Cofan Thermal, Inc. is hiring a hands-on Technical Sales Manager to grow OEM customer relationships from its Fremont, CA location on an onsite basis. This individual-contributor role owns a territory or strategic account base, guides opportunities through the full customer lifecycle, and connects customer technical needs to internal Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations teams.
In this position, you will develop account strategies, lead technical discovery during NPI, and position manufacturable thermal solutions that protect gross margin while supporting competitive differentiation.
What you’ll do
- Develop and execute regional and account-specific sales strategies to meet revenue, bookings, gross-margin, and new-business objectives across OEM and strategic accounts.
- Identify, qualify, and develop new OEM opportunities in target markets such as electronics, data centers, semiconductor equipment, telecommunications, power electronics, industrial equipment, medical, automotive, and aerospace, plus other high-performance applications.
- Engage customers early in product-development and New Product Introduction (NPI) to capture thermal requirements, mechanical constraints, performance objectives, cost targets, manufacturing requirements, and program timing.
- Build and maintain relationships across customer teams including engineering, sourcing/procurement, supply chain, operations, quality, and executive management.
- Expand existing accounts by uncovering new programs, applications, business units, and cross-selling opportunities.
- Act as the commercial and technical interface between customers and internal Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations to develop customized, manufacturable solutions.
- Review and coordinate around customer inputs including drawings, specifications, BOMs, RFQs, and application requirements, and support activities such as DFM, thermal analysis, prototyping, testing, qualification, value engineering, and production launch.
- Prepare and present technical and commercial proposals that communicate solution capability, value proposition, manufacturing approach, lead time, and cost.
- Negotiate pricing, commercial terms, contracts, and supply arrangements while protecting gross margin and managing commercial risk.
- Use value-based selling to differentiate the company’s engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply-chain, and service capabilities rather than competing mainly on price.
- Own strategic customer relationships across the lifecycle, coordinating with Customer Service, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality to support commitments, resolve escalations, and identify additional opportunities.
- Monitor market trends, competitor activity, emerging technologies, customer investments, and sourcing strategies to spot new opportunities and competitive threats.
- Collaborate with customers on forecasts, annual demand, product life cycles, program schedules, and future sourcing requirements.
- Run periodic customer business reviews covering performance, forecasts, quality, delivery, new opportunities, and improvement initiatives.
- Coordinate cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain to develop account strategies and coordinated customer responses.
- Meet or exceed assigned revenue, bookings, gross-margin, pipeline, and new-business objectives to drive long-term profitable growth.
- Maintain accurate and timely customer, opportunity, activity, and pipeline information in the CRM, and develop rolling sales forecasts based on demand, opportunity stage, program timing, and market conditions.
- Track RFQs, quotations, samples, design-ins, qualifications, wins/losses, and production ramps, and communicate risks or changes to management.
Key responsibilities in measurable terms
- Revenue and bookings growth
- Gross-margin performance
- New customer acquisition and existing-account growth
- Qualified sales pipeline
- RFQ and design-in conversion
- NPI/program wins
- Forecast accuracy
- Customer retention
- CRM and opportunity-management discipline
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Business, or a related discipline preferred; equivalent technical, commercial, and industry experience will be considered.
- 5+ years of B2B technical sales, OEM sales, account management, or business-development experience preferred; candidates with 3+ years of highly relevant experience and demonstrated results will also be considered.
- Strong technical aptitude and working knowledge of engineered products, electronic/electromechanical components, thermal-management products, precision manufacturing, or custom OEM solutions.
- Experience supporting customers with product selection, customization, design-in, NPI, qualification, and integration of components into OEM systems.
- Familiarity with thermal-management technologies including extruded, skived-fin, zipper-fin, bonded-fin and CNC-machined heatsinks, heat pipes, vapor chambers, fans, cold plates, and liquid cooling is preferred.
- Excellent written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate with customer engineers, buyers, executives, and internal teams.
- Ability to read and discuss engineering drawings, specifications, tolerances, BOMs, and technical requirements.
- Understanding of RFQ, NPI, prototype, qualification, and production-launch processes.
- Strong commercial skills including pricing, negotiation, account strategy, value selling, and margin management.
- Experience with CRM and ERP systems and disciplined opportunity, pipeline, and forecast management.
- Self-motivated, results-driven, accountable, and comfortable operating independently while coordinating resources across a global organization.
- Willingness to travel approximately 25–50% depending on territory and customer requirements for meetings, program reviews, trade shows, and business-development activities.
Technologies you’ll use
Products and technical scope
- Extruded, skived-fin, zipper-fin, bonded-fin, and CNC-machined heatsinks
- Heat pipes and vapor chambers
- Fans and blowers
- Cold plates and liquid-cooling solutions
- Thermal assemblies and integrated cooling solutions
- Precision CNC machining
- Sheet-metal and metal-fabrication solutions
- Custom electromechanical components and assemblies
- Skiving technology
- MCPCB
Benefits
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Career opportunity and growth
The role is designed to help you build and own a territory or strategic account base while working closely with head of sales, engineering, and manufacturing teams on complex OEM programs. As the organization grows, successful individuals may expand into Strategic Account Management, Regional Sales Leadership, Business Development Leadership, Product/Market Management, or Sales Team Management. Direct people management is not required for success in this position, and the role can remain a high-impact individual-contributor sales position.
Location
Fremont, CA (in person).
