Applications Engineering Manager - Membranes

Our client is a well-established international firm specializing in water and membrane solutions.

The Application Engineering Manager is responsible for leading application engineering activities to support customer acquisition, project execution, and commercial growth, with a strong focus on water membrane and filtration solutions. This role serves as a technical leader and people manager, partnering closely with the sales and commercial teams to deliver customer-specific solutions, oversee pilot trials, manage technical projects, and ensure consistent global engineering standards.

The position provides leadership across the full project lifecycle—from tendering and design through commissioning and after-sales support—while developing a high-performing applications engineering team.

This role is fully onsite in Goleta, CA and has an approximately 20–30% travel component for customer support, pilot trials, installations, troubleshooting, and technical presentations.

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Defining and maintaining technical standards, design guidelines, and best practices for assigned product groups.
• Approving product releases for customer projects and supporting complex technical requests.
• Ensuring technical documentation, manuals, and installation guides are accurate and current.
• Authorizing product changes related to technical specifications and applications.
• Providing advanced technical support to sales during customer engagements and negotiations.
• Leading technical project activities, including scope, scheduling, budgeting, and execution.
• Assigning and managing project resources, including internal teams and external partners.
• Supporting customer trials, pilot installations, troubleshooting, and onsite commissioning.
• Leading, coaching, and developing application engineering team members.
• Managing departmental budgets and initiating corrective actions as needed.
• Preparing and overseeing 8D reports and managing technical complaints.
• Coordinating technical activities with sales, operations, quality, and R&D.

Qualifications for the position include:

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Industrial, or related).
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant application or engineering experience.
• Experience supporting customer-facing technical solutions.
• Knowledge of filtration, membrane, or process-based systems preferred.
• Strong technical and analytical problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and customer-facing presentation abilities.
• Demonstrated leadership, collaboration, and team development skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.

The base salary for this position is $120,000 - $160,000, or commensurate with experience and full company benefits.

Interested candidates should forward a resume (MS Word attachment preferred) plus a brief email describing your relevant experience and reasons for your interest to:
Christl  Or call  for more information. All inquiries will be held in strict confidence.

Jeff Smith & Associates is a technical recruiting firm that specializes in the placement of exceptional candidates in the Water and Wastewater Treatment industries. To view other opportunities on which we are currently working, go to our website at: