WHAT DOES AN APPLICATION ENGINEER DO ?
The Application Engineer collaborates closely with customers, sales team members, and engineers to ensure the timely and accurate selection and quoting of HVAC solutions. Responsibilities encompass qualifying, prioritizing, and scheduling inquiries, visiting customer sites for pricing compliance, and providing technical support. Manage project coordination, estimate material and labor costs, and interpret blueprints, contributing significantly to the success of the engineering process.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Application Engineer
1. Application Engineer Duties
- Application Analysis: Understand customer's application motion needs, develop requirements related to the motor, and identify the optimal motor solution.
- Project Management: Manage new project opportunities within a global and cross-functional organization to drive growth.
- Technical Support: Provide technical support for new and existing businesses.
- Solution Alignment: Ensure the solutions proposed to customers align with the internal business filter regarding market, product offer, and profitability.
- Pre-sale Support: Offer pre-sale technical support to dealers and direct office sales teams, identifying application engineering needs.
- Machine Recommendation: Recommend appropriate machines and configurations, tooling, and work holding devices based on application requirements.
- Turnkey Support: Support turnkey/Sharkey requirements.
- Post-sales Support: Provide post-sales technical support for customers in part programming, processing, optimization, and operator training.
- Event Participation: Attend and support dealer and company open houses, tradeshows, and other relevant events.
- AE Assistance: Provide post-sales technical support to customers requiring Application Engineering (AE) assistance.
2. Application Engineer Details
- Business Coordination: Support business development through close coordination with Account Managers and Strategic Account Managers within customer supply chains.
- Strategy Development: Develop with Regional Sales Management portfolio strategies to meet growth goals in the respective market segment.
- Quoting Support: Support the quoting process with complete and accurate information on customer requirements.
- Market Analysis: Analyze market offerings to direct commercial guidance on sustainable product trends.
- Training Delivery: Create and deliver value-added material specification training for the MHC Commercial team and select strategic customers.
- Mentorship: Train and mentor Commercial Development employees, Sales Representatives, and new Account Managers as requested.
- Supplier Relations: Support positive relationships with suppliers.
- Inventory Optimization: Work with Supply Chain to optimize inventory levels in the portfolio.
- Supplier Networking: Establish relationships with key technical supplier contacts that will position MHC for preferred sourcing of sustainable materials.
- Customer Partnership: Establish as the preferred partner with strategic customers for material specification on new and existing applications.
- Pipeline Management: Maintain a robust pipeline of prospective targets.
3. Application Engineer Responsibilities
- Networking & Presence: Establish a robust presence at industry-sponsored trade shows and cultivate a strong network of relevant industry associations and specialists across the industry.
- OEM Networking: Develop a robust network with OEMs in target markets such as consumer product goods, packaging (flexible & rigid), and industrial.
- Business Development Coordination: Actively identify and communicate new business development activities through close coordination with the Sustainability Market Manager.
- Technology Leverage: Leverage exceptional technology from partners that will differentiate the service during the product development process.
- Technical Partnership: Partner closely with MHC Technical Service Engineers from the application or product concept to commercialization.
- Success Tracking: Track and communicate product development wins and create case study examples in partnership with Marketing Communications.
- Product Assessment: Assess potential new products for inclusion in the sustainable product line card.
- Administrative Efficiency: Fulfill administrative duties in a timely and complete fashion.
- Budget Management: Manage travel & entertainment spend to the ADE-approved expense budget.
- Priority Management: Plan and manage priorities to ensure that annual goals are met.
- Professional Development: Participate in training and personal development programs.
- Personal Networking: Nurture a robust personal network in the industry.
4. Application Engineer Job Summary
- Customer Collaboration: Work closely with customers, other members of the sales team, and engineers.
- Solution Accuracy: Ensure all solutions and services are selected & quoted timely and correctly.
- Inquiry Management: Ensure inquiry is qualified, assessed, prioritized, and scheduled.
- Site Visitation: Visit customer site to ensure pricing and margins are met.
- HVAC Quoting: Quote a variety of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems.
- Value Addition: Add value, provide alternatives, and add-ons.
- Sales Liaison: Liaise closely with Sales Engineers on all quotations.
- Technical Support: Provide technical support, quotations, and customer support.
- Project Coordination: Manage project coordination according to customer specifics.
- Cost Estimation: Assist with the estimation of material and labor costs.
- System Design: Manage system design and layout, facilitate conceptual layouts for quotations.
- Production Support: Support production and direct customer and vendor communications.
- Blueprint Interpretation: Interpret electrical and mechanical blueprints and specifications.
5. Application Engineer Accountabilities
- Liaison Coordination: Act as a direct liaison between the engineering team, Product Management, and Field Technical Community.
- Project Management: Run multiple impactful projects, each with its own set of challenges and timelines.
- Technical Support & Training: Provide necessary support and technical training to the Field Technical Community and customers to integrate Vision technology into their consumer products and services.
- Knowledge Expansion: Expand the Vision Knowledge Base and help improve support and testing efficiency.
- Device Testing & Approval: Test and approve Vision devices as per processes and requirements.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner and interact with various groups, resolving technical challenges and delivering resolutions on their behalf.
- Technical Expertise: Projects will require specialized technical knowledge of Vision SDKs, as well as other technologies in the ecosystem that Vision HDR relies on to be enabled.
- Market Intelligence: Use customer meetings to gather intelligence about customers’ product plans, requirements, offerings, and approaches, and share data with relevant internal teams.
- Marketing Collaboration: Work with Marketing, providing input and requirements for the design, development, delivery, and packaging of technologies to customers.
- Customer Representation: Represent in customer meetings with a diplomatic, professional approach in verbal and written communication.