Application Lab Engineer

About the role

At Graco, the Application Engineer, Intermediate collaborates with material manufacturers to drive application development and ensure seamless material validation. This role bridges technical expertise with customer and market needs, providing hands-on support to sales, channel, material manufacturers, and contractors to optimize product integration and enhance solution adoption.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain strong relationships with customers, distributors, and material manufacturers to support application development and material validation efforts.
• Provide hands-on technical support to address customer challenges and optimize product integration into their operations.
• Cook up joint initiatives like training sessions, product demonstrations, and co-marketing activities to enhance solution adoption.
• Act as the primary technical consultant for material manufacturers, sales, and distributors, ensuring alignment on product offerings and application strategies.
• Advise sales strategies that leverage validated applications and materials to capture new market opportunities.
• Collaborate with sales teams to integrate validated solutions into annual sales plans, ensuring alignment with customer needs and business goals.
• Identify and capitalize on opportunities to cross-sell or upsell products to contractors and end-users.
• Participate in industry events and trade shows to showcase validated solutions and strengthen market presence.
• Facilitate the start-up of new equipment for contractors, providing training to ensure proper operation and seamless integration into their workflows.
• Partner with internal teams such as marketing, engineering, and sales to align technical solutions with customer requirements.
• Collaborate with material manufacturers to validate their materials and ensure product compatibility with customer needs.
• Share insights from customer engagements with internal teams to inform product improvements and innovation strategies.
• Support the commercialization of new products by providing technical training and documentation.
• Document and analyze application development activities, validation results, and customer feedback to refine strategies.
• Generate detailed technical reports on validation outcomes and share them with internal stakeholders and leadership.
• Monitor the adoption and performance of validated solutions at distributor and sales team levels, providing insights to guide future efforts.
• Track and report on key metrics to ensure alignment with business objectives and customer satisfaction goals.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Paint Chemistry, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience in customer-facing technical roles, particularly within industrial applications.
• Strong expertise in application development, material validation, and technical troubleshooting.
• Problem-solving and diagnostic skills to address complex technical issues.
• Ability to work independently in a highly technical capacity across diverse industrial environments.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% within the EMEA region to engage with customers, distributors, and stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Accelerators Global industrial manufacturing experience and knowledge.
• MBA or Master’s degree preferred.
• Familiarity with PLC communication and troubleshooting is a plus.
• Rosio and AMP (formerly NACE).

Skills

• Technical expertise in application development and material validation.
• Strong problem-solving and diagnostic skills.
• Effective communication and presentation abilities.
• Ability to work independently and across diverse industrial environments.
• Experience in customer-facing technical roles.
• Knowledge of industrial manufacturing processes.
• Experience with PLC communication and troubleshooting.

Benefits

At Graco, you enjoy a competitive compensation package, including a base pay range of $75,000.00 - $131,200.00, depending on factors such as geographic location, skills, competencies, education, and experience. Additional benefits include medical, dental, a stock purchase plan, 401(k), tuition reimbursement, and more. Graco is proud to be recognized as a Best Place to Work by Fortune Magazine in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. Graco also uses E-Verify to confirm the employment and eligibility of all newly hired employees.

Pay

$75,000.00 - $131,200.00

Schedule

N/A