Sr Automation Engineer

Purpose of the position

• The Senior Automation Engineer (SAE) is a critical position within the Kalmar regional and Global Automation Services team. The SAE will carry a substantial case management load and is primarily responsible for working through customer cases to determine root causes and devising resolutions. The customer cases to be worked on can be reported by customers themselves or proactively reported by SAE or his/her colleagues under a Software Maintenance and Support (SW M&S) contract with the customers.
• The SAE works also in delivering services under specific optimization projects where SAE will work with the customer, and other subject matter experts, to proactively identify, analyze, report and mitigate issues that hinder customer operational performance.
• The SAE will take input from customers regarding product improvements and work with the customer to define and document the business and functional requirements. The SAE will also define the development priority of the improvement(s). This information will be passed to the product engineering team for development.
• The SAE will receive questions from the customer(s) and will seek to answer them by referring to product documentation or by seeking clarification from the product engineering group.
• The SAE will consistently document his/her actions related to the customer-facing part of case investigations and root cause determination of customer reported issues in Kalmar’s CRM system, currently salesforce.com.
• The SAE will consistently document his/her actions related to the engineering part of the investigation and root cause determination of customer reported issues in Kalmar’s defect tracking system, currently, jira.com. The SAE will comply with all requirements of Kalmar Engineering providing all necessary and required information to ensure Engineering has the information needed to properly investigate the software and/or hardware anomaly.
• The SAE will consistently maintain his/her queue of open cases ensuring that all cases are effectively managed and updated, including negotiation of priority and urgency with engineering. 
• The person in this role reports to the Sr. Manager Automation Services and works with, but not limited to, the regional team to assist in filtering incoming cases with a focus on driving case closure at the first level of support where possible. This is a technical support role where the SAE will work directly with customers, Kalmar Project Delivery / Professional Services (PS) and Kalmar Engineering to resolve client issues effectively.
• The SAE will engage with customers on a regular basis and will, when required, remotely participate in software implementations and upgrades, which may occasionally require on-site work with the customer.
• The SAE will also assist with Kalmar’s internal customer systems and test processes, integrations, and test environment maintenance.  These responsibilities may include management and upkeep of customer specific configuration data and test environments through VMware/VM Cloud environments.  
• The SAE will prepare regular reports of service level performance against the contractual KPIs for case resolution and/or report the hours spent by Kalmar working on support services. These reports will be in a form suitable for presentation to customers.

Main tasks and responsibilities

• Provide responsiveness and technical support to Kalmar customer reported issues. 
• Replicate/validate customer reported issues. Debug software/hardware issues as necessary.
• Perform root-cause analysis (RCA) on customer reported issues.
• Execute the required actions to mitigate the customer reported issue(s) and bring the system back to an operational state.
• Assist junior AE’s with escalated issues.
• Participate in, and sometimes lead, customer optimization initiatives from a technical perspective.
• Conduct technical hands-on training for Automation Services staff.
• Assist on-boarding new Automation Services staff.
• Mentor new Automation Services staff.
• Attend regular office-hours meetings with Kalmar Engineering.
• When required participate in the local roster for on-call support rotation including being available during designated after-hours and weekends as the regional point of escalation for Automation Services for critical P1 issues
• Coordinate the preparation and delivery to the customer of ‘hot fixes’ when warranted by the customer’s urgency and when approved by Kalmar Engineering Management.
• Expand and improve the quality of knowledge by writing, editing and approving knowledge base articles.
• Self-learning of new product and technology developments so as to be able to provide up to date advice to customers.
• Report service performance against defined KPIs
• Participate in, lead technical and/or core product meetings within the broader Kalmar organization.
• Keep abreast of Kalmar’s technological strategy and measure and see short-term activities in relation to the long-term business strategies or goals.
   

What you’ll need to succeed

Education:

• BS or MS degree in computer science, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related technical discipline.

Experience:

• 5+  years related technical development and/or customer service experience.
• Working experience of Unix, Windows, Database management systems (such as Oracle, SQL Server).
• Familiarity with programming (like C#, C++ or Java).
• Exceptional data-analysis and debugging skills using application logs.
• Hands-on experience of API’s, XML, JAVA, APACHE, and client-server apps.
• Proven knowledge of networking technologies and relational database structures and web-based enterprise solutions and technologies.
• Demonstrated experience with mission-critical, industrial enterprise solutions.
• Industry experience in Marine Container Terminals, General Cargo, Distribution Centers or Warehouses desirable.
• Willingness to travel based on business need (up to 10% - 25%).

Competencies:

• Exceptional leadership, customer service, writing, and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated time/account management, and organizational skills
• Flexibility and ability to work extended hours under tight deadlines 
• Problem solving and troubleshooting of complex technical issues
• Results oriented
• Customer Service Skills

You will be part of

• Kalmar is part of a global organization with over 12,000 employees worldwide- We have a very talented and diverse workforce focused on equity & inclusion.
• We believe in our people as it is our people who really make the difference. 
• We always work in close collaboration with our customers, deliver on our promises and never walk away no matter how big the challenge. 
• We succeed because we do it together. 
• With us, you will have the opportunity to realize your potential and become an important member of our global team.
   

Interested to join?

Please submit your resume/CV to be considered!