Director of Application Engineering

About the role

At Henkel, you’ll be part of an organization that’s shaping the future through innovation, sustainability, and collaboration. With trusted brands like Persil®, all®, Loctite®, Snuggle®, and Schwarzkopf® and cutting-edge technologies, you’ll have opportunities to explore new paths and grow. This position is with our Adhesive Technologies business unit, where we empower our people to transform industries and provide customers with a competitive advantage through adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings.

Responsibilities

• Lead the North America Application Engineering team, setting the strategic direction and execution plan to drive profitable growth across the business unit (ACM) and its portfolio.
• Partner closely with Sales, Product Development, Marketing, and Business Development teams to identify market opportunities and translate customer needs into differentiated technical solutions.
• Build, develop, and inspire a high-performing team of application engineers, fostering technical excellence, innovation, and a strong customer-centric culture.
• Drive customer engagement through technical consultation, application validation, troubleshooting, and support of key strategic accounts and growth initiatives.
• Establish and execute regional Application Engineering priorities that align with global ACM business objectives, technology roadmaps, and commercial strategies.
• Accelerate the development, codification, and transfer of application expertise across teams, enabling scalable deployment of best practices and technical knowledge.
• Lead technical support activities for new product introductions, customer trials, qualification programs, and commercialization efforts to maximize business impact.
• Manage departmental resources, budgets, laboratories, equipment, and project priorities while ensuring compliance with safety, quality, and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Proven leadership experience managing technical, application engineering, product development, or customer-facing engineering teams in a manufacturing, adhesives, specialty chemicals, or industrial environment.
• Strong ability to influence and collaborate across functions, effectively connecting technical expertise with commercial objectives and customer value creation.
• Demonstrated success leading complex projects, driving innovation, and translating market needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Excellent communication, coaching, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage effectively from laboratory teams to executive leadership and key customers.

Benefits

• Health Insurance: Affordable plans for medical, dental, vision, and wellbeing starting on day 1.
• Work-Life Balance: Paid time off including sick, vacation, holiday, and volunteer time; flexible and hybrid work policies (depending on role); vacation buy/sell program.
• Financial: 401k matching, employee share plan with voluntary investment and Henkel matching shares, annual performance bonus, service awards, and student loan reimbursement.
• Family Support: 12-week gender-neutral parental leave (up to 20 weeks for parents giving birth), fertility support, adoption and surrogacy reimbursement, discounted child and elderly care, and scholarships.
• Career Growth: Diverse national and international growth opportunities, access to thousands of skills development courses, and tuition reimbursement.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $120,000.00 to $190,000.00. This range represents the good-faith minimum and maximum wages the Company reasonably expects to offer for this role at the time of posting. In addition to base salary, this position may be eligible for incentive pay or other forms of compensation, as applicable. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate’s skills, experience, education, training, and work location.