Application Engineer

POSITION SUMMARY

• The Applications Engineer is the primary customer-facing technical representative within the Engineering Department and is responsible for leading the technical execution of customer applications, customer projects, aircraft surveys, proposal support, installation planning, and customer-facing engineering documentation. This position serves as the bridge between customers, Business Development, Engineering, Customer Service, Operations, Certification, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production to ensure customer requirements are clearly understood, properly costed, technically executable, and delivered on time.
• The Applications Engineer leads customer projects with input from the mechanical, electrical, certification, quality, manufacturing engineering, and engineering technician resources as needed. The role performs application-level design, technical analysis, proposal costing support, project documentation, customer technical responses, installation planning, project coordination, and engineering schedule/resource coordination with the Engineering Manager.
• Annual travel amounting to at least 50% of total working hours will be required to participate in sales and installation-related meetings, aircraft surveys, system installation support, off-site testing of new products, and to provide customer support.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Demonstrates company values and reinforces the organizational commitment to safe, compliant, high-quality aerospace lighting products, strong customer service, disciplined engineering execution, and on-time customer project performance.
• Serves as the primary Engineering interface for assigned customer projects, with accountability for customer technical communication, project documentation, proposal technical support, engineering milestone completion, and coordination of Engineering resources with the Engineering Manager.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

New Business

• Lead assigned customer application projects from opportunity definition through proposal support, customer alignment, engineering execution, documentation release, production launch support, and project closeout.
• Travel to customer sites, aircraft surveys, technical reviews, installation events, trade shows, and field-support activities to gather requirements, resolve technical issues, and reduce direct customer-interface burden on the Engineering Manager.
• Gather and document customer program information, including platform, application, product need, existing flying solution, upgrade reason, customer requirements, Chapter 33 lighting information, wiring diagrams, AIPC, CMM, AMM, and service bulletin data.
• Perform application-level design and most customer-project documentation, including installation concepts, product configuration definition, technical proposals, requirements summaries, project schedules, action logs, technical reports, and customer-facing documentation.
• Lead customer projects with input from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Certification, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, and the Engineering Technician/Draftsperson.
• Obtain and document competitive intelligence from customers, aircraft surveys, trade shows, win/loss reviews, incumbent product reviews, and market feedback to support product roadmap decisions, proposal strategy, and customer-specific value propositions.

Price

• Cost proposals and support the Business Development Manager with technical responses to RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, technical clarifications, customer questions, product comparisons, installation assumptions, and certification assumptions.
• Develop the technical cost package for customer opportunities, including BOM assumptions, engineering hours, project schedule, design-review needs, documentation effort, certification assumptions, DO-160 assumptions, travel requirements, technical risks, and scope exclusions.
• Partner with the Engineering Manager to validate technical assumptions, resource loading, qualification needs, project schedule, engineering effort, and design risks before proposal approval. The Engineering Manager role owns engineering inputs for ROM and detailed proposals, including BOM, engineering hours, qualification assumptions, DO-160 requirements, project schedules, resource loading, and technical risk.
• Support value-based pricing by clearly documenting customer value drivers such as reliability, MTBF, reduced maintenance, reduced aircraft downtime, plug-and-play installation, lower power consumption, lower weight, certification readiness, and improved passenger experience.
• Identify and escalate scope creep, unquoted engineering work, custom requirements, certification risk, configuration changes, added travel, or customer requests that could affect margin, price, delivery, or resource commitments.
• Provide technical and competitive input that helps position The Company against incumbent solutions, alternative suppliers, OEM systems, retrofit alternatives, and customer “do nothing” scenarios.

Productivity

• Work with the Engineering Manager to load Engineering resources properly by project, discipline, task, due date, and milestone so customer-project work is completed on time.
• Own engineering milestone tracking for assigned customer projects, including requirements complete, design input complete, proposal technical package complete, design review complete, documentation release, production readiness, installation support, and project closeout.
• Own customer technical communication, project coordination, proposal documentation, application questions, technical follow-up, and customer-facing documentation updates.
• Complete and maintain technical information for product documentation, including product descriptions, specifications, technical claims, application notes, installation assumptions, operating guidance, proposal content, certification-support language, and customer-facing technical data.
• Standardize customer-facing engineering processes, including aircraft survey templates, customer data-request checklists, proposal technical input templates, project action logs, installation-support reports, and lessons-learned records.
• Improve internal handoffs by ensuring won programs transition cleanly to Customer Account Specialist, Business Operations, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Certification, Production, and Finance with clear scope, BOM assumptions, documentation needs, schedule commitments, and unresolved risks.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum 3 years of electrical engineering experience, including at least 2 years of component-level electrical design experience preferred.
• Experience with AC/DC power conversion, LED driver circuits, lighting control electronics, PCB design, schematic capture, prototype testing, qualification testing, and sustaining engineering.
• Aerospace, aircraft interiors, commercial aviation, military electronics, DO-160, ABD-0100, MIL-STD-461, AS9100, FAA/EASA certification, or regulated electronics manufacturing experience preferred.
• Demonstrated experience authoring technical specifications, test procedures, qualification reports, acceptance test procedures, installation documents, operating manuals, technical proposals, and customer-facing engineering documentation.
• Experience interfacing directly with customers, suppliers, Sales, Applications Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Certification, Supply Chain, and Operations.
• Field engineering, aircraft survey, installation support, and customer troubleshooting experience preferred.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Engineering Technology, or a related technical discipline preferred; equivalent technical experience may be considered.
• Strong customer-facing technical communication skills, including the ability to communicate credibly with customers, Business Development, Engineering, Operations, Quality, Certification, and executive stakeholders.
• Strong project leadership skills, including schedule management, milestone tracking, action-item closure, risk identification, issue escalation, and cross-functional coordination.
• Ability to understand aircraft platform requirements, customer applications, product capabilities, installation constraints, certification implications, manufacturability, cost drivers, and commercial impact.
• Ability to read and interpret technical drawings, wiring diagrams, aircraft manuals, service bulletins, specifications, BOMs, product data sheets, and customer requirements.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally, approximately 50% of the time.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Excel, PowerPoint, ERP/CRM systems, project management tools, and engineering documentation systems; CAD experience preferred.
• Strong documentation discipline and ability to produce clear, accurate, professional, customer-facing technical documents.
• Must be able to work well with others and support a team dynamic
• To conform with US export regulations and ITAR 120.15 and EAR Part 772, incumbents for this role must be eligible for any required authorizations from the US government.