Applications Engineer

Position Summary

The Applications Engineer is the customer-facing technical bridge between Sales, customers, and Cortland engineering/manufacturing teams. The role translates application requirements into safe, practical, and manufacturable synthetic-rope, sling, tether, termination, and hardware solutions; supports technical quoting and engineered-to-order work; and ensures requirements are clearly defined before detailed design and production release. Success requires sound engineering judgment, strong communication, and the ability to move comfortably between customer discussions, calculations, product selection, testing, and manufacturing.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

Application Definition & Technical Review (~35%)

• Lead or support technical discovery with customers to define loads, geometry, duty cycle, environment, interfaces, service life, installation constraints, inspection needs, and acceptance criteria.
• Review customer drawings, specifications, data sheets, purchase requirements, and operating conditions for completeness, technical risk, and feasibility.
• Identify missing information, assumptions, exclusions, and conditions requiring detailed design, testing, special materials, or third-party review before commitment.

Solution Development & Quote Support (~25%)

• Recommend appropriate rope construction, fiber/material, sling or tether configuration, termination, protective system, and hardware concept for the application.
• Perform preliminary engineering calculations and sizing, including load distribution, working/rated load considerations, design factors, bend interfaces, and product limitations as appropriate.
• Develop sketches, technical narratives, exceptions/clarifications, test requirements, and other inputs needed for accurate proposals and quotations.
• Partner with Sales to generate proposals and collaborate with Production to balance customer requirements, technical risk, manufacturability, schedule, and commercial commitments.

Engineering Handoff & ETO Support (~20%)

• Create a complete technical handoff for engineered-to-order work, including approved requirements, calculations, interfaces, customer inputs, testing/certification needs, and open actions.
• Coordinate with Design Engineering, Procurement, Planning, Product Engineering, Manufacturing, and Quality through design review and production release.
• Ensure changes in customer requirements are documented, communicated, and assessed for technical, quality, schedule, and cost impact.

Customer Support & Field Engagement (~15%)

• Provide responsive technical support during customer review, installation, commissioning, use, inspection, or issue resolution.
• Participate in customer meetings, design reviews, site visits, field trials, and technical training as needed.
• Capture field experience and customer feedback and route lessons learned into product, design, and process improvements.

Technical Knowledge & Continuous Improvement (~5%)

• Maintain reusable application data, calculation tools, technical FAQs, proposal content, and application-selection guidance.
• Stay current on product capabilities, applicable standards, customer certification requirements, and emerging application needs.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Civil/Structural or Industrial Engineering or a related technical discipline with 3+ years applications engineering experience in a manufacturing or engineered-products environment. OR Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or a related business field with 5+ years technical sales experience in a manufacturing or engineered-products environment.
• Ability to translate ambiguous customer needs into clear technical requirements and practical engineering solutions.
• Working knowledge of engineering calculations, drawings, specifications, materials, testing, and manufacturing constraints.
• Strong customer communication and presentation skills, including the ability to explain technical trade-offs, regulatory requirements and limitations clearly.
• Ability to manage multiple customer opportunities and technical workstreams with disciplined documentation and follow-through.
• Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Willingness to travel up to 40% and ability to support customers across time zones.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with software development and artificial intelligence (AI) applications preferred.
• Experience with 3D CAD software, engineering analysis and simulation tools, and statistical analysis tools. (SolidWorks, ANSYS and Minitab desired)
• Experience with synthetic rope, slings, tethers, rigging, lifting hardware, fiber products, composites, or other engineered load-bearing products.
• Experience in offshore energy, marine, wind, heavy lifting, mining, utilities, aerospace, defense, or other safety-critical industrial applications.
• Experience supporting field installations, product qualification, proof testing, or customer acceptance testing.

Pay: From $80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Referral program
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Stafford, TX 77477