Applications Engineering Manager Jobs in Shell Rock, IA

Accountability Objective
This position is accountable for the strategic direction, market ownership, profitable growth, and competitive positioning of the assigned Specialty Vehicle and Power Sports market segments. The Market Manager develops and leads market plans that define target segments, growth priorities, key account strategies, pricing direction, product line opportunities, market risks, and competitive threats. The position translates market intelligence, customer application needs, competitor activity and product performance data into actionable recommendations that support TriMark's revenue growth, margin improvement, product roadmap and long-range strategic plans. The position also coordinates with Sales, Engineering, Product Management, APQP, Customer Service, and outside sales representatives to ensure customer requirements, market opportunities and business objectives are clearly understood and effectively executed.
Dimensions
Total TriMark Sales +/- $90MM
Nature and Scope
This position reports to the Director of Sales, as does Market Manager (206), Market Manager (Non-206), and Customer Relations Manager. To accomplish the growth and profitability goals of the company, the incumbent can be assisted by the following personnel in a matrixed fashion as supported and directed by the New Products Mechanical Engineering Manager and the Director of APQP Engineering.
Project Engineer(s): This position is responsible for completing projects within the assigned markets which optimize manufacturability, cost-effectiveness and product performance to ensure customer satisfaction.
Sr. Design Engineer(s): This position is responsible for assisting the assigned Senior Project Manager with project workload.
Design Engineer(s): This position is responsible for design and development tasks on assigned projects within the assigned markets, if available; otherwise, as a floater.
Customer Service: This position is accountable for maintaining customer contact, solicit/receive customer orders, translate orders into the TriMark ordering system, complete order forms for inventory control and follow-up to ensure that orders are processed, all in support of group operations.
Sr. Project Manager(s): The Sr. Project Manager will lead the assigned engineering team through the overall engineering processes across multiple disciplines and multiple markets. The incumbent plans, directs and coordinates activities of all projects and product development processes to ensure that project goals and product development requirements are accomplished by performing the following duties personally or through assigned direct reports.
VICO (Outside Sales Reps)
As Market Manager Specialty Vehicle and Power Sports segments, the incumbent is to ensure that appropriate project APQP system deliverables, specifically "Phase One", are completed to the standards prescribed by TriMark's APQP process as well as fulfilling the requirements of our quality system.
The Market Manager serves as the internal voice of the assigned market and is responsible for maintaining a disciplined understanding of market size, market share, customer applications, buying influences, industry trends, product gaps, competitor capabilities, and emerging opportunities. The incumbent is expected to convert this information into practical market strategies, annual business plans, pricing recommendations, product development input and sales priorities that strengthen TriMark's market position.
Of primary importance is the ability to identify and understand TriMark's competitors. The position provides input into the file on statistics of key competitors. The incumbent informs the Director of Sales and the Senior Management Team of all strategic advancements of TriMark's competitors.
The incumbent is responsible for preparing the requested market information. This includes comparing current market applications with TriMark's existing market capture to identify gaps and potential growth opportunities. The information is then incorporated into TriMark's operational and strategic plans. The information is also used by the Senior Leadership Team to make decisions about capital expenditures, expansion and growth.
The incumbent identifies product line needs and is responsible to supply requested market information such as competitor analysis, product line gap analysis, market trends, etc. The position ensures that an understanding of TriMark's APQP process is understood/followed by the Work Group as well as customers. The position ensures that TriMark's customers understand what is required of them to complete projects in a timely and effective manner. The position requires the preparation and implementation of Key Account Management plans and targeted Key Developmental Account Plans. These plans are reviewed by the Director of Sales and the Senior Management Team to ensure that TriMark meets the expectations of key accounts and market leaders.
The incumbent supplements the formulation of the Long-Range Five-Year Plan specifically providing the anticipated annual sales revenue made up by sustained sales, project opportunity delta sales, and anticipated market economic conditions.
The position monitors the profitability of products offered/sold within the Specialty Vehicle and Power Sports segments. Profitability is monitored to ensure that corporate goals are achieved. When a product or market falls below the desired level of profitability, the position participates with other appropriate personnel to make the decision to redesign the product, reduce costs, use market-based pricing, increase prices, discontinue the product, or use a combination of these actions.
When new products or next-generation products are necessary to achieve targeted profit margins, the incumbent interacts with Engineering to develop solutions for the market's present and future needs. The incumbent works with the Product Managers, Sr. Project Manager, and Outside Sales Engineers/Reps to analyze product life cycle, effective product substitutions and cost reduction efforts for TriMark's existing product lines.
The position must possess a high level of communication skills, both written and oral. The position must have the ability to understand and communicate with the marketing, purchasing and engineering personnel of TriMark's customers. The position must be able to use his/her communication skills to reinforce TriMark's points of difference regarding services offered and product enhancements or features. This includes but is not limited to a thorough technical aptitude for TriMark's current and future product offerings for application solutions. The incumbent must be able to organize information in such a manner that it provides solid documentation and ideas from which to make good market decisions.
The position must manage key accounts strategically to lead these accounts to continued usage of current TriMark products and to ensure TriMark can quote any new product opportunities that may arise. The position works along with Field Sales Engineers/Reps to develop strategic relationships with key accounts to be able to determine which resources at customer locations are responsible for what type of purchasing and engineering and marketing decisions. This will enable the position to identify key opportunities and present TriMark as a source solution for the customer's application needs. The incumbent must also possess a high level of negotiation skills supplemented by employing a very high working knowledge of TriMark's product lines to influence customers' selections.
The position provides guidance for selecting and bringing forward opportunities to the IRT and SV Work Group. The incumbent is responsible for the identification and completion of appropriate project deliverables to ensure the TriMark APQP development system is consistently followed. This also includes providing clear and consistent delivery of information to both internal and external customers for the segment in conjunction with support for the integrity of TriMark products.
Principal Accountabilities

• Develop and lead annual business plans for assigned Specialty Vehicle and Power Sports segments, covering market size, share, growth targets, key accounts, product opportunities, pricing, risks and actions.
• Conduct ongoing market analysis using customer input, research, trade events, industry networks, CRM data and sales input to identify trends, needs, application changes and growth opportunities.
• Monitor key competitors' offerings, pricing, strengths, weaknesses and strategic moves, and communicate threats and opportunities to the Director of Sales and Senior Management Team.
• Lead market capture and gap analysis to identify priority opportunities for profitable growth across applications, customer segments and product categories.
• Recommend pricing strategies based on market value, competition, customer needs, profitability, cost changes and TriMark margin objectives.
• Monitor profitability and help determine when products should be redesigned, cost-reduced, repriced, substituted, expanded or discontinued.
• Translate market and customer input into roadmap recommendations, gap analysis, next-generation needs, substitutions and cost-reduction opportunities with Engineering, Product Management and Sales.
• Develop key account plans that align customer priorities with market strategy to retain business, capture opportunities and support market-leading customers.
• Prepare annual sales plans and Five-Year Plan input, including market outlook, sales expectations, opportunities, economic assumptions, growth initiatives and risk assessment.
• Coordinate outside sales by communicating target accounts, developmental accounts, opportunity priorities, market expectations and follow-up requirements.
• Ensure ERP/Infor accurately documents market and opportunity information for business planning and decision making.
• Support APQP and launches by ensuring customer requirements, market expectations, application needs and Phase One deliverables are identified, communicated and completed per TriMark processes.
• Represent TriMark in customer visits, trade shows and market events, reinforcing its value, technical capabilities, product advantages and application solutions.\
• Support continual improvement and compliance with TriMark's QMS and EMS while advancing its mission, vision, values, strategy and growth goals.

Core Competencies

• Market and competitive intelligence: Ability to assess market size, share, trends, customer applications, competitor activity and growth opportunities.
• Strategic planning and execution: Ability to develop market plans, set priorities, align resources and convert strategy into measurable business actions.
• Customer and key account management: Ability to build strong customer relationships, understand decision drivers and develop account plans that support retention and growth.
• Commercial, costing and financial acumen: Ability to evaluate pricing, product cost, margins, profitability, cost drivers and the financial performance of assigned markets.
• Market financial performance management: Ability to monitor assigned market revenue, margin performance, cost trends and profitability, and recommend actions to improve financial results.
• Product and application knowledge: Strong understanding of TriMark products, customer applications, manufacturing capabilities and product performance requirements.
• Voice-of-customer translation: Ability to convert customer needs and market feedback into product roadmap input, project requirements and improvement opportunities.
• Cross-functional leadership: Ability to lead through influence across Sales, Engineering, Product Management, APQP, Customer Service and outside sales representatives.
• Data-based decision-making: Ability to use CRM data, sales history, market research and financial information to support recommendations and decisions.
• APQP and project discipline: Working knowledge of APQP requirements and ability to support Phase One deliverables, project specifications and launch readiness.
• Quality and compliance awareness: Knowledge of applicable ISO 9001, IATF 16949, QMS, EMS and customer-specific quality requirements.
• Communication and presentation skills: Ability to communicate clearly with customers, sales representatives, technical teams and senior leadership in written and verbal formats.
• Negotiation and influence: Ability to position TriMark value, resolve concerns and influence customer and internal decisions professionally.
• CRM and business systems proficiency: Ability to accurately maintain account, opportunity, contact, call report and market information in CRM and related business systems.
• Continuous improvement and problem solving: Ability to identify problems, apply structured problem-solving methods and support improvement actions that strengthen customer satisfaction and business results.

Working Conditions
The office area is air-conditioned and working conditions are excellent. There is some eyestrain due to the close detail of the work. This area requires normal or corrected vision with no color deficiency, normal depth perception, and peripheral vision of 180 degrees. Safety glasses are required whenever office personnel are in the plant production area. The noise level is 50 to 80dB; hearing protection is not required. Hearing protection is encouraged if office personnel will be spending more than brief periods in high-noise areas of the plant.
Physical Effort
Bending - Floor level
Stooping - 5% of time
Squatting - Intermittently
Twisting - 20 degrees
Turning - 90 degrees
Reaching - Full reach
Lifting - 75# or less
Pushing/pulling 20# or less
Standing - 25% or less
Sitting - 50% or more
Walking - 25% or less
Climbing - Stairways
Grasping - Normal dexterity