CNC Applications Engineering Lead: Hands-On Machining

J&T; Schaumburg (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k)

Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance

Life Insurance

Short-Term Disability

Paid Time-Off including vacation, sick

Employee Referral Program

Learn more / grow more

Job summary

J&T's Chicago Technical Center seeks a Manager of Applications Engineering to lead daily operations and strategic execution of the Applications Engineering group.

Reporting to the Director of Applications Engineering, the role emphasizes hands-on leadership, mentoring engineers, ensuring customer demonstrations, and maintaining showroom readiness while driving world-class technical excellence across centers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required or equivalent hands-on manufacturing experience.
• Minimum eight years of progressive hands-on experience in CNC machining and related areas.
• Experience leading technical teams and managing engineering projects.
• Strong CNC setup, programming, prove-out, tooling, fixtures, and process optimization.

Responsibilities

• Lead the daily operations of the Applications Engineering Department.
• Coordinate engineering priorities, workloads, schedules, and resources.
• Ensure customer demonstrations, turnkey projects, and machine validations are delivered.
• Maintain showroom readiness and customer-ready machines.
• Lead demonstrations, open houses, and customer events.
• Mentor and develop Applications Engineers and foster accountability.
• Support customer visits, executive demonstrations, and manufacturing assessments.
• Collaborate with Sales, Service, Operations and Leadership to execute projects.

Skills

CNC programming

Machining expertise

Leadership

Process optimization

Customer-facing skills

Travel willingness

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or related field

Tools

Fanuc controls

Siemens controls

Mastercam

Siemens NX CAM

hyperMILL

ESPRIT

GibbsCAM

Job description

J&T's Chicago Technical Center seeks a Manager of Applications Engineering to lead daily operations and strategic execution of the Applications Engineering group.

Reporting to the Director of Applications Engineering, the role emphasizes hands-on leadership, mentoring engineers, ensuring customer demonstrations, and maintaining showroom readiness while driving world-class technical excellence across centers.