Application Engineer Industrial, SEA

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

POSITION SUMMARY:

This role supports the ASEAN market, responsible for the full spectrum of customer application support, distributor technical enablement, and pre-sale engineering advisory. The role reports to the Application Supervisor, and owns all technical judgment independently.

This role is expected to operate without day-to-day technical supervision, exercise independent engineering judgment on non-standard applications, and build the technical credibility of Gates across ASEAN industrial end-markets.

RESPONSIBILITIES：

1. Multi-Platform Technical Solutions (IPT & FP)

•             Provide independent engineering support for the full Gates portfolio. This includes IPT (synchronous/V-belts, integrated drives) and Fluid Power (hydraulic hoses, couplings, and complex fluid transfer systems).

•             Resolve complex, non-standard application failures without local supervision. Conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA) on mechanical failures, resonance issues, and hydraulic system leaks or bursts.

•             Resolve non-standard and complex application problems without escalation, including failure analysis, system resonance diagnostics, and drive geometry redesign.

•             Interpret standard sizing tools (Design IQ, etc.), but exercise judgment to adapt designs for ASEAN’s specific environmental stressors (high humidity, heat, and high-contamination environments).

2. Customer & Distributor Engagement

•             Act as the definitive technical lead for key industrial accounts and OEMs in ASEAN (Mining, F&B, Palm Oil, Cement, HVAC, Agriculture, and Mobility)

•             Conduct rigorous on-site evaluations at customer facilities; identify system inefficiencies, failure patterns, and proactive upgrade opportunities across both belt and hose applications.

•             Build and maintain independent relationships with customer engineering and maintenance stakeholders—establishing credibility without needing Sales Leader accompaniment.

•             Lead product training, workshops, and technical capability assessments. Proactively identify and address distributor gaps to shift them from "sales-only" to "technically capable" partners.

3. Sales Partnership & Commercial Integration

•             Partner with the Sales Engineers to technically qualify opportunities, validate application fit, and support proposal development for complex or non-standard configurations.

•             Identify and develop new application opportunities during customer site visits; translate technical findings into qualified commercial opportunities for the sales team.

•             Provide technical input to pricing and configuration decisions where application complexity or custom engineering is involved.

•             Represent Gates at trade shows, OEM technical reviews, and distributor sales enablement events across the region.

4. Technical Knowledge Management

•             Serve as the in-market technical resource for the sales engineers and distributor network — the default escalation point for all application and product questions.

•             Actively partner with the others Application Engineering teams in Gates to leverage their mature best practices, high-growth case studies, and advanced technical methodologies.

•             Share in-market insights and develop reusable technical reference materials (localized for ASEAN sectors) to build a regional knowledge base.

•             Contribute to regional and global technical communities; escalate genuinely novel or unresolved engineering issues to global engineering with structured problem documentation.

Keys to Success

• Technical credibility — customers and distributors trust their judgment without needing the Sales Engineer/ Sales Leader to validate it.
• Self-directed coverage — generates their own activity discipline across markets with no manager pulling them into motion.
• Commercial translation — converts site visit findings into qualified opportunities, not just closed service calls.
• Distributor capability building — raises distributor technical competence over time rather than becoming their permanent helpdesk.
• Sales Leader/ Sales Engineers partnership — keeps the sales team commercially informed and shapes their customer conversations

Supervisory Responsibilities

• None

Requirements and Preferred Skills

QUALIFICATIONS：

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent technical discipline.
• 5-7 years of hands-on application engineering experience in power transmission, fluid power, rotating equipment, or closely related mechanical systems.
• Demonstrated ability to design and troubleshoot drive systems independently, including non-standard configurations.
• Experience working with industrial end-users and/or distributors in an ASEAN market context.
• Comfortable operating with commercial autonomy — able to conduct customer visits, lead technical reviews, and develop opportunities without close manager oversight.
• Proficient in English
• Willing and able to travel across ASEAN markets (estimated 30–40% travel).

 LEADERSHIP/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

N/A

TRAVEL: Required, 40 – 50% of the time

WORK ENVIRONMENT: Home-Office

Gates Corporation is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, genetic information, marital status, or any other consideration defined by law.