Field Technical Specialist - Product & Equipment (Home Office; Chicago or St. Louis Area)

Westlake Chemical Corporation; Westlake (OH); Remote; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in water treatment products seeks a Technical Service Specialist responsible for providing expert support, ensuring high quality standards, and delivering effective technical training. This role is pivotal in maintaining customer satisfaction and enhancing operational efficiency within the Solid Specialties division. Candidates should possess a technical degree or relevant experience and demonstrate strong communication and problem-solving skills.

Qualifications

• Technical degree required; 3-5 years experience preferred.
• Strong understanding of chemical safety and storage.
• Commitment to continuous learning and industry trends.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support and guidance for water treatment products.
• Manage customer-related technical service issues via calls and site visits.
• Facilitate technical training for internal teams and external customers.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Problem-solving

Collaboration

Understanding of chemical product safety

Education

Technical degree

Minimum 3 to 5 years of experience

Job description

Summary: The Technical Service Specialist is responsible for providing expert support and guidance for the installation, operation, and maintenance of water treatment products and equipment, as well as design and continuous improvement of chemical delivery equipment. This position is also critical in ensuring high standards of quality and performance for 3rd party co-packing operations. This role is crucial in ensuring customer satisfaction through technical excellence and responsive service.

Functions:

• Solids Specialties (SS) business is involved in swimming pools, drinking water, food processing, and a host of other end-use applications. This position is responsible for customer-related technical service issues, handling these issues via phone and with site visits. This position also works closely with internal company production sites and 3rd party repackaging sites to ensure quality and production requirements are met through routine meetings, both virtually and on site.
• This position provides technical training and support to both internal teams and external customers.
• Tablet systems are a key growth area for SS, and this position is responsible for providing support for the installation and operation of tablet chlorination equipment.
• This position is responsible for managing the Annual Warehouse Self-Assessments program to facilitate the safe handling and storage of Westlake’s SS chemical products.
• This position will review and qualify all tablet/equipment leads received, complete initial qualifying of these leads, and forward to Sales representatives for implementation and sales closing.
• This position is also responsible for understanding equipment manufacture including equipment improvements and new equipment design, and must be knowledgeable on packaging materials and packaging operations, as well as tableting operations.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• Technical degree or minimum 3 to 5 years of experience
• Approximately 50% travel
• Strong understanding of chemical product safety and storage requirements.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey technical information clearly and effectively.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage complexity, plan and organize work, solve problems, and make decisions independently.
• Commitment to continuous learning and staying abreast of industry trends and best practices.

Success Factors - Prime Success Factors (focus on results, drive change, promote teamwork, build trust & respect, and understand market & customer perspective) plus the following: Learn Continuously, Manage Complexity, Plan and Organize, Solve Problems, Communicate and Share Information.

Solid Specialties is a $180MM business. Equipment sales total $6MM annually to support strategic shift of product mix to value-added tablets. Off-site manufacturing costs total $10MM annually.

This position does not supervise other employees. However, the incumbent is involved heavily in interactions with customers (specialists and end-users), suppliers (tableting, pouching, and equipment) as well as internal personnel including Manufacturing, Field Sales, Market Managers, and Supervisor, Supply Chain.