Applications Engineer

Position Description

Title: Industrial Applications Engineer - Energy & Decarbonization

Reports To: Global Product Manager - Industrial Gas

Location: Manchester, UK

About Armstrong Fluid Technology

Imagine working at the forefront of innovation in fluid-flow technology, with over 1400 colleagues across the globe, and contributing to a legacy of excellence that spans eight manufacturing facilities on four continents. Armstrong Fluid Technology is more than just a leader in our industry; we are a community of the brightest and most creative minds, driven by a shared mission to engineer the future and safeguard our planet.

As a member of our team, you’ll dive into an environment that encourages learning and boundary-pushing every day. You’ll be part of an agile and dynamic workplace where today’s solutions are built for tomorrow’s challenges.

Role Overview

The Industrial Applications Engineer - Energy & Decarbonization is a globally-scoped, customer-facing technical role that can be based in India, UK, or China. The role serves Armstrong’s Industrial business across Metals, Mining, Cement, Food & Beverage, and other power and water-intensive industries.

This role is the founding layer of Armstrong’s Industrial Regional Sales Enablement Centre (RSEC) function. The person in this position receives strategic direction from the Global Product Manager, translates it into commercial and technical enablement for regional sales teams, and feeds ground-level customer and market intelligence back to shape how that strategy evolves.

The core technical mandate is built on four pillars: Heating, Cooling, Water Transfer, and High-Pressure Applications - covering descaling, high pressure washing and cleaning, and high-pressure fluid supply systems for hydraulic press operations. The primary mission is simple but demanding ensure that every industrial offer submitted is technically sound and commercially compelling, and that Armstrong’s value proposition is consistently understood and communicated by the regional sales teams that carry it to market.

Key Accountabilities

Offer Creation & Technical Quality

This is the primary accountability of the role. The Industrial Applications Engineer owns the creation and quality of every technical offer submitted in the industrial segment.

• Own the end-to-end creation of technical offers for industrial customers across Metals, Mining, Cement, Food & Beverage, and other power and water-intensive sectors
• Ensure every offer is technically accurate, application-appropriate, and clearly communicates the Armstrong value proposition in language that resonates with industrial plant-level stakeholders
• Select and specify the right solution architecture across Heating, Cooling, Water Transfer, and High-Pressure Applications based on customer process requirements
• Build energy savings calculations, ROI models, and lifecycle cost cases from first principles as the commercial backbone of each offer
• Conduct detailed P&ID analysis for each customer engagement - mapping every heating, cooling, water transfer, and high-pressure touchpoint to identify the full Armstrong addressable scope and ensure offers reflect the complete opportunity, not just the immediate enquiry
• Ensure offers reflect industrial environment requirements including protection classes, IP ratings, and hazardous area classifications appropriate to the application
• Review and validate offers prepared by the regional sales team before submission, maintaining a consistent technical and commercial quality standard across all industrial proposals

Customer Technical Engagement

The Industrial Applications Engineer is the technical authority in customer-facing industrial conversations, supporting and enabling the regional sales teams who own the customer relationship.

• Engage directly with plant engineers, process managers, and energy managers at customer facilities to understand process requirements, pain points, and optimization opportunities
• Conduct site assessments and process audits to map Heating, Cooling, Water Transfer, and High-Pressure system architectures and identify where Armstrong solutions deliver value
• Analyse P&IDs as a commercial tool - identifying every relevant application touchpoint across the plant to build a structured opportunity map that maximises Armstrong wallet share at each account
• Deliver technically credible presentations and solution walkthroughs that translate complex fluid-flow and thermal management concepts into clear operational and financial outcomes for the customer
• Support customers in understanding how Armstrong solutions meet industrial environment requirements, protection class standards, and process-specific compliance needs

Industrial Strategy Propagation & Sales Enablement

A core responsibility of this role is to ensure that Armstrong’s industrial strategy is understood, adopted, and consistently executed by regional sales teams - preventing the default tendency to revert to commodity product selling.

• Receive and internalise Armstrong’s industrial strategy from the Global Product Manager and translate it into actionable guidance, tools, and training for regional sales teams
• Train regional sales teams on Armstrong’s industrial offer, application scope, value proposition, energy savings methodology, ROI narrative, and decarbonization positioning
• Develop and maintain repeatable sales enablement tools - application guides, value proposition frameworks, calculation templates, and reference case studies - that raise the technical floor of commercial teams globally
• Actively participate in regional weekly sales reviews, contributing industrial application expertise, offer quality oversight, and strategic direction to ensure industrial opportunities are being pursued with the right solution and the right narrative
• Monitor CRM pipeline in collaboration with sales to ensure industrial opportunities are properly qualified, accurately described, and progressing with the correct Armstrong solution - flagging where commodity positioning is replacing solution selling
• Feed ground-level market and customer intelligence back to the Global Product Manager to continuously refine and sharpen Armstrong’s industrial strategy based on real commercial experience

Hot water applications

Hot water applications represent a distinct and technically demanding segment within Armstrong’s industrial portfolio. The Industrial Applications Engineer is the subject matter authority for this space.

• Define and deliver application solutions for hot water fluid supply systems utilized in NG pressure reduction, hot water generators in food and beverage, hot water feed in paper mill and presses, and other applications in the industrial market.
• Develop application expertise in hot water process systems - including food prep, process washing, gas heating, pressure reduction for power generation, heat transfer and sanitation.
• Build competency in hot water systems and cleaning system applications for industrial and hygiene-critical environments including Food & Beverage
• Advise on system design, pressure management, equipment selection, and safety considerations for hot water process circuits operating in industrial protection class environments
• Ensure hot water process application requirements are accurately captured and specified in customer offers

Energy Optimization & Decarbonization Positioning

Energy savings and decarbonization are the strategic lens through which Armstrong’s industrial value proposition is delivered - not a separate workstream, but the narrative frame applied across all customer and sales engagements.

• Quantify energy savings and carbon reduction potential of Armstrong solutions against incumbent customer systems, embedding this analysis into every offer and customer conversation
• Develop plant-level business cases covering lifecycle cost, ROI, payback period, and decarbonization impact that give customers a financially compelling reason to act
• Equip regional sales teams to lead with energy and decarbonization outcomes rather than product specifications - building the commercial habit of value-based selling in the industrial segment
• Stay current on industrial energy efficiency trends, sector-specific decarbonization pressures, and relevant regulatory frameworks across target geographies and verticals

Portfolio Intelligence & Feedback

• Capture structured feedback from customer engagements and offer outcomes - including unmet application needs, competitive gaps, and portfolio limitations encountered in the field
• Communicate this intelligence clearly and regularly to the Global Product Manager to inform portfolio development and strategy refinement
• Flag where Armstrong’s current portfolio requires adaptation or where new application opportunities exist, with enough technical specificity to be actionable

What We’re Looking For

Education & Experience

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline
• 8-12 years of experience in heavy industrial or process environments - metals, mining, cement, food & beverage, or other power and water-intensive industries
• Demonstrated experience in application engineering, technical offer creation, or process engineering roles
• Proven track record of customer-facing technical engagement at plant level
• Prior exposure to high pressure fluid systems - descaling, hydraulic press supply, or high pressure washing - is a strong advantage
• Experience working with or alongside industrial sales teams, ideally in a technical enablement or pre-sales capacity

Technical Skills

• Strong working knowledge of industrial Heating, Cooling, and Water Transfer systems - this is the non-negotiable technical foundation of the role
• Competency in high pressure application engineering - descaling systems, high pressure washing and cleaning, and hydraulic press fluid supply circuits
• Ability to read, interpret, and commercially analyse P&IDs and process schematics across diverse industrial applications
• Understanding of chiller operations, selection principles, and integration into industrial process cooling systems
• Knowledge of cooling tower operations including parallel configurations and system-level performance
• Competency in parallel operations - boilers, pumps, chillers, cooling towers - and the hydraulic and thermal interdependencies between them
• Solution architecture capability for process applications - able to design system-level solutions, not just select individual components
• Ability to build energy savings calculations, ROI models, and carbon reduction cases from first principles
• Familiarity with industrial protection classes, IP ratings, and hazardous area compliance requirements
• Working knowledge of CRM tools and pipeline management disciplines

Soft Skills

• Technically authoritative - credible with plant engineers and process managers on their terms, not on marketing language
• Commercially minded - able to translate technical insight into financial and strategic value for the customer and for Armstrong
• Strong communicator and trainer - capable of simplifying complex technical concepts for sales teams and non-technical stakeholders
• Influential without authority - able to drive adoption of industrial strategy and solution selling discipline within sales teams that do not report to this role
• Self-directed and entrepreneurial - comfortable building in ambiguous environments with limited precedent, as the first person in this function
• Collaborative across time zones, cultures, and functions within a global matrix organisation
• Fluent in English; additional language proficiency (Hindi, Mandarin, or European languages) an advantage depending on base location

Why Armstrong Fluid Technology?

By joining us, you’ll become part of a global community dedicated to pushing the boundaries of fluid-flow technology. This role offers a rare opportunity - to build something from the ground up. You will establish Armstrong’s Industrial RSEC function, shape how the company engages with some of the world’s most demanding industrial customers and grow into the leader of a function that will define Armstrong’s industrial commercial capability for years to come. Together, we’ll build tomorrow’ssolutions today.