SALES APPLICATION ENGINEER
Location: Greater Charlotte, NC Area (Remote-Based)
Territory: North Carolina & Virginia
Position Overview
Our client, a leading manufacturer and supplier of precision metalworking solutions, is seeking an experienced Application Engineer to support continued growth throughout North Carolina and Virginia.
This customer-facing technical sales role is responsible for developing new business, supporting distributor partners, and providing application expertise to manufacturing customers. The successful candidate will serve as a trusted advisor to distributors and end users by identifying productivity improvements, recommending tooling solutions, and helping customers optimize their machining processes.
This position is ideally based in the Greater Charlotte, NC area and requires regular travel throughout the territory.
Key Responsibilities
- Drive sales growth by promoting and supporting a portfolio of high-performance metalworking and cutting tool solutions.
- Develop new business opportunities with manufacturing customers and distributor partners throughout the territory.
- Build, maintain, and strengthen relationships with distributor sales teams through joint sales calls, training programs, technical support, and customer development initiatives.
- Provide technical application support, product recommendations, and process improvement guidance to end-user customers.
- Conduct tooling evaluations, product testing, and application troubleshooting to improve customer productivity and outcomes.
- Support distributor events, open houses, training sessions, demonstrations, and customer engagement activities.
- Manage small- to medium-sized application opportunities while collaborating with senior technical resources on larger or more complex projects.
- Develop strong working relationships with key decision-makers including manufacturing engineers, production managers, purchasing professionals, and operations leadership.
- Maintain accurate account activity, customer information, sales opportunities, and forecasting data within the CRM system.
- Deliver technical presentations and educational seminars to distributors and end users to increase product awareness and application knowledge.
- Develop annual territory plans, sales forecasts, and budget recommendations.
- Utilize consultative and value-based selling techniques to identify customer needs and drive long-term growth.
- Communicate market trends, competitive activity, customer feedback, and product improvement opportunities to internal teams.
Qualifications
- Associate degree required; Bachelor's degree preferred.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in metalworking, cutting tools, machining, manufacturing, or a related industrial field.
- Proven track record of achieving and exceeding sales goals.
- Strong technical aptitude and hands-on understanding of cutting tool applications, machining processes, and manufacturing operations.
- Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Experience utilizing CRM platforms and Microsoft Office applications.
- Strong organizational, time management, and territory planning skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with internal teams.
- Project management and problem-solving experience preferred.
- Self-motivated, results-oriented, and customer-focused.
Travel Requirements
- Travel throughout North Carolina and Virginia, including regular customer and distributor visits.
- Approximately 4–5 days per week in the field.
- Combination of local day travel and overnight travel as needed.
- Periodic attendance at sales meetings, training events, industry trade shows, and company-sponsored events.