WHAT DOES A FIELD APPLICATION SCIENTIST DO?

Published: Mar 11, 2025 - The Field Application Scientist provides essential internal support for analysis service teams and collaborates with biostatisticians, ensuring project success and customer satisfaction. Responsibilities include managing customer complaints, offering solutions promptly, maintaining detailed records, and fostering positive relationships through direct customer interactions. The role involves extensive travel for onsite support and training, contributing to technical documentation, and enhancing customer engagement and product improvements based on feedback.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Field Application Scientist

1. Field Application Scientist Duties

  • Workflow Installation: Installation of instrument workflows
  • Technical Troubleshooting: Education and/or technical troubleshooting and workflow analysis on QIAGEN instrumentation, including consumables and applications
  • Instrument Demonstration: Instrument and assay demonstrations, evaluations, and workshops
  • Sales Support: Seminars/Webinars as part of supporting the sales process
  • Customer Relationship Building: Build strong customer relationships, develop and maintain reference customers
  • Database Utilization: Utilize relevant databases to input and provide information that will increase effectiveness
  • Product Promotion: Actively promote Field Service products and services
  • Feedback Provision: Give active feedback to Sales, Global Product Support, and team/management
  • Time and Resource Management: Manage effective available time and resources
  • Cross-Border Support: Provide cross-border/district/region support
  • Hazardous Materials Handling: Working with hazardous substances such as acids/solvents and in biological laboratories up to BSL3
  • Advanced Application Support: Provide advanced application support to customers and business development teams to support pre-sales and post-sales processes, including follow-up meetings, telephone conferences, e-mail, customer visits, and conferences
  • Customer Engagement: Engage with customers to provide technical discussion, seminars, and demonstrations

2. Field Application Scientist Details

  • Internal Support: Provide high quality internal support for analysis service teams and collaborate extensively with biostatisticians to ensure project success and high customer satisfaction
  • Complaint Handling: Handle customer complaints, provide appropriate solutions and alternatives within the time limits
  • Follow-up: Follow up to ensure resolution
  • Customer Communication: Communicating courteously with customers by telephone, email, and face-to-face, and keep accurate records of discussions and/or correspondence with customers
  • Product Improvement: Make suggestions for improvements of product and internal process based on customer feedback
  • Relationship Building: Building and maintaining positive relationship with customers
  • Customer Engagement: Working with the Commercial team to engage with customers and potential new clients, including identifying and qualification of customer requirements
  • Customer Visits: Travelling to visit customers to provide onsite technical expertise, customer relationship management
  • CRM Documentation: Maintaining accurate records and documentation of all customer interactions and customer information in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Salesforce
  • Event Support: Supporting the Commercial team in seminars and activities such as conference booth attendance, etc. virtual or in person when the environment allows
  • Technical Documentation: Assisting with the development, production and publication of technical documentation and training materials, such as FAQs, technical notes, online tutorials and webinars, how-to guides, manuals etc. to educate customers
  • Customer Onboarding: Carrying out core customer implementation activities including customer configuration, on-boarding and training
  • Customer Support: Providing first and second-line support to customers and act as the primary point of contact for customer support issues
  • Cloud Support: Leading and coordinating the support of regional cloud instances and escalate the issues in due course

3. Field Application Scientist Responsibilities

  • Sales Support: Accompany the Sales Representatives on sales calls in customers’ laboratories to provide technical and applications expertise in response to customer inquiries
  • Product Demonstration: Performs product demonstrations in the field or lab
  • Customer Support: Supports customers through on-site visits and telephone communication
  • Training Delivery: Provides start-up applications training to customers in laboratories and demonstrates proper operating procedures with consumable products
  • Seminar Presentation: Prepares and presents seminars to customers, potential customers, and employees as requested
  • Technical Training: Provides technical training to Sales Representatives and collaborates with them to develop technical selling strategies
  • Trade Show Support: Works in trade show booths to present products and gather information
  • User Meeting Delivery: Plans and delivers user meetings in the field application
  • Administrative Tasks: Completes all administrative duties such as using Siebel, completing expense reports, etc.
  • Industry Trends: Attends technical training and scientific meetings to gather information on new trends, products, and discoveries affecting the industry
  • Core Lab Training: Conducts trainings of core labs, customers, and new employees
  • Training Material Development: Develops training material for core labs and customers
  • Conference Attendance: Attends local and international conferences

4. Field Application Scientist Job Summary

  • Presentation Delivery: Organize and deliver technical application and research vertical presentations to distributors with the goal of increasing awareness and increasing revenue and provide follow-up in-field support
  • Market Insight: Provide market, customer and competitor insight feedback to Global Marketing and Global Distribution teams
  • Scientific Support: Provide scientific support to both colleagues and customers
  • Revenue Trend Analysis: Liaise with the Analytics team to understand EMEA revenue trends
  • Action Plan Development: Work with local Distributor Managers to develop action plans and tactics to address revenue gaps
  • Initiative Support: Support key initiatives and requests from Distribution Management and Marketing/Product Management
  • Product Launch Management: Drive successful product launches in EMEA integrating local market specificities including development of sales launch packages, value propositions that are accepted by the sales force and tracking revenue in accordance with forecasts
  • Early Access Program: Support Early Access Program with sales, technical support and Product Management
  • Collaboration Identification: Identify opportunities for possible joint collaborations and/or OEM opportunities
  • VOC Program Support: Assist Global Marketing with Voice of Customer (VOC) programs
  • Scientist Program: Drive and execute the EMEA Scientist-to-Scientist program
  • Internal Training Support: Work with Global Marketing and Global Distribution Team to organize and provide internal trainings/workshop sessions for distributors
  • KOL Network Building: Build KOL networks in order to scale the business
  • Conference Participation: Participate in scientific conferences and distributor visits

5. Field Application Scientist Accountabilities

  • CX Organization Development: Support the development of a Customer Experience organisation that is structured for growth, global operational excellence, and customer and employee success
  • Technology Expertise: Become an expert in the client’s technology, understand the competitive landscape, and articulate value propositions
  • Customer Lifecycle Engagement: Actively take part in the customer life cycle from partnering with sales on prospecting to coordinating and performing customer site training
  • Issue Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting issues and reporting the voice of the customer back to internal groups
  • Proteomics Support: Help customers conduct novel proteomics experiments at scale and speed
  • Experimental Assistance: Maximise success by assisting with experimental design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of results
  • Distributor Support: Help with training and supporting global distributor partners
  • Sales & Training Delivery: Deliver outstanding pre-sales presentations, post-sales training, and educate customers as well as prospects on the use of the technology
  • Customer Relationship Management: Foster a positive and supportive working relationship with customers
  • Expectation Management: Help manage expectations and gain trust
  • Customer Feedback Communication: Identify, document, and communicate customer experience feedback, product requirements, market trends, and business intelligence to internal stakeholders
  • Material Development: Develop and deliver materials for customer-facing activities, for example, support processes for installations, training, and knowledge management
  • Cross-Department Collaboration: Develop strong interdepartmental collaborations with Marketing, Sales, Product Development, and Automation to ensure the voice of the customer is heard and escalations are resolved with urgency
Relevant Information
What Does A Field Application Engineer Do?