Technical Applications Engineer Rockstar

THE ROLE

Yes, you read that right – we’re look­ing for a ROCKSTAR. If the title sounds uncon­ven­tion­al, it’s because CAPLINQ is too. We’re look­ing for that spe­cial some­one who has not one, but two com­ple­men­tary skills – the amaz­ing abil­i­ty to grasp and explain tech­ni­cal con­cepts (Tech­ni­cal Sales Pre­sen­ter) and the abil­i­ty to man­age mul­ti­ple projects simul­ta­ne­ous­ly (Project Management).

Let me come right out and say that we wel­come new grad­u­ates of tech­ni­cal schools and pro­grams to apply, but if you think you are more expe­ri­enced and grasp exact­ly all the con­cepts described here­un­der — then you are also wel­come to apply. Salary and ben­e­fits will be com­men­su­rate with expe­ri­ence and skill set.

Our cus­tomers don’t respond to old-fash­ioned sales pitch­es, but they do respond very well to thought­ful tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion pre­sent­ed to them in a way that they can under­stand and use. Though you will not be “mar­ket­ing” nec­es­sar­i­ly, you will also be work­ing close­ly with the mar­ket­ing team to under­stand the tech­ni­cal chal­lenges that our cus­tomers face and help­ing them trans­late that into prod­uct pages, web­pages, and oth­er mar­ket­ing arti­facts that the tech­ni­cal sales team will be able to use to approach cus­tomers. There will be no prospect­ing, and your cus­tomers will most­ly be the sales team, you WILL have expo­sure to end-users, cus­tomers and the project chal­lenges they face. Your leads and projects will all come to you and it will be your respon­si­bil­i­ty to ser­vice, sup­port, and coor­di­nate a very diverse range of activ­i­ties and requests.

You will be suc­cess­ful in this posi­tion if you love div­ing into the tech­ni­cal details of our many prod­ucts and help­ing cus­tomers under­stand how to select and use the right prod­ucts for their appli­ca­tions. If you con­sid­er your­self more some­one who wants to help the cus­tomer than a pushy sales­man — keep reading.

As a fast-grow­ing multi­na­tion­al, our prod­ucts and ser­vices have found a sweet-spot in the mar­ket. Our mar­ket­ing and devel­op­ment teams have cre­at­ed prod­ucts and con­tent that are attract­ing new cus­tomers and now we’re look­ing for that spe­cial rock­star that is able to pro­vide the required tech­ni­cal sup­port to sup­port sales.

Do you describe your­self as a proac­tive, super-orga­nized, enthu­si­as­tic, mul­ti­task­ing rock­star that likes to work with engi­neers on the tech­nolo­gies that will shape the next 20 years? Our cus­tomers are man­u­fac­tur­ers in the auto­mo­tive, fuel cell, semi­con­duc­tor, 5G, hydro­gen- & eMo­bil­i­ty indus­tries, look­ing to define the next-gen­er­a­tion elec­tric vehi­cles, bat­ter­ies, iPhone- & Galaxy-parts, and major infra­struc­ture redesigns. Our cus­tomers will rely on you to rec­om­mend and sup­port projects with epox­ies, alloys, adhe­sives, ther­mal inter­face mate­ri­als, con­duc­tive plas­tics, and ion-exchange mem­branes. Cool, right?

Does this type of work inspire and moti­vate you? Then I encour­age you to read on. If on the oth­er hand, you’re already exhaust­ed read­ing this, I rec­om­mend you take a nap and check out anoth­er job post.

So, what will you be doing?

The posi­tion and respon­si­bil­i­ty will grow along with you. As a small, but fast-grow­ing com­pa­ny, the role will be excit­ing for you if you like work­ing in a small team and hav­ing a lot of free­dom to define your roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties. No two days will like­ly be the same.

Broad­ly speak­ing, your work will revolve around the fol­low­ing three activities:

1. Sales Sup­port Engi­neer (about 35% of your time)

You will sup­port our exist­ing cus­tomer-base of projects and prod­ucts and new leads will come in from sales (who have pre-screened them). You will be respon­si­ble to help cus­tomers (and the sales team) to select prod­ucts as well as the appli­ca­tion meth­ods to use them successfully.

Exam­ples of activities:

• Research and rec­om­mend prod­ucts for cus­tomers’ applications
• Sup­port cus­tomer projects and pro­grams with sam­ples, data, and test results
• Put togeth­er Pow­er­Point and sales pre­sen­ta­tions high­light­ing prod­uct fea­tures and applications
• Send emails to cus­tomers with prod­uct and appli­ca­tion data

2. Project Man­age­ment (about 35% of your time)

Since the sales cycle is long (approx. 2 years), you will be respon­si­ble for approx. 60 — 80 projects big and small all at var­i­ous stages of devel­op­ment. You will need to pri­or­i­tize the most impor­tant ones on a week­ly basis to make sure each has a sta­tus and the next action items to keep the projects mov­ing forward.

Exam­ples of activities:

• Update CRM to include cur­rent sta­tus and “Next Action Items” for Sales to fol­low-up on
• Work with cus­tomers to make sure they have what they need to move forward
• Work with the sup­pli­ers and our R&D team to update them on cur­rent projects and prod­uct requirements
• Answer incom­ing tech­ni­cal requests for prod­uct rec­om­men­da­tions and appli­ca­tion details

3. Cre­ate Appli­ca­tions, Engi­neer­ing & Mar­ket­ing Arti­facts (about 30% of your time)

You will have about 30% of your time that will be ded­i­cat­ed to cre­ative tasks where you can dive into the mar­ket, the appli­ca­tions, and the cus­tomers that are work­ing on design­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of devices. You will be asked to dig into these mar­kets and put togeth­er tech­ni­cal notes, emails and pre­sen­ta­tions that sales will be able to use.

Exam­ples of activities:

• Dive into the renew­able ener­gy mar­ket to fig­ure out what com­pa­nies and tech­nolo­gies are work­ing on
• Put togeth­er pre­sen­ta­tions, emails, prod­uct & appli­ca­tion pages to explain how CAPLINQ prod­ucts can help
• Present lists of com­pa­nies and tech­nolo­gies to the sales & mar­ket­ing teams to tar­get customers
• Fol­low-up on the work that is gen­er­at­ed from these activities

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

What mind­set do you require?

Skills can be learned. Mind­sets, though they can be learned too, are more often a part of who you are. We val­ue the mind­set at least, if not more than either expe­ri­ence or hard skills.

1. Curi­ous – We want a per­son who is curi­ous and hun­gry. You will be real­ly suc­cess­ful if you love to dive into the prod­ucts and appli­ca­tions your cus­tomers are work­ing on to under­stand what prob­lems they are try­ing to solve.
2. Data-dri­ven – Our cul­ture is a mer­i­toc­ra­cy. It encour­ages and rewards deci­sions that are made with data as opposed to senior­i­ty, intu­ition, or per­son­al experience.
3. Con­tin­u­ous Improve­ment – Peo­ple and process­es can always get bet­ter. We’re look­ing for some­one who ques­tions every process to see if there’s no room for improve­ment. Like­wise, if you want to improve your­self, we offer mon­ey to sup­port your con­tin­u­ous learn­ing journey.
4. Courage – Boss­es make mis­takes and col­leagues aren’t always fair. That’s life. We’re look­ing for some­one who may be afraid to con­front these issues, but does it anyway.

What skills do you NOT need?

Before we list the skills you do need, it is impor­tant that you know what we skills or expe­ri­ence we do NOT require:

1. Prod­uct knowl­edge: You do not need to know any­thing about any of the prod­ucts we sell, nor any of the ser­vices we pro­vide. All will be taught on the job.
2. Lots of work expe­ri­ence: This is meant to be an entry-lev­el posi­tion. You will learn and train on the job. If the activ­i­ties described sound just the kind of work you want to do, but you don’t yet have the expe­ri­ence to do it you are encour­aged to apply. Train­ing and coach­ing will be provided.

What skills do you require?

There are very few hard skills that are required, but the ide­al can­di­date would be one who:

• Has a tech­ni­cal degree or equiv­a­lent expe­ri­ence in Engi­neer­ing, or Bach­e­lor of Science
• Is com­fort­able and con­fi­dent when pre­sent­ing his/her work to others
• Has a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el of writ­ten and spo­ken Eng­lish (at least 7/10)
• Asks ques­tions, then asks more ques­tions, then asks even more questions
• Is a strong plan­ner and orga­niz­er and thrives in get­ting things done
• Is a Google pow­er-user, for­ev­er ask­ing Google ques­tions for answers he/she doesn’t know
• Is opti­mistic, ener­getic, and loves to smile
• Pays atten­tion to detail. The very last para­graph of this job vacan­cy has very impor­tant infor­ma­tion. Be sure you read it twice before applying.

Skills not required, but that get bonus points (any of them count):

The job we have in mind may not require these skills, but they will give you a head’s start:

1. An Engi­neer­ing Degree: You do not need to be an engi­neer, but our prod­ucts are by nature tech­ni­cal, so you will need to be able to grasp the con­cepts. If you want to learn, we’re able to teach.
2. Any sales or cus­tomer ser­vice expe­ri­ence: Whether it’s the wai­t­er­ing job that got you through school or a part-time job help­ing cus­tomers, it’s help­ful to be com­fort­able help­ing others.
3. Project man­age­ment expe­ri­ence: You will need to man­age mul­ti­ple projects simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. This means report­ing inter­nal­ly as well as exter­nal­ly to both cus­tomers and sup­pli­ers. Strong project man­age­ment skills will help you enormously.
4. Pre­sen­ta­tion skills: You will be pre­sent­ing all the time, be it inter­nal­ly or to cus­tomers or sup­pli­ers. If you are com­fort­able in front of a pub­lic audi­ence you will be able to use those skills here.

There is no need to send your CV unless it looks awe­some and you want to impress us with how it looks. Oth­er­wise, we will use your LinkedIn pro­file (bet­ter make sure it is complete!).

Instead, can­di­dates wish­ing to apply are request­ed to send an email to hr@caplinq.com that includes:

1. A link to your LinkedIn pro­file (not a CV)
2. A one-page, per­son­al cov­er letter

Let me repeat that last part in a dif­fer­ent way… We are look­ing for peo­ple who stand out from the crowd with a well-writ­ten, enthu­si­as­tic one-page let­ter telling us why this posi­tion speaks to you and what you could bring to the team.

If all you do is send a CV (we told you not to), and no cov­er let­ter your appli­ca­tion will be dis­card­ed with­out even being read.