Sales and Application Engineer

- Mid Level

Farmington Hills, MI

About the position

As a Sales and Applications Engineer you will be responsible for managing commercial topics related to assigned customer accounts. In this role you will develop a customer strategy that identifies new business opportunities, positions the company to win new business, and exercises leadership in the execution of the strategy. Act as focal point for all commercial discussions/negotiations. Coordinate activities with Program Managers to establish 'get well' plan and notify customer. Responsible for managing the overall relationship between MAHLE North America and customers by cultivating relationships with key stakeholders across a variety of sales and application engineering functions to assure complete and successful account management. Responsible for negotiating long term contracts, new production pricing, warranty terms and conditions, prototype prices and successfully win new business. Direct interface with customer Engineering organizations for components where MAHLE is not having local Engineering teams. Thereby acting as window person between customer and MAHLE Engineering. Direct interface with customer Purchasing organizations managing the overall account from acquisition over design phase into series production. Attend regular site visits to customers along with other applicable engineering assigned tasks / subjects as needed in order to support the customer. Responsible for new projects quotation and negotiation to include price proposals, timeline negotiations between MAHLE Engineering Teams, R&D Groups and Production operations in the USA and Mexico. Exercise leadership in the execution of the business sales strategy and act as focal point for all commercial discussions/negotiations. Follow market trends and keep management informed on all important issues concerning their assigned accounts. Lead the sales effort to achieve internal acceptance of the customer strategy from other functional areas before implementation. Manage, organize and prepare technical presentations for our customers. Communicate/clarify issues related to prototype orders with the customer. Responsible for providing input as necessary to the Automotive Forecast Preparation. Understand macro automotive industry trends, how they affect our customers, how the customers’ reaction affects our company, and recommend course of action for our company to best leverage said changes/trends to our company’s benefit. Need to become familiar with MAHLE product technology and follow up newly developed technologies and practices in order to be able to support our customers in their development programs and other aspects relevant to MAHLE. Establish matrix identifying key customer individual and who at our company should interact with them, and the frequency. Determine which customer individuals are pro, con or neutral toward our company and develop plan to maximize the number. Manage timely quotation of new business by internally driving the quote process, including PAC reviews and initiation of SOF and subsequent updates to information. Manage and prepare pricing proposals, review them with customers and address any concerns. Provide input to the preparation of obsolescence claims and negotiate the claims with the customer. Coordinate with the Program Manager, determine what, when and how to notify customer in the event of a milestone that is going to be missed, or a test failure occurred, etc. and then be part of the communication loop. Provide customer market intelligence to MAHLE and act as focal point to determine how best to respond to the information.

Responsibilities

• Develop a customer strategy that identifies new business opportunities.
• Act as focal point for all commercial discussions/negotiations.
• Coordinate activities with Program Managers to establish 'get well' plan and notify customer.
• Manage the overall relationship between MAHLE North America and customers.
• Negotiate long term contracts, new production pricing, warranty terms and conditions, prototype prices.
• Interface with customer Engineering organizations.
• Interface with customer Purchasing organizations.
• Attend regular site visits to customers.
• Responsible for new projects quotation and negotiation.
• Exercise leadership in the execution of the business sales strategy.
• Follow market trends and keep management informed.
• Lead the sales effort to achieve internal acceptance of the customer strategy.
• Manage, organize and prepare technical presentations for customers.
• Communicate/clarify issues related to prototype orders.
• Provide input to the Automotive Forecast Preparation.
• Understand macro automotive industry trends.
• Become familiar with MAHLE product technology.
• Establish matrix identifying key customer individuals.
• Manage timely quotation of new business.
• Manage and prepare pricing proposals.
• Provide input to the preparation of obsolescence claims.
• Coordinate with the Program Manager regarding customer notifications.
• Provide customer market intelligence to MAHLE.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Business or equivalent degree from a four-year college or university required.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant account management experience and/or Application Engineering or equivalent role, preferably in the automotive industry.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation delivery.
• Demonstrated experience with account/customer relationships.
• In-depth knowledge of contract negotiations and product development.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a minimum of one account/customer.
• Strong time and project management, problem solving and continuous improvement skills.
• Up to 25% International and domestic travel by plane and car required.
• Strong competency in Microsoft Office skills (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word) required.
• Prior experience in SAP preferred.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with managing multiple simultaneous accounts/customers preferred.
• In-depth knowledge of contract negotiations and product development preferred.

Benefits

• Collaborative environment working on exciting assignments.
• Ongoing personal & career development opportunities.