Ongoing technical customer success

• Act as the primary technical contact for deployed customers, helping them adopt the system, interpret results and obtain continuing value from it.
• Diagnose and resolve complex support issues across hardware, software, data and the customer’s test environment; coordinate internal escalation when required.
• Identify technical risks to satisfaction, renewal or expansion early, give the Commercial team clear evidence and recommended actions, and define practical support-triage and escalation routes.

Build the applications engineering function

• Define and continuously improve the applications engineering operating model, including stage ownership, decision points and handovers across Commercial, Product, R&D and Operations.
• Turn field knowledge into reusable discovery SOPs, application notes, demonstration scripts, pilot plans, deployment checks, commissioning checklists, training material, technical reports and troubleshooting playbooks.
• Establish simple metrics that show demonstration quality, pilot progression, deployment time, first-time-right commissioning, customer adoption and recurring support issues.
• Create a disciplined feedback loop that converts field evidence into prioritised product requirements, defect reports and application opportunities, without allowing one-off requests to quietly become the roadmap.

What success looks like in the first 12 months

• You have become the trusted technical owner for customer engagements from advanced discovery onwards, with a clear and deliberate handover from the current technical lead.
• You independently deliver high-quality demonstrations, pilots, commissioning and technical account support across Sention’s hardware and software portfolio.
• You have designed and implemented the first version of Sention’s applications engineering operating model, and the relevant teams use its decision points, handovers, templates and records.
• Customer engagements are more repeatable and measurable because the core playbooks, readiness checks, documentation and metrics now exist and are used.
• Commercial opportunities advance on technically credible evidence, customer promises remain aligned with what Sention can deliver, and recurring field issues are converted into clear product or process improvements.

Experience and qualifications

• Around 5–8 years of relevant professional experience, typically combining a substantial period of hands-on engineering with later customer-facing applications engineering, field engineering, systems engineering, technical consultancy or technical sales work.
• A degree in electrical, electronic, mechanical, mechatronic, systems or control engineering, physics, or another relevant discipline — or equivalent capability developed through substantial practical experience.
• A demonstrable record of building, modifying, integrating or commissioning physical systems: instrumentation, sensors, test rigs, industrial equipment, scientific equipment or similarly complex hardware.
• Experience leading technical customer engagements such as discovery, demonstrations, evaluations, pilots, installation, training or post-sale support.
• Sound commercial judgement: able to understand buying processes, negotiate technical scope, maintain momentum and distinguish a valuable customer requirement from an expensive distraction.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, including the ability to explain uncertain or complex technical findings to engineers, operators, commercial stakeholders and senior decision-makers.
• A record of turning repeated technical work into clear, usable processes, templates or playbooks that improved delivery and were adopted by others.
• Willingness and practical ability to travel regularly within the UK and internationally, sometimes at short notice and with uneven intensity across the year.

Technical capability

• Hardware: Confident building and adapting fixtures, sensor assemblies, wiring and test setups; comfortable using workshop and laboratory tools safely.
• Electronics and control engineering: Competent in low-voltage electronics, sensors, data acquisition and control interfaces; able to read schematics and diagnose systems methodically using appropriate test equipment.
• Software and data: Comfortable configuring software, examining logs and learning an unfamiliar technical platform. Production software engineering is not required.
• Experimental judgement: Able to design tests, control variables, recognise poor-quality evidence and draw appropriately bounded conclusions from noisy real-world data.

Useful but not essential

• Direct battery-sector experience is welcome but not required. Strong candidates may come from adjacent industries where complex measurement systems must work reliably in customer laboratories or factories.
• Applications engineering or field applications engineering experience with scientific instruments, industrial metrology, non-destructive testing, test and measurement, automation or process-control equipment.
• Experience in batteries, electrochemistry, battery manufacturing, cell quality, acoustic or ultrasonic measurement, signal processing or machine vision.
• Exposure to manufacturing-line integration, PLCs, industrial communications, safety interlocks, quality systems or factory acceptance/site acceptance testing.
• Experience in a deep-tech or hardware start-up, supporting international customers or working in an environment where responsibilities and ways of working were still evolving.
• Evidence of commercial contribution through technical selling, customer negotiation, renewals, expansion or channel enablement.

Who you are

• Hands-on and credible: You enjoy making, testing and fixing things, and build trust with customers’ engineers through practical problem-solving and sound technical judgement.
• Commercially aware: You understand that technical work should lead to customer value and a viable commercial outcome, without overpromising to get there.
• Structured under pressure: You define the problem, protect safety and data quality, communicate clearly and keep ownership until the issue is resolved.
• Autonomous and accountable: You can operate independently at a customer site, make autonomous decisions and escalate before a risk becomes a surprise.
• A pragmatic function builder: You can turn tacit knowledge and ad hoc delivery into simple processes, SOPs and measures that colleagues actually use, without creating bureaucracy for its own sake.
• Collaborative and low-ego: You share field evidence openly, involve the right specialists and care more about the correct answer than whose answer it was.

What we offer

• A base salary of £50,000–£60,000, depending on experience.
• Private health insurance, life insurance benefit and a competitive pension plan with a 5% employer contribution.
• 28 days’ annual leave, UK bank holidays and a one-week Christmas shutdown (on top of the 28 days).
• High ownership of a newly created, strategically important role, with scope to define how the applications engineering function operates as Sention grows.
• Close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team across engineering,