Sales Application Specialist – Bakery

This position serves as the subject matter expert in bakery processing equipment and applications, providing expert guidance to Sales, Application Engineering, Market Development Management, and Product Marketing Management prior to product delivery. By providing comprehensive application and technical expertise across designated equipment platforms, this position enhances stakeholder confidence and contributes to superior commercial outcomes.

This position will travel up to 75% of the time, with some international travel. Normal business hours are 8:00am to 5:00pm. Schedule needs to be flexible to accommodate internal and external customer schedules.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive application and technical expertise in the bakery processing equipment and applications to facilitate structured assessments to thoroughly understand customer requirements, constraints, utilities, integration points, and performance expectations. Proactively identify potential technical risks, limitations, and assumptions in early project stages.
• Frequently travel with the Sales organization and assist by providing expert application expertise, technical guidance, and help facilitate customer opportunity development.
• Partner with sales to ensure accurate project scoping, technically sound configurations, and credible performance expectations by translating customer requirements into validated, fit-for-purpose equipment solutions. Reduce technical risk, minimize re-quotes, and accelerate opportunity progression through disciplined technical discovery, validation, and collaboration across Sales, Applications, Engineering, and Product teams.
• Collaborate with Sales and Application Engineering to translate customer needs into accurate machine configurations, options, and integration parameters.
• Assist Sales Management with the onboarding process and ongoing development of Sales Managers, focusing on both application and technical skills.
• Build strong partnerships and collaborate throughout the organization—both in the U.S. and abroad—with key functional teams, showcasing leadership in the product line.
• Work closely with global headquarters on your assigned product lines to address challenges, exchange market insights, and advocate for improvements or innovations necessary to meet U.S. market needs.
• Assist Product Marketing Management with new product launches by taking lead and working with responsible departments to identify technical specifications, installation costs, spare parts, training, and demonstrations.
• Support Product Marketing Management in ensuring technical accuracy in global marketing communications such as articles and white papers.
• Support customer demonstrations, trials, and FAT/SAT activities as required. Help define measurable performance criteria and success metrics.
• Ability to set up run and adjust machine settings with fundamental grasp of functionality.
• Manage business expenses with focus on cost containment by submitting expense reports in a timely manner.

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and five years of experience in capital equipment product management, related product management, or related technical field; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference, and fundamentals of plane and solid geometry. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.

Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.

To perform this job successfully, an individual should be proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel, and Power Point. Working knowledge of SAP CRM preferred.