· 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.

  · 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

· 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.