Technical Manager

Kadant Solutions•Auburn, MA

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Technical Manager is the technical owner and commercial executor of one product category. The position carries the category’s technical authority — product configuration, application suitability, troubleshooting and continuous product improvement — and executes commercially on it: qualifying opportunities before they are quoted, completing the critical and high-value quotations, and project-managing the important capital jobs through to customer acceptance with the support of the application group project managers. The work spans the category’s full value stream: the installed base and competition, field sales support and application definition, quoting to a margin target, project delivery, and the consumables and aftermarket business that follows. The Technical Manager is the subject-matter expert supporting all digital transformation efforts for the category, including its CPQ modules, and drives it toward field quoting by sales. The position calls for a strong presenter who maintains good communication and working relationships with Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Supply Chain, Quality, and Sales and Service.

Requirements

In-depth knowledge of the paper making process, with a BS degree in Pulp and Paper, Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, or a minimum of 10 years experience in a paper mill or with a supplier to the paper industry.
In-depth knowledge of cleaning, conditioning, doctoring, filtration and forming system products as they relate to the paper industry.
Demonstrate consistent logic, rationality and objectivity in decision making. Achieve balance between quick decisiveness and slower, more thorough approaches. Anticipate the consequences of decisions.
Seek out and seize opportunities; go beyond the call of duty; find ways to surmount barriers. Resourceful and action-oriented, achieving results despite a lack of resources. Re-stimulate languishing projects. Show a bias for action. Take reasonable risks and learn from mistakes.
Reach out to peers to tear down walls and overcome "we-they" relationships. Approachable. Earn a reputation for leading peers toward what is best for the company. Cooperate with management and establish collaborative relationships with peers.
Regularly monitor customer satisfaction. Meet internal and external customer needs in ways that provide satisfaction and excellent results. Establish partner relationships with customers. Be visible and accessible to customers.
Results oriented. Sound judgment and the ability to balance time across multiple management responsibilities. High energy level, comfortable performing multi-faceted tasks alongside day-to-day activities. Superior interpersonal ability — able to get along with diverse personalities; tactful, mature, flexible and a team player.
This position requires travel in support of achieving goals and objectives; the expectation is 25–50% of working time.
Work includes visits to operating paper mills and industrial plants, which requires the use of personal protective equipment and the ability to move about an active production environment.

Responsibilities

Maintain in-depth knowledge of the installed base and of competitive products and work with Sales leadership to develop the strategies to compete.
Broaden product knowledge beyond the assigned category. Depth of a category owner is not expected outside the assigned category, but working knowledge is — enough to recognise an opportunity, answer a first-level question and support Sales across the department's range rather than only the defined category.
Provide applications, technical and training support to customers, Sales, Service, Manufacturing, Quality, Customer Service and licensees — both the specialist depth and the day-to-day questions.
Travel as the category requires to support customers, sales, trials and installations; the expectation is 25–50% of working time. Plan and optimize the schedule to maximize in-person time with the sales team and customers, so the cost of travel returns the most benefit.
Work with Sales on customer presentations — new products, major orders, and technical presentations with proposal review — supporting, contributing to or leading the presentation as the opportunity requires.
Create case studies and document ROI.
Work with Sales on total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis for customers — contribute the product, application, consumable and service cost inputs, test the assumptions behind the model, and record the completed analysis in Salesforce against the opportunity so it is retrievable and can be reused.
Train and develop the sales team to identify opportunities at customer locations, and work with them to finalize the resulting scope.
Support sales in gathering technical specifications from the customer, and offer input to the Applications scope.
Work with sales to define product configuration and ensure it is suitable for the application.
Qualify the opportunity before it is quoted; confirm the capital equipment requested actually matches the application.
Complete critical and high-value quotations personally; route routine and overflow volume to the vertical's quoting and project management resource with a complete scope package/meeting as appropriate.
Complete quotations on time; keep costing records and backup documentation accurate and properly stored so the basis of a price can be reconstructed.
Quote to keep the sum of the category's margins at or above target. Apply value-based pricing to push margin wherever the value supports it — the headroom earned there offsets the margin conceded on work that has to be priced down under competitive pressure. Probe sales on discount requests.
Project-manage the critical and important capital jobs on the product line, through customer acceptance. Complete a formal handoff to the assigned project manager — scope, costing, customer commitments and open risks — at the point in the job this seat judges right, and stay engaged through execution and acceptance rather than treating the handoff as the end of the responsibility.
Monitor progress, contribute product and application knowledge, and provide input as necessary. The category seat does not run these jobs.
Manage the non-critical capital jobs, and the overflow handed over when a category seat is at capacity — received with a complete scope package and run through customer acceptance.
Work with Project Management to execute the project, delivering at or better than the expected budget and meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
Challenge unnecessary customization; drive standardization.
Work with Quality Control and Sales to investigate documented quality complaints thoroughly — on capital equipment and consumables alike — and drive them to resolution; guide the business on the changes needed to prevent the same mistake recurring.
Own the resolution of trouble jobs on the category end to end — coordinate the departments involved, drive it to a resolution that satisfies the customer and Kadant, and keep management informed.
Provide expert troubleshooting on the category, and lead the continuous product improvement that comes out of what the failures reveal.
Work with key product support personnel to ensure successful operating references.
Provide application and technical support on the category's consumables to customers, Sales, Service and licensees.
Develop and qualify consumable suppliers and alternate sources with Supply Chain; act on supply and priority issues.
Work with the Pricing Manager to understand and act on underperforming product margins.
Solicit input and ideas for new products from customers, Sales, Service and the field; curate and cultivate the promising ones, and bring them to stakeholders for discussion and decision.
Keep management informed of new products, applications and competitive developments.
Support R&D through the new product development process for the category.
Work with Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D and Supply Chain to prioritize new product development and to drive cost out of the category — reduce complexity, standardize designs and components, remove waste, and pursue anything else that lowers cost.
Drive and act as subject-matter expert for every CPQ module in the category — own the configuration logic, rules, option sets and pricing content, and work with IT and the department CPQ lead to build and maintain them.
Drive the category toward the target state in which 80% of its quotes can be completed by sales in the field without Applications involvement.
Work with IT and the subject-matter experts to develop the next generation of quoting tools and the systems that support the department's work.
Maintain a written knowledge base for the product line sufficient for a successor or peer.
Provide input for development of marketing, training and sales tools.
Collaborate on marketing content (social, print, trade shows, video).
Develop or update training material as required.
Actively participate in trade organizations.
Write technical papers; present at national and international conferences.
Support our mission, values (teamwork, integrity, dedication, respect, innovation, excellence), and customer message (mindshare, people, added value, digital transformation, and user experience).