A global chemical and materials company is seeking a Technical Sales Manager – Performance Polymers to support the growth of its performance polymer business in North America.
This is a customer-facing technical and commercial role combining technical sales, application support, account development, and new business development. The successful candidate will work closely with customers to understand their technical requirements and applications, recommend appropriate product solutions, support product evaluations and commercialization, and identify opportunities for new business.
The position is well suited for an engineering or chemistry professional with experience in the plastics, polymers, or chemical industry who enjoys working directly with customers and combining technical knowledge with commercial responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage and develop relationships with existing customers while identifying and pursuing new business opportunities.
- Serve as a key technical and commercial contact for customers throughout North America.
- Understand customer applications, technical specifications, processing requirements, and business needs and recommend appropriate product solutions.
- Provide technical product and application support in collaboration with R&D, technical teams, laboratories, and other internal resources.
- Support customer product trials, testing, technical evaluations, qualifications, and commercialization activities.
- Identify new customers, applications, markets, and growth opportunities for performance polymer products.
- Develop and maintain a pipeline of new business opportunities and track progress using CRM and other sales tools.
- Gather and analyze market intelligence, customer requirements, competitive activity, and industry trends.
- Prepare and deliver technical presentations, product information, proposals, and other customer-facing materials.
- Participate in customer meetings, industry conferences, trade shows, and other business development activities.
- Coordinate closely with internal technical, sales, marketing, supply chain, and global headquarters teams.
- Support sales planning, forecasting, pricing, and achievement of business objectives.
- Maintain a high level of customer service and develop long-term relationships with key customer stakeholders.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Polymer Science, or a related technical discipline required.
- Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
- Minimum 5 years of professional experience in the plastics, polymers, or chemical industry.
- Experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Technical Sales
- Technical Service
- Application Engineering
- Sales Engineering
- Business Development
- Strong customer-facing experience and demonstrated ability to develop and maintain professional relationships.
- Ability to understand technical specifications, product performance, customer applications, and processing requirements and communicate them effectively to both technical and commercial audiences.
- Knowledge of thermoplastics and thermoplastic processing is highly desirable.
- Experience supporting product trials, technical evaluations, or new application development is a plus.
- Strong analytical, communication, presentation, and problem-solving skills.
- Self-motivated, proactive, and comfortable identifying and pursuing new business opportunities.
- Ability to learn new products, technologies, and applications quickly.
- Experience with CRM systems and standard sales/business software.
- Ability to work effectively across technical, commercial, and global teams.
Travel
Approximately 1–2 weeks of travel per month is expected for customer visits, industry conferences, trade shows, and quarterly meetings. Travel will be primarily within North America, with occasional international travel.
