Field Application Engineer - High Speed Interconnects

National Black MBA Association; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 146,000 - 178,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Competitive benefits

Job summary

3M is seeking a Field Application Engineer for Optical Interconnects, focused on customer-facing technical support and design-in for fiber optic and high-speed interconnects. The role involves direct engagement with customers, product teams, and sales to optimize performances and adoption across data center and networking environments.

The position requires hands-on problem solving, travel up to 15% domestically/internationally, and the ability to work remotely within the United States.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher completed and verified prior to start.
• Three years of experience in a customer-facing technical or applications engineering role.
• Two years of experience with high-speed interconnect technologies including optical fiber/copper connectivity.
• Current, valid Driver’s License.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical interface between 3M and customers for optical interconnect solutions, focusing on optical fiber technologies and expanded beam optics.
• Support customer design-in activities for fiber optic connectivity and high-speed communications systems.
• Provide technical consultation to customers, sales teams and partners on product selection and integration.
• Drive adoption of interconnect solutions by understanding customer architectures and future roadmap needs.
• Collaborate with product development, R&D, manufacturing, and marketing to capture customer needs.
• Lead technical discussions, demonstrations, evaluations, and troubleshooting for customer applications.
• Develop tests plans, analyze results, and ensure customer requirements are met with validated data.
• Assist customers in resolving field and application issues through hands-on problem solving.

Skills

Interconnect tech

Optical fiber

Copper connectivity

Data center systems

Cross-functional teamwork

Troubleshooting

Technical training

Customer engagement

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher

Tools

Optical test equipment

Process engineering

Job description

Job Description:

Field Application Engineer - High Speed Interconnects

Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World

Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company that you choose to work at, and its leaders, will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.

This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role

As a Customer Facing Application Engineer – Optical Interconnects, you will have the opportunity to apply your technical expertise and customer engagement skills to support innovative interconnect solutions across data center, networking, and other high-performance connectivity applications. In this role, you will make an impact by:

• Serving as a technical interface between 3M and customers for optical interconnect solutions, with a primary emphasis on optical fiber technologies and expanded beam optics.
• Supporting customer design-in activities for fiber optic connectivity, optical transport, and high-speed communication systems.
• Providing technical consultation to customers, sales teams, and channel partners on product selection, application fit, system integration, and performance optimization.
• Driving adoption of 3M interconnect solutions by understanding customer architectures, technical requirements, and next-generation roadmap needs.
• Collaborating with product development, R&D, manufacturing, quality, and marketing teams to communicate customer needs and influence future product direction.
• Leading technical discussions, product demonstrations, evaluations, and troubleshooting efforts for customer applications involving optical and copper interconnects.
• Supporting qualification activities by developing test plans, analyzing results, and ensuring customer requirements are met with validated data.
• Assisting customers in resolving field and application issues through hands-on technical problem-solving and cross-functional coordination.
• Providing application guidance related to product design, manufacturing processes, and process capability considerations to support successful product implementation and customer adoption.
• Contributing to technical documentation, application notes, customer presentations, and training materials to support product deployment and market adoption.
• Monitoring industry trends, competitive technologies, and emerging standards in optical fiber interconnects and high-speed data communication.
• Ensuring technical claims in customer-facing literature and communications are accurate, well-supported, and aligned with product performance.

Your Skills and Expertise

To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher (completed and verified prior to start)
• Three (3) years of experience in a customer-facing technical, applications engineering, systems engineering, or product support role in a private, public, government, or military environment.
• Two (2) years of experience with high-speed interconnect technologies, including optical fiber and/or copper connectivity solutions.
• Current, valid Driver’s License.

Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field from an accredited institution.
• Five (5) or more years of experience in optical connectivity for communications systems.
• Strong knowledge of optical fiber interconnects, transceiver connectivity, cable assemblies, and data center optical infrastructure.
• Experience in process engineering or process development for optical, fiber optic, or precision interconnect technologies, including process design, scale-up, optimization, qualification, validation, and transfer to manufacturing.

• Experience transferring technical knowledge and delivering technical training related to production processes, including developing training materials, providing hands-on instruction, and communicating process requirements, best practices, and troubleshooting methods to manufacturing, engineering, and customer teams.

• Familiarity with data center systems architecture, networking, AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing environments.
• Experience interpreting industry standards, qualification requirements, and test methods related to fiber optic and electrical interconnect components.
• Experience with optical test equipment and performance characterization of optical or interconnect systems.
• Ability to analyze customer requirements and translate them into application guidance and product recommendations.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills in customer and field environments.
• Experience developing and delivering technical presentations to customers, internal stakeholders, and external partners.
• Strong communication skills, including oral, written, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively across global, cross-functional teams.

Work location:

• May work remote within the United States

Travel:

May include up to 15% domestic/international

Relocation Assistance:

May be authorized

Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status).

Supporting Your Well-being

3M offers many programs to help you live your best life – both physically and financially. To ensure competitive pay and benefits, 3M regularly benchmarks with other companies that are comparable in size and scope.

Applicable to US Applicants Only:

The expected compensation range for this position is $145,676 - $178,049, which includes base pay plus variable incentive pay, if eligible. This range represents a good faith estimate for this position. The specific compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant knowledge, training, skills, work location, and/or experience.

Additional information is available at: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/

All US-based 3M full time employees will need to sign an employee agreement as a condition of employment with 3M. This agreement lays out key terms on using 3M Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. It also has provisions discussing conflicts of interest and how inventions are assigned. Employees that are Job Grade 7 or equivalent and above may also have obligations to not compete against 3M or solicit its employees or customers, both during their employment, and for a period after they leave 3M. Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @3M.

Pay & Benefits Overview: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/3M

3M does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Please note: your application may not be considered if you do not provide your education and work history, either by: 1) uploading a resume, or 2) entering the information into the application fields directly.