Technical Service Manager ROCKSTAR

THE NO-NONSENSE SUMMARY: This posi­tion is intend­ed for tech­ni­cal pro­fes­sion­als who love to both be very orga­nized and learn about new tech­nolo­gies and how our mate­ri­als can be used in their appli­ca­tions. Report­ing to the Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, this posi­tion will require that you work close­ly with ven­dors, cus­tomers, and a tech­ni­cal staff of appli­ca­tions engineers.

ROLE’S MISSION

The prod­uct and appli­ca­tions engi­neer sup­ports new tech­ni­cal sales oppor­tu­ni­ties that increase CAPLINQ’s sales rev­enue of prod­ucts sup­plied by our suppliers.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• Cre­ate & main­tain a tech­ni­cal train­ing library for mate­ri­als-relat­ed prod­ucts and ser­vices to train and devel­op new hires, tech­ni­cal staff, sales, and customers.
• Cen­tral­ize tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion from sup­pli­ers and ven­dors to facil­i­tate effec­tive use and dissemination.
• Train and man­age Appli­ca­tions Engi­neers to use tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion and train­ing mate­r­i­al to sup­port the sales team in pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal solu­tions to customers.

CANDIDATE COMPETENCIES | Can­di­date can/has/is:

• Devel­op tech­ni­cal exper­tise in all the appli­ca­tions and prod­uct cat­e­gories offered by the sales team.
• Skilled at ana­lyz­ing tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion to iden­ti­fy trends, pat­terns, and areas for improve­ment in order to con­tin­u­ous­ly improve the tech­ni­cal ser­vice function.
• Atten­tion to detail; ensure tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion is accu­rate­ly con­sol­i­dat­ed, man­aged, & disseminated.
• Strong com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills to effec­tive­ly train and man­age Appli­ca­tions Engi­neers, as well as to com­mu­ni­cate tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion to inter­nal and exter­nal stakeholders.
• Effec­tive lead­er­ship skills to guide tech­ni­cal ser­vice teams, set & man­age OKRs and man­age projects
• Com­pile tech­ni­cal train­ing doc­u­ments and train sales & mar­ket­ing on our products

THE ROLE
Yes, you read that right – we’re look­ing for a SUPERSTAR. We’re seek­ing an orga­nized and tech­ni­cal­ly skilled indi­vid­ual that can both cre­ate and main­tain a tech­ni­cal library as well as train and man­age a team of Appli­ca­tions Engi­neers. We wel­come both expe­ri­enced tech­ni­cal man­agers as well as tech­ni­cal indi­vid­u­als who have not yet led a team to apply. The com­pen­sa­tion pack­age will be com­men­su­rate with the appli­can­t’s expe­ri­ence and skill set.

Our cus­tomers require tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion pre­sent­ed to them in a man­ner that they can com­pre­hend and apply, and we are seek­ing some­one who can both col­lect, pro­duce and orga­nize this type of infor­ma­tion as well as teach and train oth­ers to pro­vide this type of support.

You will col­lab­o­rate close­ly with the sales team to rec­om­mend new prod­ucts and appli­ca­tion meth­ods as well as to com­pre­hend the tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties that our cus­tomers encounter while using our prod­ucts. You will also work close­ly with our mar­ket­ing team to under­stand the prod­ucts we make and offer and they will work with you to pub­lish much of that tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion online. You will also be respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing a team of appli­ca­tion engi­neers who will field a diverse range of activ­i­ties and requests relat­ed to cus­tomer sup­port, ser­vice, and coor­di­na­tion of leads and projects.

Your suc­cess in this posi­tion will hinge on your pas­sion for immers­ing your­self in the tech­ni­cal details of our prod­ucts and assist­ing your team to sup­port sales and cus­tomers in select­ing and uti­liz­ing the appro­pri­ate prod­ucts for their appli­ca­tions. If you are some­one who prefers to focus on the tech­ni­cal rather than the com­mer­cial side of appli­ca­tions, this may be the ide­al posi­tion for you.

As a fast-grow­ing multi­na­tion­al, our prod­ucts and ser­vices cater to a vari­ety of indus­tries, includ­ing auto­mo­tive, fuel cell, semi­con­duc­tor, 5G, hydro­gen- & eMo­bil­i­ty, and we are seek­ing a Tech­ni­cal Ser­vice Man­ag­er to pro­vide the required tech­ni­cal sup­port to dri­ve sales. We are search­ing for a proac­tive, super-orga­nized, enthu­si­as­tic mul­ti­tasker who enjoys col­lab­o­rat­ing with engi­neers on tech­nolo­gies that will shape the future.

If you are inter­est­ed in this posi­tion, please read on. How­ev­er, if you find this job post to be exhaust­ing, we rec­om­mend tak­ing a nap and explor­ing oth­er job opportunities.

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. Cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing tech­ni­cal doc­u­ments of prod­uct infor­ma­tion (about 40% of your time)

You will receive tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion from every­where; cus­tomers, ven­dors, and your own tech­ni­cal team. You and your team will be respon­si­ble for under­stand­ing what it is, and trans­lat­ing it into a for­mat that will help sales sup­port cus­tomers’ applications.

Exam­ples of activities:

• Col­lect­ing and inter­pret­ing test results on our prod­ucts from sales, cus­tomers & vendors
• Inter­act­ing with sup­pli­ers and cus­tomers to get and give the lat­est data and test results
• Design­ing, con­duct­ing, and lead­ing exper­i­ments to gen­er­ate cus­tomer-rel­e­vant data
• Cre­at­ing TDS, Prod­uct Selec­tor guides & Pre­sen­ta­tions to show­case exist­ing and roadmap products
• Answer­ing cus­tomer tech­ni­cal inquiries about our products

2. Train­ing and man­ag­ing a team of Appli­ca­tions Engi­neers (about 40% of your time)

You will man­age a team of appli­ca­tion engi­neers that will be respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal sup­port to our cus­tomers. You will be respon­si­ble for them col­lect­ing and using all the infor­ma­tion you have cre­at­ed as well as man­ag­ing them in a way that sup­ports your objectives. 

Exam­ples of activities:

• Set Objec­tives & Key Results (OKRs) for the appli­ca­tions engineers
• Teach and train the appli­ca­tions engi­neers on all the company’s prod­ucts and applications
• Teach, train, and lead by exam­ple to teach the engi­neers how to sup­port cus­tomers’ projects
• Devel­op and con­duct week­ly tech­ni­cal train­ing ses­sions with engi­neers, sales staff, and new hires
• Devel­op the appli­ca­tions engi­neers also to be able to cre­ate and lead tech­ni­cal sessions

3. Cen­tral­ize and dis­sem­i­nate a tech­ni­cal library (about 20% of your time)

We want to use all this valu­able tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion being cre­at­ed. The best way is to cen­tral­ize and orga­nize it in a way that new hires, tech­ni­cal staff, sales, engi­neers, and cus­tomers know where to find it and how to use it.

Exam­ples of activities:

• Cre­ate a library of tech­ni­cal documentation
• Devel­op a sys­tem to onboard new tech­ni­cal hires and sales engi­neers to learn the tech­ni­cal material
• Reg­u­lar­ly teach sales engi­neers and oth­er col­leagues where to find spe­cif­ic tech­ni­cal information

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. Curios­i­ty – We want a per­son who is curi­ous and hun­gry. Google is your best friend, and you might be secret­ly addict­ed to get­ting as much infor­ma­tion as you can. Some­times you Google too much 😉
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. Com­plete Prod­uct Knowl­edge – You do not need to be a tech­ni­cal mas­ter with all the prod­ucts we cur­rent­ly offer. If you want to learn, that is more important.
2. Expe­ri­enced Man­ag­er – You do not need to have years of expe­ri­ence man­ag­ing peo­ple. Many of us were first-time man­agers and learned through our sys­tem how to become great managers.

What skills do you require?

We don’t even have any hard skills that are required. The ide­al can­di­date would be one who:

• • Has a tech­ni­cal degree or equiv­a­lent expe­ri­ence in Engi­neer­ing, or Bach­e­lor of Science
  • Asks ques­tions, then asks more ques­tions, then asks even more questions
  • Is very orga­nized, and likes to have a place for every­thing and every­thing in its place
  • Is a strong plan­ner and orga­niz­er and thrives in get­ting things done 
  • Is very com­put­er lit­er­ate, and knows their way around Google Docs, Sheets & Slides (or Microsoft)
  • Is a Google (and Chat­G­PT) pow­er-user, for­ev­er ask­ing Google ques­tions to get new answers 
  • Has a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el of writ­ten and spo­ken Eng­lish (at least 8/10)
  • 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 sure come in handy around here.

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. 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.
3. Love mar­ket research: There is always so much to learn in our indus­try. If you love to dig into the details and then can sum­ma­rize what you’ve learned in Pow­er­Point or sim­i­lar, we can use that too

WHY WORK FOR CAPLINQ?

1. Col­lab­o­rate with out­stand­ing peo­ple: We hire only the best. Our stan­dards are high and our employ­ees enjoy work­ing along­side oth­er high achievers.
2. Make an imme­di­ate impact: New employ­ees can expect to be giv­en real respon­si­bil­i­ty for the growth of the com­pa­ny. You are empow­ered to per­form as soon as you join the team!
3. Gain well-round­ed expe­ri­ence: CAPLINQ offers a diverse and dynam­ic envi­ron­ment where you will get the chance to work direct­ly with exec­u­tives and devel­op exper­tise across mul­ti­ple areas of the business.
4. A work hard, play hard men­tal­i­ty: CAPLINQ places high val­ue on work hard and play hard. We have beer o’clock on Fri­days, a sum­mer BBQ, Christ­mas din­ner, and Social Com­mit­tee events to cel­e­brate the hard work eth­ic the team has for the company.

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:

• A link to your LinkedIn pro­file (not a CV)

• 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.