Cheheng James - Approval Engineer

The Story

Seeing engineering from a new perspective

Cheheng’s engineering journey began in Japan, where he studied and later completed an internship at a ship design institute. There, he gained first-hand experience of how technical requirements become practical engineering solutions.

Joining DNV introduced him to a different side of engineering. Rather than developing a design, his role as an approval engineer requires him to independently assess whether solutions are safe, compliant and reliable.

“I learned that approval is not only about checking whether a calculation is correct. You need to understand the design, ask the right questions and consider the risks behind it,” he says.
 

Building expertise across disciplines

At DNV, Cheheng began working with plan approval across both machinery and electrical control systems. Learning two disciplines at the same time was challenging, but it also gave him the opportunity to build a broader technical foundation.

His work covers areas ranging from shipboard machinery, pressure vessels and piping systems to electrical protection, alarms, monitoring, automatic controls and safety functions.

As Cheheng gained experience, he learned to look beyond whether an individual drawing or calculation meets technical requirements and consider how different elements connect.
 

Learning through collaboration

The knowledge and support of colleagues have played an important role in Cheheng’s development. Discussing real cases and different technical perspectives has helped him deepen his understanding of the rules while becoming increasingly confident in tackling complex questions.

Cheheng has learned to start by understanding the function of a system, its design intent and its risks before identifying the relevant requirements.

“There is a lot of knowledge around you at DNV. Discussing a problem with colleagues from different disciplines can give you a new perspective.”
 

Seeing the bigger picture

As Cheheng gained more project experience, his focus expanded from discipline-specific reviews towards a more complete, system-level perspective.

On board a ship, machinery and electrical control systems do not operate in isolation. Safe operation can depend on several connected elements, from materials and piping to power supplies, alarms, automatic controls and emergency functions.

Working across both disciplines has taught Cheheng to examine a design at different levels: the equipment itself, its control logic and its role in the operation of the ship.

Today, he looks beyond individual documents to consider whether the interfaces between systems are clear and whether machinery and electrical control functions work together to achieve their intended safety objective.
 

Continuing to learn and grow

Cheheng has grown from an engineer who primarily understood challenges from a designer’s perspective into an approval engineer able to independently assess designs, identify risks and provide technical comments across machinery and electrical control systems.

For Cheheng, however, professional growth is not about having every answer.

“Growing as an engineer doesn’t mean knowing everything from the beginning. It means asking the right questions, finding the evidence you need and working with others to reach a conclusion you can trust.”

Looking ahead, Cheheng hopes to deepen his expertise in machinery and electrical control systems while exploring the possibilities of digitalization and AI-assisted approval.