Application Engineer

About the Company

R.A Jones, headquartered in Covington, KY with another location in Davenport, Iowa, is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of primary and secondary packaging machinery for the beverage, chemicals, food, pharma & healthcare, and industrial goods industries. R.A Jones offers an extensive portfolio of solutions for applications in aerosol filling, cartoning and box filling, chub packing, cup filling, pouching and modified atmosphere packaging.

R.A Jones is part of Coesia, a group of innovation-based industrial and packaging solutions companies operating globally, headquartered in Bologna, Italy.

Coesia has operating units in 36 countries, a turnover of 2,015 million euros in 2022 and over 8,000 employees.

As an Application Engineer within the Modernization team, you will develop technical solutions that help customers modify, upgrade, and improve their existing packaging equipment. You will work closely with customers, Sales, Sales Operations, Order Engineering, and other internal teams to understand customer needs, evaluate existing machinery, and translate technical challenges into practical, cost-effective solutions.

This role requires a strong understanding of industrial machinery and mechanical systems, along with the ability to interpret machine documentation that may range from legacy paper drawings to modern 2D and 3D CAD models.

You will be responsible for developing the technical concept, determining associated costs and resource requirements, and clearly documenting the proposed solution to support accurate customer proposals and successful project execution.

In this role, you are responsible for:

• Reviewing customer and sales requests to understand the problem, application requirements, and desired outcome.
• Evaluating existing packaging machinery, including legacy equipment, to determine appropriate modernization, modification, or reconfiguration solutions.
• Reviewing and interpreting a variety of machine documentation, including legacy paper drawings, 2D drawings, 3D models, specifications, and other technical documentation.
• Developing practical technical concepts and solutions based on existing machine configurations, customer requirements, and sound engineering principles.
• Collaborating with Order Engineering and other technical teams to evaluate proposed solutions, validate concepts, and align on technical requirements.
• Developing material, engineering, assembly, and other applicable cost estimates to support accurate project costing.
• Preparing clear technical write-ups that define the proposed solution, scope, sequence of operation, performance requirements, and other information necessary to support customer proposals and downstream engineering.
• Serving as a technical resource to Sales Operations Engineers and Sales team members throughout the proposal development process.
• Using CAD tools and other engineering resources to evaluate concepts, communicate solutions, and support technical decision-making.
• Supporting feasibility testing, modeling, or early-learning activities when necessary to validate new or complex applications and reduce project risk.
• Communicating technical concepts and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Supporting customer discussions and presentations when needed to ensure customer requirements are understood and appropriately addressed in the proposed solution.
• Maintaining awareness of applicable technologies, engineering practices, and developments related to packaging machinery and modernization solutions.
• Traveling occasionally to customer or vendor locations as business needs require.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering…