Applications Engineering Manager

Who you are

• The same trifecta as our Applications Engineers -- you're genuinely fluent across mechanical, electrical, and software: PLC programming and ladder logic, pneumatics, DC power systems, robot programming, Python scripting, CAD
• 5+ years of hands-on applications engineering, systems integration, or automation engineering experience -- you've done the field work and done it well
• 2+ years of people management or team lead experience -- you've led engineers, given hard feedback, and helped someone grow
• Strong customer-facing presence -- you can manage a difficult customer conversation, set expectations clearly, and represent Standard Bots credibly at a senior level
• Experience managing a distributed team or territory; you know how to lead people you don't see every day
• Comfort with up to 25% domestic travel for escalations, key customer engagements, and team support
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline -- or equivalent hands-on experience that tells the same story
• Prior experience with collaborative robots (UR, Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, or similar)
• Background scaling an applications engineering or field engineering function -- you've helped build something, not just inherited it
• Experience with vision systems, force/torque sensing, or custom end-of-arm tooling
• Familiarity with machine tending, palletizing, welding, or assembly automation applications

What the job involves

• The Applications Engineering Manager is a player-coach
• You still know your way around a factory floor -- fixtures, I/O, ladder logic, robot programming, all the things -- and you use that expertise every day, both to stay sharp and to earn the respect of the team you're leading
• You'll manage a team of Applications Engineers across your territory, owning their development, their workload, and the quality of every customer engagement they touch
• You'll be the escalation point when installs get complicated, the person who jumps on a plane when a customer situation needs senior eyes, and the one who sets the standard for what great applications engineering looks like at Standard Bots
• This is still a hands-on role. You're not managing from a desk. You're leading from the front
• You'll report directly to the VP of Applications Engineering
• Manage and develop a team of Applications Engineers across your territory -- setting expectations, coaching on technical and customer-facing skills, and building a team that executes at a high level
• Own capacity planning and workload distribution across your team -- making sure the right engineer is on the right job and nobody is drowning
• Be the technical and cultural standard-setter for your team; the bar you hold yourself to is the bar your team rises to
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance conversations, and development planning -- you invest in your people's growth, not just their output
• Own the applications engineering function for your territory -- from pre-sales POC support through post-install customer success
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex integrations, difficult customer situations, or installs that aren't going as planned
• Partner closely with your Regional Sales Manager on territory priorities, pipeline, and customer strategy -- you're the technical counterpart to their commercial leadership
• Maintain strong relationships with key customer accounts in your territory; they should know you by name and trust your judgment
• Stay sharp and stay in it -- you're still designing solutions, reviewing integrations, commissioning cells, and supporting installs when the situation calls for it
• Lead or co-lead technically complex or strategically important customer engagements yourself
• Review and sign off on solution designs, POCs, and integration plans produced by your team
• Travel to customer sites as needed -- up to 25% domestically -- for escalations, key installs, and customer relationship moments
• Define and enforce the standard for how applications engineering work gets done in your territory -- documentation, handoffs, commissioning checklists, customer training quality
• Feed territory-level learnings back to the broader applications engineering organization and to product and engineering teams
• Help build the playbooks, templates, and training materials that make every AE on your team better and every deployment more repeatable

Benefits

• Employee stock options
• Paid time off
• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Life insurance & disability insurance
• 401(k)