Thermal Care, part of the IPEG Industrial Group, is a leading manufacturer of process cooling equipment and systems for applications worldwide. As an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer, Thermal Care provides heat transfer equipment for over 50 industries and specializes in meeting the specific needs of our customers by offering both standard and custom designed industrial process cooling solutions. Some of the industries served include plastics, laser, heat treating, food processing, machine tool, plating, anodizing, chemical, die casting, optical coating, and printing.

Role

The Application Engineer is a technical sales position that works in tandem with an inside sales associate supporting the Outside Regional Sales Managers, Industrial Market Managers, and their respective sales representatives in generating revenue through the sale of equipment and presenting technical solutions to customers. The Application Engineer responds to requests for information and requests for quotations, supports customers with evaluations of the products, and acts as a technical resource during the entire sales cycle. This role also serves to coordinate the activities of the sales, engineering, production, and customer service departments as needed to successfully fulfill the requirements of a project from the quotation stage to start-up of the system, if necessary. The Application Engineer must be willing to travel when required and participate in industry trade show events. This position will report to the Director of Sales and is located in Niles, Illinois.

Duties and Responsibilities

System Specification/Application Review

• Evaluate customer requests for product sizing, pricing, and determining specific requirements suitable for the application;
• Explain the system design and product options that meet the requirements and performance expectations to all parties involved in clear and consistent written and verbal presentations;
• Prepare internal requests for costing and delivery purposes based on customer specifications.

Systems Quotation Preparation

• Obtain or prepare cost and delivery estimates for equipment using established templates and cost estimating formulae and establish a selling price for the product and/or system;
• Identify long lead-time system components and other delivery parameters and work with production planning and vendors to determine a valid shipment lead-time;
• Coordinate the preparation of a formal system quotation that specifies the customer requirements, system design, component product specifications, price and delivery lead-time, describing in sufficient detail in order to communicate exactly what is being provided for the price being quoted;
• Provide submittal drawings and other documents that are needed during the quotation process, with assistance from engineering and vendors, as needed to present a professional final proposal;
• Work closely with the appropriate sales manager and customer to successfully negotiate the sale; this may include travel to the job site;
• Work closely with the inside sales associate as the technical leader, sharing technical information in order to accelerate their training;
• Keep up-to-date with emerging technologies and understand their potential impact on our business solutions;
• Learn and analyze the competition to fully understand and articulate the differences between competitors.

Systems Order Fulfillment

• Manage the order fulfillment process for system orders. Verify that what was sold is accurately written up by the inside sales associate;
• Communicate information to engineering and be available to answer all questions pertaining to the job;
• Become the primary contact for the customer until the equipment is started up;
• Coordinate the process for submitting and obtaining signoff of approval drawings and locking in the design requirements for the system at the time of order;
• Manage the process for making system price adjustments for engineering change notices necessary to adjust the design from the requirements of the original quotation;
• Communicate a system shipment date for the order and keep customers, the regional managers, industrial markets managers, OEM accounts, and sales representatives posted of any changes to promised delivery dates during the design and manufacturing process of the system.