Ford Account Manager

Magna International•Novi, MI

About The Position

The Ford Account Manager supports Magna Seating’s customer relationship and commercial activities, generally for less complex programs such as carry-over programs or programs involving existing technologies. The role works under the guidance of senior sales personnel and collaborates with application teams, program teams, manufacturing representatives, and matrix support organizations to address customer needs and commercial issues. The position promotes Magna Seating’s capabilities and supports objectives related to market share, profitability, customer perception, and program targets. The Account Manager maintains regular communication with purchasing and other key program personnel, identifies and shares potential business opportunities, helps define customer requirements, and contributes to commercial goals and issue resolution. The role also supports quoting, pricing, negotiations, documentation, cost-reduction proposals, customer presentations, and resolution of quality, production, tooling, and engineering-change matters. It supports quality-system and audit requirements and promotes workplace health and safety in accordance with organizational objectives and applicable regulations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or bachelor’s equivalency in Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field, or a combination of equivalent education and work experience.
Knowledge of the customer, product, and supply base.
Customer-networking abilities.
Strong verbal, written, and technical-presentation communication skills.
Strong organizational skills and ability to coordinate and complete multiple tasks within and across departments while meeting established and changing deadlines.
Demonstrated successful performance in independent problem solving and presentations.
Proficiency with word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database applications.
Valid driver’s license.

Nice To Haves

Three years of experience in automotive sales, program management, or engineering management is preferred.

Responsibilities

Maintain regular contact and communication with purchasing and other key program personnel to develop relationships and close commercial issues.
Promote Magna Seating to customers and align customer communications with its policies, philosophy, structure, capabilities, business plans, and strategy.
Provide input to objectives and strategies and carry out assignments supporting Application Team, General Manager, and Director of Sales goals.
Consider customer direction, market demand, competitor direction, Magna Seating’s competitive position, and corporate and group strategy when resolving issues and exploring opportunities.
Monitor potential new business opportunities, understand the customer’s business strategy, help assess opportunities, and communicate relevant information within Magna Seating.
Help define and communicate customer requirements to application teams; attend product development and other program team meetings to provide commercial goals and input on commercial issues.
Respond to commercial information requests from Engineering, attend production runs with manufacturing representatives as required, respond to generally non-technical tooling questions, process quotes, and follow up on deliveries as required.
Complete tasks and resolve issues to meet program objectives and commercial targets.
Ensure timely and accurate sales and marketing documentation, business-document flow between the customer and Magna Seating, documentation of key positions and agreements, and compliance of documented agreements with finance guidelines.
Assist with developing and lead negotiation of program pricing; respond to internal, corporate, and customer pricing requests; review and submit quotes and commercial correspondence; provide target pricing; respond to quotation feedback; and drive closure of commercial issues.
Assist in resolving quality and production issues and commercial aspects of engineering-change issues related to the customer.
Track loss monies and open cost issues and develop and implement timely closure strategies.
Consult with application teams and matrix support organizations on cost-reduction proposals; provide input on priority, customer acceptance likelihood, and program-strategy fit; coordinate submissions and respond to customer inquiries.
Develop customer presentations.
Support internal and external audits related to ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certification for the remote site location (Group Office).
Support requirements in Standard Operating Procedure 8000 (Quality Management System).
Promote employee work practices consistent with organizational objectives and targets, including use of protective equipment and procedures; establish clear workplace health and safety goals and ensure safety talks, meetings, and required training occur as defined.