Lightweight Sales Engineer

Walter Tools•Detroit, MI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Walter USA is looking for a Lightweight Sales Engineer in the Toledo/Detroit area. The Lightweight Sales Engineer (LSE) acts as the technical–commercial interface between Walter and its customers in the Lightweight/PCD segment. The LSE drives growth by identifying opportunities, building deep technical relationships, and ensuring a disciplined, strategic customer approach. The role demands high technical expertise, structured sales execution, and close collaboration with Business Developers (BD), Engineering, Operations, and Market Directors.

Requirements

Minimum 3 years of experience in any leading cutting tools, aerospace, automobile or machining industry in the field of engineering, sales, product management or similar in a multinational environment.
Previous professional experience in similar roles.
Bachelor's degree (preferably in Engineering) or equivalent education.
Proven experience in similar business development or sales roles.
Know-how regarding cutting tools or machining applications
Strong understanding of commercial management and sales techniques.
Fluency in English (spoken and written).
User-level proficiency in Microsoft Office tools.
Knowledge of the company’s products, including their characteristics, applications, and specifications.
Machining processes, PCD tools, technical drawings, measurement systems, CNC programming.
Understanding of aluminum machining and lightweight component production.
Solution-based selling, negotiation, identifying decision criteria, cost-per-part argumentation.
High sense of responsibility, autonomy, and strong organizational skills.
Team-oriented with excellent interpersonal and communication abilities.
Ability to plan, implement, and manage activities effectively.
Precision, assertiveness, and commitment to meeting deadlines and objectives.
Adaptability to existing work groups and ability to foster collaboration.
Efficiency and effectiveness in problem-solving.
Proactive way of working.
Strong skills in communication, negotiation, and argumentation.

Responsibilities

Create, drive, and implement sales activities and processes in collaboration with regional sales teams.
Serve as the face of PCD/Lightweight at strategic customers; spend quality time on site (min. 1 hr) per visit.
Conduct 2–3 customer visits per day, focusing strictly on assigned accounts.
Build trust with engineering, production, purchasing and identify pain points across departments.
Proactively identify opportunities in aluminum/PCD machining.
Provide expert guidance in machining processes, cutting tools, PCD applications, tool setup, and programming.
Understand cycle times, process variables, machining improvements and troubleshoot bottlenecks.
Translate customer pain points into actionable internal engineering tasks.
Collaborate closely with Engineering, Operations, and Business Developer to ensure quotation quality, feasibility, and timely execution.
Follow up on quotations, reports, ROI calculations, simulations, and escalate issues aligned with processes.
Maintain disciplined CRM usage for interactions, opportunities, deliveries, and issues.
Support strategic customer projects, prototype phases, and qualification work.
Contribute to global knowledge-sharing, best practices, and continuous improvement.
Conduct market analysis, identify growth fields (e.g., EV, Tier 1 aluminium machining).
Manage a defined account portfolio — typically 6–8 customers per LSE.
Work towards defined revenue, ROI, opportunity, and visit KPIs aligned with BD & MD.
Submit weekly agenda and activity plan for alignment.