Sales Engineer
BWI Group Sales Engineer
Position Summary
The Technical Sales Engineer — Suspension serves as the primary technical and commercial interface between BWI Group and assigned OEM customers for our suspension product portfolio, including passive dampers, struts, corner modules, and semi-active and adaptive damping systems. This role owns the pursuit from early technical engagement through request-for-quote (RFQ) response, sourcing decision, and launch, translating customer vehicle-level requirements into feasible, profitable BWI programs.
Success in this role requires equal fluency in engineering and commercial language: the ability to sit in a customer chassis-engineering review in the morning and defend a piece-price and tooling position with purchasing in the afternoon. The Technical Sales Engineer works closely with BWI engineering, program management, manufacturing, quality, and finance to build competitive, well-substantiated proposals and to protect program profitability over the life of the business.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Customer & Account Management
- Serve as the day-to-day technical and commercial point of contact for assigned OEM accounts, building relationships across chassis engineering, purchasing, program management, and quality.
- Develop and maintain an account plan for each assigned customer, including vehicle program roadmaps, sourcing timing, competitive landscape, and BWI share-of-business targets.
- Identify and qualify new business opportunities for suspension products, including conquest programs, product extensions, and technology introductions such as semi-active and adaptive damping.
- Represent the voice of the customer inside BWI, ensuring requirements, priorities, and escalations are clearly communicated and acted upon.
Quoting & Commercial Execution
- Lead the end-to-end RFQ process: review customer technical specifications and commercial terms, coordinate cross-functional input, and assemble complete, on-time quotation packages.
- Partner with engineering and manufacturing to develop cost models covering piece price, tooling, capital, engineering (D&D), logistics, and packaging; validate assumptions against program volumes and take rates.
- Work with finance to confirm that quoted business meets margin, cash flow, and return thresholds; prepare and present business cases for internal quote approval and management review.
- Negotiate piece price, tooling, engineering recovery, annual productivity commitments, raw material and commodity adjustment mechanisms, and commercial terms within delegated authority.
- Manage engineering change requests (ECRs), scope changes, and cost recovery claims throughout the program lifecycle; prepare supporting documentation and lead the negotiation with the customer.
- Maintain accurate pricing records, customer purchase orders, and contract documentation; ensure alignment between quoted terms, customer systems, and BWI order entry.
Technical Interface
- Interpret customer suspension and vehicle dynamics requirements — ride and handling targets, durability and load cases, corner packaging, mass targets, NVH, and applicable regulatory and functional safety requirements — and translate them into BWI product and process requirements.
- Support benchmarking, technical presentations, product demonstrations, and ride-and-drive events; present BWI technology roadmaps to customer engineering teams.
- Coordinate feasibility reviews with engineering and manufacturing, and communicate technical positions, open issues, and risks clearly to the customer.
- Support prototype and sample requests, tracking timing, cost, and delivery with program management and operations.
Forecasting, Reporting & Cross-Functional Support
- Maintain the opportunity pipeline and provide accurate revenue forecasts, win/loss analysis, and sourcing status updates to sales leadership.
- Support annual budget and long-range plan development for assigned accounts, including volume, price, and productivity assumptions.
- Participate in program launch reviews, APQP milestones, and customer scorecard reviews; support resolution of commercial issues arising from quality, delivery, or warranty performance.
- Contribute to competitive intelligence and market analysis for the suspension product line.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Three (3) to seven (7) years of combined experience in automotive sales, applications engineering, program management, or product engineering, with meaningful customer-facing exposure.
- Working knowledge of automotive chassis or suspension systems and the vehicle development process.
- Demonstrated experience supporting or leading RFQ responses, cost modeling, or commercial negotiations with an OEM or Tier 1 supplier.
- Familiarity with the automotive supply chain, OEM sourcing practices, and program timing gateways (APQP, PPAP, SOP).
- Strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present technical and commercial content to senior audiences.
- Valid driver’s license and a valid passport, or the ability to obtain one, for domestic and international travel.
Preferred
- Direct experience with dampers, struts, or semi-active / adaptive damping systems.
- Established relationships within one or more North American OEM chassis or purchasing organizations.
- Experience working within a global, matrixed organization with engineering and manufacturing resources in multiple regions and time zones.
- Exposure to IATF 16949 requirements and customer-specific quality requirements.
- MBA or additional business coursework.
Key Competencies
- Commercial judgment — balances winning the business against margin, risk, and long-term account health.
- Technical credibility — earns the trust of customer engineers and BWI engineers alike.
- Ownership and follow-through — drives issues to closure across functions without direct authority.
- Negotiation and influence — prepares thoroughly, holds a defensible position, and preserves the relationship.
- Comfort with ambiguity — makes sound decisions with incomplete information under quote deadlines.
- Cross-cultural collaboration — works effectively with colleagues across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Travel
Approximately 25%–40% travel, primarily to customer facilities, technical centers, and BWI manufacturing sites in North America. Occasional international travel to BWI engineering and manufacturing locations is required.
Work Environment and Physical Requirements
- Work is performed primarily in an office setting, with regular time spent in customer offices, technical centers, test facilities, and manufacturing plants.
- Plant and test-facility visits require compliance with applicable personal protective equipment and safety requirements; exposure to noise, moving equipment, and varying temperatures may occur.
- Must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, operate a computer and other standard office equipment, and communicate effectively in person, by phone, and by video conference.
- Must be able to travel independently by automobile and commercial aircraft, and to occasionally lift and move items up to 25 pounds, such as sample parts and demonstration materials.
Equal Employment Opportunity
BWI Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. BWI Group provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the application process and in employment; applicants who require an accommodation should contact Human Resources.
This job description describes the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties as business needs require. This document does not create an employment contract, express or implied, and employment with BWI Group remains at will.