Application Engineer

Sebastian Bomberg is Application Engineer at Mathworks, the company behind MATLAB and Simulink. During our interview at Tech Roles Uncovered, Sebastian explains the responsibilities of an Application Engineer and leads us through a typical day.

How to become an Application Engineer

Sebastian explains that he is actually a career changer. He studied mechanical engineering and started his professional career in academia before joining a manufacturer as a software developer. Due to his work as a developer in the manufacturing industry he knew the tools MATLAB and Simulink for data analysis and simulations. When he spottet an open position as an Application Engineer at Mathworks he decided to apply and switch into a more customer facing role. So far Sebastian has been working as an Application Engineer at Mathworks for 5 years.

What is an Application Engineer

Sebastian highlights that an Application Engineer is a problem solver always trying to find the best solution for the customer. Sometimes a customer is calling and asks Sebastian for help in order to solve a specific problem. Then he is supporting the customer to define the required data and figure out whether the application should run on premise, on someone's desktop or as a web service in the cloud. Eventually, an Application Engineer's main task is to help the customer defining the best solution in order to be successful. 

Application Engineers can come in different flavors. Most of the time, Sebastian is dealing with commercial users from manufacturing, where he brings valuable knowledge from his studies and previous employer. But there are also Application Engineers who are focussing on academy, working together with research institutes and universities. 

In the following chapter you will see how Sebastian is defining the role of an Application Engineer.

Skills as Application Engineer

One of the most important skills as an Application Engineer are listening and asking the right questions. To figure out the best solution, an Application Engineer needs to understand the full problem und get the big picture of what the customer wants to achieve. Drawing a solution on too many assumption may lead into the wrong direction. Sebastians secret weapon is that he is speaking the same language as his customers from manufacturing due to his professional background as a mechanical engineer. View more about important skills as an Application Engineer in the following chapter.

Typical day as Application Engineer

At Mathworks they have an hybride working model where they spend three days per week in home office and two days in the office. In this chapter of the interview Sebastian describes a typical day when he is in the Mathwork's office. He talks about tasks and with whom he is collaborating at a day.

Summary

An Application Engineer is a role always focussing on the customer's needs. Even though an Application Engineer is working closely together with the sales department, the role has no sales targets to achieve. The main purpose is to figure out the best solutions for a customer project. At Mathworks these projects are mostly dealing with data science, data analytics and simulations. As Sebastian Bomberg is predominantely responsible for customers from manufacturing, his background as a Mechanical Eningeer is a huge benefit.

If you want to learn more about the role of an Application Engineer, watch the full interview.