Customer Engineering Manager

***NO AGENCIES***

Role Summary

Grayson is a growing organisation positioned in the Low Carbon / Zero emission sector, developing products in automotive, rail, off-highway and remote energy storage markets. We are developing an exciting range of Thermal Management products our team needs a forward thinking, customer & delivery focused Customer Engineering Manager.

This role ensures successful project delivery, fosters customer satisfaction, and drives technical excellence by managing customer requirements, engineering resources, and collaboration processes.

Based at our Birmingham location you will directly lead a team of customer application engineers, technical authors and reliability engineers coordinating all Customer Engineering activity to our plans. Deliver total reliability in the GTS product range through careful selection, design, testing and validation.

Key Responsibilities:

Customer Relationship Management

• Act as the escalation technical contact for customers, addressing their engineering-related topics.
• Proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with customer stakeholders at all levels to understand their needs and expectations.
• Facilitate regular communication and status updates on project progress internally and externally.
• Infrequent travel to customers (UK, Europe and North America) is required.

Project Management

• Oversee the teams customer-focused engineering projects, ensuring timely delivery, quality standards, and budget compliance.
• Define project scope, goals, and deliverables in collaboration with customers and internal teams.
• Manage and resolve technical challenges during the project lifecycle.
• Work collaboratively with our programme manager to embed PM rules, tools and methods into the customer engineering team.
• Define project risks (risk register) and opportunities for risk mitigation working internally and externally with the customer.

Team Leadership

• Coordinate cross-functional engineering teams to deliver customer solutions effectively.
• Ensure all learning from our Aftermarket/Service Support is embedded in the products we develop, creating integrated service support solutions/campaigns.
• Mentor and guide project/application engineers, fostering professional growth and ensuring alignment with customer goals.
• Conduct performance reviews and provide regular feedback to team members.

Technical Oversight

• Collaborate with internal advanced product engineering, design engineering, test & development, quality, manufacturing and Aftersales / Service teams to translate customer requirements into actionable engineering solutions.
• Ensure solutions meet regulatory, safety, and performance standards. Lead the customer installation approval and sign off activity
• Identify opportunities for innovation and process improvement to enhance customer satisfaction and product innovation / efficiency.

Stakeholder Communication

• Present technical solutions, proposals, and reports to customers in a clear and professional manner (in person and virtually).
• Ability to effectively negotiate and advocate for standard products while resisting unnecessary changes when possible.
• Facilitate meetings between internal teams and customers to align objectives and resolve issues.
• Prepare and deliver regular updates to senior management on project status and customer feedback.

Business Development Support

• Partner with sales and marketing teams to provide technical input during the sales cycle to enhance to opportunity to secure target contracts during the bid phase.
• Participate in customer onboarding and proposal development processes.
• Identify opportunities for cross-selling/standardising product to meet additional customer needs.

Required skills and qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Software, or related field) or equivalent experience.

· 7+ years of engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a customer-facing or management role.

· Strong knowledge of engineering principles, product development processes, and project management.

· Proven ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders simultaneously.

· Excellent communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills.

· Proficiency in project management tools (e.g., MS Project, P6, Jira, Doors) and Customer Requirements Management.

· Problem-solving mindset with a focus on delivering customer solutions.

· Experience in managing and leading teams, including performance evaluation and development.

Preferred qualifications and experience

· Experience in vehicle/automotive, rail or an energy storage industry.

· Understanding of the integration of sub systems into a whole vehicle/product system design

· An understanding of thermal management / HVAC design and multiple system integration

Competencies

· Leadership and team management

· Customer focus and relationship-building

· Strong technical aptitude

· Strategic thinking and problem-solving

· Able to work in a fast-paced environment, in multiple disciplines showing leadership and direction

· Self-motivated, flexible and works well under pressure