Application Engineering Manager

Application Engineering ManagerJoin HARTING! A leader in connectivity products and custom solutions… We are seeking an Application Engineering Manager (Hybrid; based in Elgin, Illinois) to join our growing team. The Senior Technical Application Consultant is an embedded, customer-facing technical expert dedicated to supporting a strategic hyperscale data center account. The role ensures timely, high-quality technical and application support for customers, distributors, and Sales, including deeper, customer-embedded design support. This leader develops the team, prioritizes resources, advances knowledge-transfer tools and systems, and ensures customer-service and department KPIs are met in alignment with HARTING strategic priorities. Periodic travel is required. HARTING aims to be a trusted advisor to HARTING customers and positions itself as the go-to source expert for industrial connectivity solutions. We partner directly with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Distribution partners for standard product, designed-in value-added products, and Product Development initiatives.Essential Duties and ResponsibilitiesTechnical sales: Drives demand creation and design-in wins by ensuring accurate and timely application support, product and solution selection, BOM development, samples or prototypes, proposals, and customer presentations. Builds team capability for customer-embedded design support, including early engagement in requirements, architecture, validation, product integration, and complex strategic opportunities. Partners with Sales and Product Management to qualify and prioritize opportunities, coordinate technical resources, capture Voice of Customer, and advance design-in activity.Technical support and training: Ensures consistently responsive, accurate, and high-quality support for current applications and serves as escalation leader for complex or critical customer issues. Establishes and manages KPIs and service expectations for responsiveness, closure, customer satisfaction, workload, opportunity support, training effectiveness, and tool adoption. Creates scalable knowledge-transfer systems and oversees technical playbooks, application guides, onboarding and training resources, selection aids, BOM tools, troubleshooting guidance, and reusable solutions. Advances the tools and processes used to receive, triage, assign, track, resolve, document, and report technical requests, including CRM, case-management, knowledge, digital, AI-enabled, and self-service tools. Partners with Product Management, Engineering, Operations, Customer Success, Marketing, and global HARTING teams on customer issues, product improvements, NPI, technical content, and training.Leadership responsibilities: Responsible for team planning, hiring, onboarding, goal setting, coaching, development, performance management, career progression, and succession planning. Establishes a regular operating cadence to review workload, commitments, opportunities, escalations, travel, skills, and capacity; reallocates resources as priorities change. Develops and retains a high-performing, customer-focused team and future technical leaders and fosters accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and knowledge sharing. Acts as escalation point for team, customer, and cross-functional issues and drives team structure, tools, processes, and metrics for onsite, remote, and customer-embedded resources.RequirementsSkills and experience to thrive in this role: Excellent verbal and written communication, presentation, influencing, and relationship-building skills. Strong customer focus with demonstrated ability to manage service quality, escalations, competing priorities, and distributed technical resources. Strong leadership, coaching, organization, conflict-resolution, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Ability to guide engineers in translating customer requirements into technically and commercially viable solutions. Ability to establish practical processes, performance measures, knowledge systems, and digital tools and drive sustained adoption. Knowledge of industrial connectivity and relevant industrial markets is preferred. Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or related technical discipline; equivalent directly related education and experience may be considered. 7+ years of relevant application engineering, engineering, product management, technical sales, or customer-facing technical experience, including demonstrated team leadership. Experience leading distributed technical teams and supporting complex design-in or customer-embedded application programs is preferred. Requires approximately 20-30% travel. Must have a valid passport, as travel may be international.BenefitsHARTING USA offers an attractive total compensation package and employee benefits, including:Compensation: HARTING's Total Compensation Structure includes a Base Salary and Bonus Percentage. This role is eligible for a 5% discretionary annual bonus.Benefits: 21 days PTO (Paid Time Off) to start – quickly earn more PTO as you stick with us (36 days max) Medical, dental, and vision Insurance – several Blue Cross Blue Shield plan options to choose from Company-sponsored life, AD&D, and short- and long-term disability – at no cost to employee Paid parental leave, tuition and fitness reimbursement, and a hybrid working policy 401(k) with a 4% dollar-for-dollar match – fully vested upon eligibility!