Application Engineering Manager

Join 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 RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical 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.

Requirements

Skills 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.

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Benefits

HARTING 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!