Manager, Applications Engineering - HS

SCHMALZ INC
Raleigh, United States of America
5 days ago

Role details

Contract type
Permanent contract
Employment type
Full-time (> 32 hours)
Working hours
Regular working hours
Languages
English
Experience level
Senior

Job location

Raleigh, United States of America

Tech stack

Computer-Aided Design
Systems Engineering
SolidWorks (CAD)
Microsoft Office

Job description

  • Lead the day-to-day operations of the Handling Systems Applications Engineering team, ensuring responsive, accurate and technically sound support for customers, distributors and the sales organization.
  • Manage team capacity, workload and priorities; assign Applications Engineers to sales territories and projects based on business needs, technical complexity and available resources.
  • Establish clear expectations, performance goals and key performance indicators for the team, including quotation responsiveness, application quality, workload, rework and customer service.
  • Coach, mentor and develop team members through regular feedback, technical guidance, performance reviews, training plans and career development discussions.
  • Recruit, onboard and retain Applications Engineering talent while building team depth, succession capability and shared technical knowledge.
  • Develop and standardize application-review practices, quotation tools, templates, documentation and best practices to improve quality, consistency and efficiency.
  • Provide technical leadership and engineering judgment on complex, high-risk, semi-custom and custom customer applications, including review of proposed solutions when appropriate.
  • Establish clear prioritization and escalation processes, and serve as the primary escalation point for application, capacity, quality and customer-support issues.
  • Resolve customer complaints and technical escalations by coordinating investigation, evaluating potential resolutions, making recommendations to leadership and communicating professionally with the customer through resolution.
  • Build strong working relationships with Regional Sales Managers, Sales Engineers, Key Account Managers, distributors and selected strategic customers.
  • Partner closely with Outside Sales, Inside Sales, Product Management, Design Engineering and Project Management to ensure complete technical and commercial handoffs and smooth execution of customer projects.
  • Identify recurring process, product and quality issues that extend beyond the department; lead cross-functional efforts to determine root causes and implement sustainable improvements.
  • Communicate team capacity, priorities, risks, performance and resource needs clearly to leadership and affected stakeholders.
  • Coordinate with the parent company in Germany on technical applications, products, processes, training and issue resolution.
  • Provide market, product and competitive feedback to Product Management and company leadership.
  • Lead team meetings related to workload and capacity, interdepartmental coordination, quality, technical best practices and continuous improvement.
  • Develop and deliver professional technical presentations and training for national sales meetings, distributors, customers and internal teams as needed.
  • Represent Schmalz at trade shows, conferences, industry events and customer meetings as required.
  • Maintain the work location, travel and in-office presence necessary to lead the team and support customers effectively, consistent with company policy.
  • Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in engineering, engineering technology or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and demonstrated technical experience.
  • Minimum of seven years of relevant experience in applications engineering, industrial automation, material handling, capital equipment or a closely related technical field.
  • Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including coaching, performance management, prioritization, delegation and employee development; prior direct management experience is strongly preferred.
  • Demonstrated ability to evaluate complex technical applications and guide engineers toward safe, practical and commercially viable solutions.
  • Strong customer-facing communication, presentation and conflict-resolution skills, with the professionalism to represent Schmalz in high-visibility and technically demanding situations.
  • Experience managing workload, capacity, priorities, performance metrics and cross-functional processes in a deadline-driven environment.
  • Strong judgment and decision-making skills, including the ability to balance customer urgency, technical risk, product capability and commercial objectives.
  • Ability to build trust and collaborate effectively with engineering, sales, operations, product management, senior leadership and international colleagues.
  • Strong organizational and time-management skills, with a customer-focused, adaptable and continuous-improvement mindset.
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office and the ability to learn new business and engineering systems.
  • Ability to travel domestically approximately 15%, with occasional international travel as business needs require., * Experience with vacuum handling systems, ergonomic material handling, cranes, lifting devices or industrial automation.
  • Prior experience leading an Applications Engineering or comparable technical team.
  • Working knowledge of DraftSight and SolidWorks or comparable CAD software and the ability to review technical drawings and specifications.
  • Experience supporting distributors, outside sales teams, key accounts and custom-engineered solutions.
  • Experience delivering technical training and presentations to customers, distributors and sales organizations.
  • Experience collaborating with an international parent company or global engineering organization.

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