Customer Solutions Engineer I

Spectrum Plastics Group • Minneapolis, MN

2d • $75,000 - $85,000

About The Position

To drive successful pricing outcomes through accurate, data-driven costing and pricing processes across projects. This role will engage with customers’ technical teams to adequately understand the customer need and ensure we cost estimate effectively, with the overarching goal of enabling Spectrum to best serve existing and new accounts through competitive and accurate pricing.

Requirements

• Engineering Degree or related field preferred. Appropriate experience may be considered.
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience in technical cost estimation, value engineering, or product design within a manufacturing or industrial setting.
• Experience with a CDMO strongly preferred.
• Candidate must have experience with technical design, technical process, and customer engagement in technical sales or engineering roles.
• Candidate must have knowledge and demonstrate understanding of manufacturing processes, material selection, and production cost drivers, with familiarity with design specifications.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to engage with non-engineering stakeholders via simplifying complex technical concepts.
• Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, sales, supply chain, and product marketing teams.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills to handle multiple RFQs, technical discussions, and costing exercises effectively.
• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident due to CUI/ITAR program compliance.

Nice To Haves

• Candidate preferred to have strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Candidate preferred to have knowledge and demonstrate understanding of some economic, accounting, and financial principles

Responsibilities

• Act as a technical liaison to customers, providing confidence in engineering expertise and guiding them through technical discussions of clarity and feasibility of proposed opportunities.
• Engage with customers to understand and provide relevant feedback (e.g., opportunities to drive down cost without impacting efficacy) on technical details of their quote requests and design elements.
• Oversee project cost estimation for incoming opportunities within aligned product group, including developing cost and engineering process assumptions and designing/executing methodologies for accurate quoting.
• Leverage pricing tools to provide commercial team members with pricing guidance.
• Work closely with internal engineering, product, and sales teams to ensure they have all the inputs necessary to develop an accurate cost estimate and pricing guidance.
• Engage relevant Spectrum personnel to determine relevant factors such as tool availability, production capacity, and capability limits.
• Engage with third-party vendors to get cost estimates of key materials / products that they will need to produce the finished product.
• Identify and communicate impactful opportunities to simplify costing processes and improve overall customer response time efficiency.
• Provide margin guidance, as a technical and customer-facing voice contributing to overall company pricing strategies.

What This Job Offers

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