Application Engineer Industrial, SEA

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：

• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

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