Sales Engineer

Job Title

Job Description

Do you enjoy turning complex customer challenges into smart, practical solutions, and bringing people together to make them happen? As a Sales Engineer Airports at Vanderlande, you help shape the logistics systems that keep baggage moving reliably through airports around the world.

Vanderlande is a global partner for future-proof logistics automation. Our technology is active at more than 600 airports, including many of the world’s largest hubs. In this role, your ideas can influence highly visible, mission-critical operations, combining mechanical systems, intelligent software and life-cycle services in solutions tailored to each customer.

You work at the intersection of customers, technology and business. Together with Sales Managers and multidisciplinary specialists, you uncover operational needs, develop and compare concepts, and build a compelling proposal that balances customer value, technical feasibility, commercial competitiveness and risk. From the first conversation through contract award and handover, you help turn ambition into a solution that can be delivered.

Your Responsibilities

Solution Development

• Analyze customer requirements, operational processes and tender specifications, and translate them into clear solution requirements.
• Develop and compare integrated solution concepts, considering performance, availability, sustainability, implementation and life-cycle value.
• Use data, sound engineering judgement and input from specialists to challenge assumptions and make well-founded design choices.
• Explain key trade-offs clearly, enabling customers and internal stakeholders to make informed decisions.

Sales & Bid Management

• Shape the opportunity strategy with the Sales Manager and the wider sales team and translate it into a coherent technical and commercial approach.
• Coordinate Sales Engineering activities and deliverables from qualification and concept development through proposal submission, negotiations and contract award.
• Bring together the right expertise from areas such as layout engineering, OT, IT, service, procurement, planning and project execution.
• Create clarity on scope, interfaces, assumptions, responsibilities and deadlines across the bid team.
• Manage several opportunities or workstreams while maintaining quality, focus and timely decision-making.
• Ensure that required reviews, approvals and sales-process steps are completed and documented.
• Customer Engagement
• Build trusted relationships with customers and key stakeholders throughout the sales process.
• Prepare and facilitate workshops that reveal operational priorities, constraints and opportunities.
• Turn complex technical content into clear, persuasive presentations and proposal narratives.
• Listen actively, ask thoughtful questions and respond constructively to customer feedback, clarifications and negotiations.

Commercial & Financial Responsibility

• Contribute to cost estimates, pricing strategies, business cases and proposal documentation.
• Help ensure that the proposed solution is competitive, commercially sound and executable within the agreed scope.
• Identify technical, commercial and execution risks early, and coordinate proportionate mitigation actions.
• Prepare a transparent, structured handover to the execution team after contract award, preserving the rationale behind key commitments and design choices.

Your Team

You join the Sales Engineering team within Vanderlande’s Airports business in Europe LATAM. The team combines expertise in Sales Engineering, Layout Engineering, Sales Consultancy, Structural Engineering and other technical disciplines. You will be part of an open, international environment where colleagues share knowledge, challenge ideas constructively and work together on solutions with real operational impact.

The role gives you broad exposure to customers, technology and commercial decision-making, as well as opportunities to learn from experienced specialists and contribute across borders. Vanderlande supports professional growth through on-the-job learning, collaboration and development opportunities through the Vanderlande Academy. We value different perspectives, curiosity, ownership, entrenepeneurship and the willingness to keep learning.

Your Profile

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in industrial, mechanical, logistics or another relevant technical discipline, or an equivalent level gained through relevant professional experience.
• Experience in Sales Engineering, Solution Engineering, systems engineering, concept development or another technical, customer-facing role. We welcome both early-career candidates and applicants with several years of relevant experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the curiosity to understand how complex systems, processes and stakeholder needs connect.
• The ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and adapt your message to customers, specialists and decision-makers.
• A collaborative, structured way of working, with the ability to coordinate contributions, balance priorities and follow through on commitments.
• Commercial awareness and an interest in solution costing, business value and risk; you do not need to be an expert in every area from day one.
• Professional proficiency in English.
• Preferred
• Experience in airport automation, baggage handling, material handling, parcel or warehouse automation.
• Experience with complex bids, tenders, systems integration or international customer projects.
• Experience facilitating customer workshops or presenting solution concepts.
• Familiarity with solution costing, requirements management, risk assessment or bid management.
• Experience working with international and multicultural teams.
• Knowledge of German or another relevant European language is an advantage.
  
  What we offer  

Working at Vanderlande comes with the support and space to grow, achieve, and enjoy the journey.

Here is what that looks like in practice:

• Salary: €3,806 gross per month on a full-time basis (40 hours per week), excluding an 8% holiday allowance paid out annually. This position is part of our Young Graduate programme, which includes a structured development and salary progression cycle as you grow in your role.beyond this range.  

• 40 vacation days per year (full-time): 20 statutory days plus a flexible budget of 20 more. Plenty of space to rest, travel, and recharge. Accrued pro-rata for part-time.  

• Flexible working hours and hybrid working: 2 days from home, 3 in the office per week, agreed with your team, so you can work in a way that fits your life.  

• €300 Health & Wellbeing budget per year, yours to spend on whatever keeps you at your best.  

• Commuting and home working allowances, including full reimbursement of travel by public transport.  

• Collective pension scheme and discount on additional health insurance.  

• Vanderlande Academy: training and development programmes to grow your skills and take your career where you want it to go.  

• On-site health centre with gym, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists at our Veghel campus.  

• Company restaurant and coffee bar with barista at our Veghel campus.  

About Vanderlande

As one of the world's leading providers of tailor-made and process-automated solutions, Vanderlande reliably creates the most innovative, effective, and sustainable processes and systems for every individual customer requirement. With over 11,000 employees globally, we support over airports, parcel service providers such as DHL, UPS, and FedEx and global e-commerce companies like Zalando.

Ready to apply?  

Are you interested in this position? Apply directly via our careers page with your CV. Questions about this role? Contact Fleur van den Brule (Recruiter) at fleur.van.den.brule@vanderlande.com.  

PS: Due to process compliance, we cannot process email applications. Kindly use the correct vacancy link to apply for this vacancy.