Account Manager II

ZF Group•Northville, MI

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

ZF Active Safety US Inc. has a job opening for the position of Account Manager II based out of its location in Northville, MI. This role involves managing sales promotional activities for assigned key accounts, leading internal and external activities related to account management, and guiding cross-functional teams to achieve sales goals. The Account Manager II will leverage product development experience to drive marketing strategies, identify new business opportunities, and act as the primary liaison between sales and other departments for product development and engineering programs. Responsibilities include establishing sales forecasts, evaluating competition, developing pricing strategies, and assessing market share to meet return on sales objectives. The position also requires serving as the primary technical product expert, providing customer service, addressing product modifications, and offering technical development guidance to lower-level sales associates during customer visits. Strategy determination for new and existing business, alignment with leadership, and serving as an interface for account managers to upper-level management are key. The role involves establishing relationships with key customer personnel and driving the implementation of sales strategies and business directives. A hybrid work schedule is available, with approximately 25% travel to Europe, Mexico, and parts of the US for launch management, quality management, sequencing, audits, and commercial justification at ZF manufacturing facilities. Travel may also be required to accompany customer quality management and commercial teams at manufacturing facilities.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Production Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or closely related field.
3 years of experience in sales engineering or account management for Stellantis E-Motors, Gen2 variants, and electrified powertrain systems.
Demonstrated experience with SAP for sales process, delivery and pricing updates.
Demonstrated experience with Strategic process for vital acquisitions and long-term company strategy and viability.
Demonstrated experience with Sales Acquisition and offer process according to global automotive sales strategy.
Demonstrated experience with Execution of Quotation Preparation and Costing disclosure.
Demonstrated experience with best practice quote letter analysis, quote package handover, customer tool approval, claims recoveries, and project milestone from project initiation to project closure.
Demonstrated experience with GDPEP or corporate guidelines for project management and documentation in C-PLACE.
Demonstrated experience with Risk analysis, project timeline creation, and tracking.
Demonstrated experience with Sales CORE system for sales process execution and tracking.
Demonstrated experience with Sales and business planning, including sales acquisition calendars, and annual business plans, including operational and forecasting planning.

Responsibilities

Manage sales promotional activities for assigned key account(s).
Lead internal and external activities related to the management of accounts or regions.
Lead cross functional team(s) consisting of R&D employees, controlling, cost engineering, sales engineering, project management, purchasing, industrial engineering, system partner, quality, etc. to ensure sales goals are achieved.
Utilize product development experience to leverage marketing strategies, identify new business and market opportunities, and serve as the primary liaison between sales and other departments with respect to all product development initiatives and engineering programs.
Establish sales forecasts, evaluate competition, develop pricing strategies, and evaluate market share and/or growth potential to meet/exceed divisional return on sales objectives.
Serve as the primary technical product expert on matters of customer service, product modification, application, design, or other problems, initiating countermeasures or escalation if necessary.
Accompany visits to customer sites to provide technical development guidance, including guiding, instructing, and training lower-level sales associates or representatives.
Determine strategy for achieving new business and maintaining current business including alignment with leadership for implementation.
Serve as an interface for account managers to upper-level management including tracking and reporting status of acquisition projects.
Establish relationship with key customer personnel.
Drive implementation and continuous improvement activities of sales strategies, programs, and business unit directives.