Account Specialist

Who We Are:
Challenge Manufacturing’s mission is to manufacture with operational excellence by empowering our employee-owners. As a leading tier 1 supplier of complex metal assemblies for the global automotive industry, we drive innovative solutions for future mobility. We believe the best ideas come from individual unique perspectives. These ideas combined with the teamwork of industry leaders allow us to accomplish any challenge. Our team members take pride in the work we do and embody our core values of safety, ownership, and teamwork every day; they are the true driving force in our operations.

Challenge is proud to be one of the largest employee-owned automotive companies in North America. One of the many benefits of joining the Challenge team is the ESOP program. This program allows Challenge to give shares of the Company to all employee-owners annually. These shares are an additional retirement benefit that will continue to grow during your time at Challenge. Being part of an ESOP means our employee-owners share in Challenge’s success!

Challenge is #QualityDriven and #PeoplePowered!

Who We Want:

The Account Specialist position is a collaborative and highly integral role that will be responsible for/support a variety of commercial deliverables, problem resolutions, and tasks for assigned accounts. A successful candidate will be self-driven, results-orientated, and an effective communicator with both internal team members and external customers. The Account Specialist role requires the ability to work with a sense of urgency to perform the assigned tasks within the dynamic automotive industry in collaboration with Account Managers to drive strategic initiatives and manage the account’s profitability & growth. As the Account Specialist, you will be required to work in cross-functional teams which include but are not limited to: Account Managers, customers, internal team members, accounting department, engineering, purchasing, quality, and manufacturing plant. 

What You'll Do:

• Works directly with Account Managers to manage assigned customer accounts
• Cultivate positive relationships with customers and internal team members
• Work with customer-specific portals and procedures
• Submit and track RFQs (Request for Quote) in their entirety from RFQ receipt through quote submission through the Challenge Mfg. quoting process
• Follow up with customers for any additional RFQ information
• Manage customer pricing matrices and sync updates externally and internally.
• Track commercial open issues, POs, obsolescence claims, and ad-hoc cost recovery using a customer-shared tracker
• Coordinate responses to customer-requested documents, such as customer surveys, conflict of minerals, capacity planning reports, country of origin, and other related customer forms
• Assist the Accounts Receivable department with investigating unpaid invoices
• Utilize the ERP system to monitor orders and identify areas of risk to escalate to the Account Manager
• Resolve and/or escalate customer issues promptly.
• Monitor market trends to adjust strategic sales initiatives

Take part in meetings and attend to sales related tasks

When and Where:
This will be a 8AM - 4PM M-F position located at our Corporate Office in Walker, MI. 
Occasionally, this may require you to arrive early, stay late, or work on weekends, outside of our regular hours, to ensure we successfully meet customer needs, deadlines, or urgent requests.

What You Need to Have:

• Bachelor’s Degree; or related experience and training; or equivalent combination of education and experience (required). 
• Bachelor of Science in Engineering or Business Administration (preferred)
• 1 - 3 years of business/sales management experience (required)
• Automotive supplier experience (preferred)
• Experience with PLEX ERP system (preferred)
• Ability to navigate CAD to review products for RFQs and presentations
• Customer support experience
• Microsoft Office proficiency with an emphasis on Excel competency
• Strong communicator with a positive attitude
• Passion for customer and company success
• Thrives in a hands-on environment
• Self-motivated and solution focused
• Takes responsibility for actions, results, and mistakes
• Demonstrates honesty and integrity in all aspects of work
• Strong conflict resolution skills
• Has high standards of performance for self

 

What We Offer:
We’re excited to offer a range of awesome benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a Health Savings Account with annual employer contributions, F