Material Handling Specialist

Rhino Tool House

Job Description: Material Handling Specialist

Travel: Approximately 50%, including overnight site visits

FLSA / type: Full-time, exempt

Position Summary

The Material Handling Specialist is the region’s application and process expert for material handling. This role supports Sales Engineers and customers from first site review through quoted solution and delivery. The Specialist measures the application, organizes the right vendor path, assists in the building of a complete quote package, and stays with the job until the customer has a working solution. This is not a catalog or inside-sales role. It is customer-facing, plant-floor work. An engineering degree is not required. Practical experience specifying, quoting, or installing overhead lifting, workstation cranes, rail, hoists, carts, conveyors, or similar equipment is preferred.

Material Handling at Rhino Tool House includes, but is not limited to:

• Workstation and bridge cranes, jibs, monorails, and enclosed rail
• Hoists and intelligent lifts (servo / balancer style systems)
• Ergonomic lift assists, manipulators, and end tooling
• Workstations, carts, flow racks, and custom fabricated handling equipment
• Conveyors and related in-plant movement of product
• Design & Build products (pipe-and-joint / lean structures, custom carts and racks, conveyor) when they are the right fit

Essential Duties

• Customer and Sales Engineer support
• Travel to customer sites to measure and organize applications (the MO step of MODERN).
• Run site reviews with Sales Engineers; document conditions, loads, clearances, utilities, and constraints that change the quote.
• Be the first technical call for the region’s Sales Engineers on material handling opportunities.
• Protect the Sales Engineer’s time by doing the application work that should not sit on their calendar.

Quoting and process

• Use the Material Handling workflow (Opportunity to Delivery) and the Elements worksheets on every qualifying opportunity.
• Build complete, reviewable quote packages: application notes, vendor selection, scope, assumptions, and installation requirements.
• Tag quotes correctly so revenue, vendor, and margin can be tracked.
• Follow the company’s vendor path (Agnostic+): honor a customer-directed brand; when the customer asks for a recommendation, lead with the vendor that best serves a national company and a clean return.
• Escalate Design & Build work through the established D&B process

Vendor and capacity

• Know the preferred vendors in each product category and when to go to the next option.
• Watch vendor capacity and lead time on live opportunities; flag overloaded lines early.
• Maintain working relationships with key vendors without becoming a single-brand salesperson.

Team and coverage

• Support the assigned region first. Cover neighboring work when the team lead asks.
• Join the Material Handling team calls and the region’s Sales Engineer cadence.
• Spend the majority of working days in the field supporting sales (target: six days out of ten).
• Coach Sales Engineers on how to start an MH opportunity so the Specialist is not reinventing the application on every call.

Qualifications

Required

• Several years of practical experience in material handling, industrial distribution, plant engineering support, or a closely related field. An engineering degree is not required.
• Comfort on a plant floor: able to take measurements, read a layout, and talk with operators and maintenance without a script.
• Ability to turn a messy site visit into a clear scope and a complete quote.
• Willingness to travel approximately 50%, including multi-day trips and occasional weekend travel when a customer window requires it.
• Valid driver’s license and ability to meet company driving standards.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office / Excel and comfort learning company tools (HubSpot, Acumatica, Elements worksheets, SharePoint).

Preferred

• Hands-on time with overhead cranes, jibs, enclosed rail, hoists, intelligent lifts, carts, or conveyors.
• Experience supporting a field sales team rather
• Familiarity with common MH brands in this space (examples: Gorbel, HSI, Demag/R&M, JDN, Harrington, intelligent lift platforms).
• Ability to sketch or mark up a layout well enough that a vendor or fabricator can price from it.

What this role is not

• It is not a project manager of record. Specialists stay with the application; they do not absorb every PM task the region wants to offload.
• It is not a licensed Professional Engineer role and does not require a PE stamp.
• It is not Advanced Manufacturing. Robotics, AGVs, and cobot cells belong to that team.
• It is not an inside desk job with occasional travel. The job lives at the customer.

Success in the first 6–12 months

• Site reviews and quotes follow the written MH workflow and Elements worksheets without being chased.
• Sales Engineers in the assigned region know who to call and get a response that keeps the deal moving.
• Quotes are tagged, scoped, and assumption-noted so scope creep is visible before the customer signs.
• The Specialist is in the field the majority of the week and is not operating as a remote catalog desk.

Work environment

Work is split between customer plants, regional offices, and home office.

Plant visits involve walking production floors, climbing to inspect existing rail or structure when safe and permitted, and working around running equipment.