Application Engineer Specialist

SKF • Whitpain Township, PA

2d • $93,000 - $105,000

About The Position

The Application Engineer Specialist works closely with a team of engineers to understand and select SKF product solutions—including bearings, seals, lubrication, and condition monitoring—for specific customer applications. The role promotes SKF’s technical expertise and value proposition in line with corporate and sales strategy and works closely with Sales and Customer Service as part of the responsible Account Team. The engineer manages technical customer relationships by responding to inquiries, handling complaints, and evaluating technical risks.

The position provides technical support to industrial OEM customers across a range of industries, performs engineering calculations and system analysis using SKF tools, and assists customers with bearing selection and design optimization. It also involves bearing inspections, damage analysis, root-cause evaluation of warranty or product-development returns, and continuous improvement initiatives using the DFMEA process.

The engineer collaborates across Sales, Business Development, Quality, Product Development, and Demand Chain, coordinating engineering work from technical proposal through production. The role also supports training, project management, customer communication, and documentation of customer activities in SKF systems. Domestic and international travel may be required up to 30% of the time, depending on customer needs.

Requirements

• Must be a US citizen or permanent resident.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a comparable degree.
• At least 5 years of design/application experience in an industrial environment, involving power train applications or rotating equipment, working with customers, and designing mechanical systems.
• Strong mechanical hands-on ability and technical aptitude.
• Strong organizational skills, including multitasking and managing projects with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong analytical, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
• Track record of proactive and continuous improvement within area of responsibility.
• Demonstrated customer service, interpersonal, and teamwork skills.
• Outcome-oriented critical thinker capable of prioritizing to achieve results.
• Excellent spoken and written English communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of bearings, transmission products, or other rotating components.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support to industrial OEM customers in recreational vehicles, machine tool, automation, robotics, food and beverage, wood processing, medical, appliances, semiconductor, energy, and printing and coating industries.
• Perform engineering calculations and system analysis using SKF simulation and calculation tools.
• Assist customers with bearing selection and recommend design optimizations.
• Perform bearing inspections, damage analysis, and root-cause evaluations on warranty or product-development returns.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives using the DFMEA process.
• Review customer testing methodologies and product-design functionality, and recommend changes to improve bearing performance and cost efficiency.
• Manage tasks and projects to gate, track, and prioritize projects.
• Collaborate with Sales, Business Development, Quality, Product Development, and Demand Chain to manage engineering aspects from technical proposal through final production and meet application quality, cost, and performance objectives.
• Serve as a technical specialist and resource within the Industrial Sales Unit for SKF products and technologies, leveraging relationships with global subject matter experts.
• Participate in and contribute to internal and external training, and assist with developing training materials.
• Coordinate with Product Engineering and Product Development teams to facilitate DFMEA and discuss it with customers for specific projects or product lines.
• Record customer activities, tasks, projects, reports, and visits in the appropriate SKF SharePoint site and C4C customer relationship management tool.
• Travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time as customer needs dictate.

Benefits

• Generous paid time off policy.
• 13 paid holidays.
• Flexible work options, depending on role.
• Comprehensive healthcare options and an opt-out payment.
• Company-paid life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability.
• Supplemental benefits including critical illness coverage.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Employee discount programs.
• Short Term Variable Salary or sales incentive based on company performance and at management’s discretion.
• 401(k) program with a 100% match on up to 5% of elected contributions, fully vested, plus an additional 5% company contribution.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level