Lead Applications Engineer

Eaton Corporation; Southfield (MI); Hybrid; USD 97,000 - 143,000; Full time

Job summary

Eaton Corporation is seeking a Lead Applications Engineer for its IS VEH EMB division, based at the Southfield, MI campus in a hybrid work model. You will lead customer-facing engineering activities related to power conversion and mobility solutions across commercial and passenger vehicle applications.

Responsibilities include guiding discussions from concept to launch, coordinating cross-functional teams, and supporting RFQ/program acquisition while strengthening OEM relationships and enabling

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in one of the specified engineering fields.
• 5+ years of Automotive/Tier 1 experience.
• 3+ years in Applications Engineering, Systems Engineering, Resident Engineering, Product Engineering, or customer-facing technical roles.
• Willingness to travel up to 20%.
• Eaton will not sponsor immigration for this position. No relocation is available; candidates must reside within 50 miles of Southfield, MI.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary technical interface between OEM customers and Eaton’s internal engineering teams.
• Represent company technologies, products, and engineering capabilities during customer reviews, workshops, and executive presentations.
• Develop and maintain strong technical relationships with OEM customers in commercial and passenger vehicle segments.
• Lead product integration activities at customer sites, including installation, diagnostics, and root-cause analysis.
• Analyze customer specifications and vehicle architectures to develop optimized technical solutions.
• Support issue resolution through technical investigations and corrective actions.
• Lead pre- and post-award technical activities with customers, including requirement analysis and concept development.
• Drive project milestones with customers and coordinate cross-functional teams.
• Prepare project status documentation and communicate risks and mitigation plans.
• Collaborate with global development teams across hardware, electronics, software, and validation.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree (Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical, Mechatronics, or Mechanical Engineering)

Job description

Eaton’s IS VEH EMB division is currently seeking a Lead Applications Engineer. This is a hybrid work opportunity based at our Southfield, MI campus.

The Lead Applications Engineer serves as the primary technical liaison between OEM customers and internal engineering, product management, manufacturing, and commercial teams. This role is responsible for leading customer-facing engineering activities related to power conversion and advanced mobility solutions across commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle applications.

This position will guide technical discussions from concept development through launch, ensuring customer requirements are accurately translated into robust, manufacturable, and cost-effective solutions. This individual will lead application engineering efforts, support business growth through RFQ and program acquisition activities, coordinate cross-functional development teams, and drive successful product integration into OEM vehicle platforms. The ultimate objective is to strengthen customer relationships and enable successful product launches.

The expected annual salary range for this role is $97000 - $143000 a year.

Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

Eaton announced, on June 11, 2026, the intent to combine its Mobility Group (including both the Vehicle and eMobility segments) with a new company. We expect to complete this process by the end of the first half of 2027. The compensation and benefits that will initially be offered for this position are based on Eaton's plans, programs and practices. If you are offered and accept this position and are actively employed by the Mobility Group when the transaction closes, the new company will provide further details to employees concerning compensation and benefits at that time.

What you’ll do:

• Serve as the primary technical interface between OEM customers and Eaton’s internal engineering teams.

• Represent company technologies, products, and engineering capabilities during customer reviews, workshops, design discussions, and executive presentations.

• Build and maintain strong technical relationships with commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle OEM customers.

• Drive and work directly with customers, both at engineering and manufacturing sites to assist with product integration, installation, diagnostics, and root cause analysis.

• Analyze customer specifications, requirements, standards, and vehicle architectures to develop optimized technical solutions.

• Support customer issue resolution through technical investigations, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and validation activities.

• Lead pre-award and post-award technical activities, including requirement analysis and concept development along with customer.

• Drive technical phases of projects to meet deadlines and negotiate critical milestones with customers.

• Lead customer meetings, prepare documentation, define internal work packages, and track status.

• Monitor emerging OEM trends, vehicle technologies, regulatory requirements, and competitive developments.

• Support product roadmaps by identifying opportunities for new features, technologies, and applications.

• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives related to engineering processes, customer engagement, and product development methodologies.

• Prepare presentations to communicate project status, risks, and mitigation plans.

• Build strategies with global development teams including hardware, electronics, software, and validation.

Qualifications:

Required Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical, Mechatronics and/or Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution

• Minimum five (5) years experience in Automotive/Tier 1’s

• Minimum three 3 years of experience in Applications Engineering, Systems Engineering, Resident Engineering, Product Engineering, or customer-facing technical roles.

• Ability to travel up to 20%

• Eaton will not consider applicants for employment immigration sponsorship or support for this position. This means that Eaton will not support any "CPT, OPT, or STEM OPT plans, F-1 to H-1B, H-1B cap registration, O-1, E-3, TN status, I-485 job portability, etc."

• No relocation is available for this position. Candidates must reside within 50 miles of Southfield, MI to be considered. Active Duty Military is exempt from this geographical limitation.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven experience working directly with OEM customers throughout product development and launch cycles.

• Master's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Systems, or Mechatronics Engineering.