Job Summary
Integrated within the Sales Organization of a given Customer Business Unit (“CBU”), the Sales Engineer is responsible for the Sales development of the assigned portfolio of products, for a delimited perimeter (Program, Serial Life, Acquisitions) within a Division / Region.
This role involves client liaison and negotiations with a very strong emphasis on the financial side. We’re looking for someone who has a very good economics understanding, to include things like:
- Daily cost analysis/ forecasting
- Year-on-year inflation
- Calculating base cost on year of economics
- Market/ financial trends – both in SA and internationally
- Acquisitions
- Commercial claims
Preference will be given to candidates with an automotive/ technical background.
The main missions of the role are to:
Prepare the commercial offers to answer on due time to the Customer requests :
- Get a good understanding of the costing files
- Propose and get validated the targeted pricing and the negotiation path / tactics to convince the customer
- Formalize the offer with the appropriate wording
- Understand and apply the guidelines proposed by the hierarchy regarding contractual management
Serial Life :
- Be part of the Program core team
- Prepare and negotiate the commercial answers to the customer ECRs (“Engineering Changes Requests”)
- Detailed understanding of piece price, tooling and D&D impact
- Follow the Variable Cost Margin of the products
- Prepare and follow commercial productivity proposals
- Understanding and commercial management of local economics (inflation, exchange rate)
- Understanding and rigorous implementation of the Sales Administration guidelines & processes (purchase orders, invoices, terms of payment, overdues…)
- Commercial management for Spare Parts
Programs :
- Be part of the Program core team
- Get a good understanding of the costing files
- Propose and get validated the targeted pricing and the negotiation path / tactics to convince the customer
- Prepare the commercial offers to answer on due time to the Customer requests
- Prepare and negotiate – on a proactive manner – the commercial answers to the customer ECRs
- Detailed understanding of piece price, tooling and D&D impact
- Follow the Variable Cost Margin of the products
- Understanding and commercial management of local economics (inflation, exchange rate)
- Understanding of the Program Business Plan and associated commercial levers
- Follow the profitability of the Program
- Develop the appropriate intimacy with his/her Customer contacts (Purchasing, Engineering, Programs)
- Build relationships with key staff and program team in the organization
- Monitor the level of customer satisfaction at regular intervals or after each significant step
Essential for the position:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Management / Financial Management
- Business international mindset
- Good understanding of client business, products and key competitors
- Results oriented with strong written and oral communications skills
- Good analytical skills and rigor, agile with figures
- Appetite for negotiation
- Fluent in English
- Proficiency in Excel, Power Point, MS Word
- Ability to work in a matrixed organisation
- International and Entrepreneurial mind set
- Strong analytical skills