Applications Engineer

SHAPING THE FUTURE THROUGH INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY!

With a history spanning more than seven decades, Communications & Power Industries’ thousands of products have impacted people’s lives in numerous unseen ways every day. Our highly engineered products serve as the backbone of modern-day commercial and military communications systems, assist in diagnosing medical conditions, empower scientific discoveries and space exploration, and much more.

CPI is headquartered in Plano, Texas and is a global manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems. We have manufacturing locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. With a heritage of technological excellence, our team serves customers in the communications, defense, medical, industrial, and scientific markets.

YOUR DAY TO DAY:

Reporting to the Manager, Applications Engineering, the Applications Engineer serves as the primary technical advisor throughout the customer engagement process, translating customer requirements into practical, high-performance solutions that support both customer success and the Company's growth objectives. Working closely with Sales, Product Management, Engineering, Program Management, and Manufacturing, this role develops product configurations, supports technical proposals, and provides expert guidance through product evaluation, factory acceptance testing (FAT), and system commissioning to ensure customer requirements are successfully realized.

This role offers the opportunity to solve complex technical challenges using industry-leading RF and microwave technologies while working directly with customers around the world. As the technical voice of the customer, the Applications Engineer helps shape innovative solutions, contributes valuable market and application insights to Product Management and Engineering, and plays a key role in securing new business and delivering an exceptional customer experience.

YOU WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR:

Customer Applications & Solution Development

• Serve as the primary technical advisor throughout the customer engagement process by translating application requirements into practical, commercially viable solutions and supporting the successful selection and implementation of CPI products.
• Support technical proposal development by preparing technical proposals, engineering bid requests, compliance matrices, technical documentation, and engineering recommendations.
• Provide technical recommendations throughout the sales cycle and product deployment, including proposal development, factory acceptance testing, and customer commissioning activities.
• Represent the Company at customer meetings, industry conferences, and trade shows as a technical subject matter expert.

Engineering & Product Development

• Develop standard and custom product configurations that balance customer requirements with technical performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule.
• Work with engineering to communicate customer requirements, evaluate custom solutions and develop system-level designs and documentation.
• Help introduce new products and improvements by sharing customer feedback and supporting engineering change activities.

Technical Leadership & Product Acceptance

• Support factory acceptance testing (FAT) and customer acceptance tests through performance verification, equipment installation and system integration.
• Collaborate with engineering, manufacturing, production test, quality, and service teams to assemble, integrate, and perform functional testing that verify compliance with product specifications and support successful product delivery.
• Resolve technical issues during product implementation by collaborating with cross-functional teams to identify root causes and support the implementation of effective corrective actions.
• Coordinate with Product Support to ensure effective product handoff and support readiness following customer acceptance.

Continuous Improvement & Professional Development

• Maintain expertise in CPI products, RF technologies, industry standards, and emerging market trends to ensure technically accurate customer guidance and effective application support.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives that simplify product configuration, improve proposal quality, and enhance the customer experience.
• Partner with Product Management by providing customer application insights, competitive intelligence, and emerging market requirements.
• Develop and maintain application guides, technical reference material, and best practices that improve organizational knowledge.

YOU ARE THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THIS JOB IF YOU HAVE:

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, Science, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum five years of experience in applications engineering, systems engineering, product engineering, technical sales, or a related customer-facing engineering role supporting complex engineered products in a manufacturing environment.
• Knowledge of SATCOM technologies and high-power RF amplifier products, including TWTAs, SSPAs, and related RF subsystems.
• Strong understanding of RF and microwave engineering principles.

Professional Skills

• Excellent communication, presentation, and problem-solving skills with the ability to work effectively across customers and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, customer requests, and engineering assignments simultaneously.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and SolidWorks for conceptual designs.
• Strong analytical thinking, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills.

Technical Knowledge & Skills

• Ability to translate customer requirements into practical engineering solutions.
• Experience assembling, configuring, testing, and troubleshooting RF amplifier systems in a laboratory or manufacturing environment.
• Proficiency performing RF performance testing, system verification, and acceptance testing using standard laboratory equipment.
• Ability to diagnose hardware, RF, and system-level issues while supporting factory acceptance testing (FAT), system integration, and customer acceptance testing.

• Must be eligible to meet all CGP and ITAR requirements.

WHAT WE OFFER:

Whether you are a seasoned professional or just embarking on your career, CPI is an ideal place to expand your knowledge and expertise. We cultivate a healthy, dynamic, and team-oriented environment that empowers our employees to develop, create and deliver innovative, reliable technology solutions to power, connect, protect, and support a better tomorrow.

We offer our employees an attractive compensation package with competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits, including health and wellness programs, on-site gym & cafeteria, career development, generous retirement savings plan with company match and more!

WHO WE ARE:

We value the unique and diverse skills, qualities, and backgrounds that each employee brings to CPI, and we respect each employee as an integral member of our growing team. CPI is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all current and prospective employees, as well as to promoting a culture of inclusion and respect for everyone. We celebrate the innovation that diversity creates in the work environment, and we recognize that each employee brings their own unique capabilities, experiences, and perspectives to the organization. It is this variety that adds value to our teams, as well as to our stakeholders. We welcome and encourage applicants to reach their full potential with us.

CPI is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

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