern medicine can transform someone’s quality of life. I am very proud to play a small part in helping facilitate change in people’s lives through the work that we do at Jacobs, in partnership with our clients. 

I really enjoy my work. As an architect, when you see your project, your creation, fully constructed and handed over to the client, then you feel that your baby is grown up. And that is rewarding. For me, the culture, people and work at Jacobs inspires and motivates me every day. It is the best place to work. And while I am part of a globally integrated team with colleagues working in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland, we are one Jacobs.