Principal Application Engineer

Job description

WHO IS LITMUS Litmus is building the data foundation that powers industrial AI. AI doesn’t work without real-world, contextualized data - Litmus makes that data usable. As AI adoption accelerates, most industrial environments still can’t access or use their operational data. We solve that gap. We’re a growth-stage software company helping manufacturers access, structure, and use real-time data from machines, systems, and sensors at the edge. Our platform sits at the intersection of edge computing, AI, and industrial operations, enabling some of the world’s largest companies to run operations in real time, reduce downtime, and optimize production. Backed by leading investors and trusted by global manufacturers and partners like Google, Microsoft, Dell, Oracle, and Mitsubishi, Litmus is powering the shift toward software-defined manufacturing. WHY JOIN LITMUS BUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT MAKES INDUSTRIAL AI POSSIBLE AI is moving beyond the cloud and into the physical world. At Litmus, you’ll build the infrastructure that enables real-time data to power AI and machine learning systems in production environments. WORK ON PROBLEMS WHERE SOFTWARE MEETS THE REAL WORLD Most AI systems fail without access to real-world data. You’ll build the layer that makes them viable in production. We solve challenges at the intersection of distributed systems, real-time data, and industrial constraints — where reliability, scale, and performance are non-negotiable. HAVE REAL IMPACT, FAST You’ll work on systems used by real customers in production, with direct impact on product and company trajectory. As a scaling company, we move quickly. You’ll have ownership, visibility, and the ability to shape both product and company as we scale. JOIN A HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAM We’re building a team that holds a high bar and pushes each other to improve. You’ll work alongside experienced operators, engineers, and leaders who have done this before and are building again at scale. We hire people who take ownership, move quickly, and care about outcomes. No passengers. OUR CULTURE At Litmus, the team is collaborative, curious, and low ego. People are scrappy, take ownership, and look for ways to make an impact. We value empathy just as much as execution, whether that’s in how we build, how we communicate, or how we support each other. We’re a growing company, so things move quickly and not everything is perfectly defined. If you enjoy figuring things out, working closely with others, and making steady progress, you’ll do well here. ABOUT THE ROLE The Principal Application Engineer is the senior technical authority within the Litmus Customer Success team for the APAC region. This role provides technical leadership, oversight, and direction to the regional Application Engineering team, ensuring that customer implementations of Litmus Edge and Litmus Edge Manager are architecturally sound, delivered consistently, and aligned with customer outcomes and Litmus best practices. The Principal Application Engineer will oversee the technical work of Application Engineers supporting proof-of-concept projects, pilots, production implementations, customer expansions, and complex support engagements. This person will establish regional technical priorities, review and approve solution designs, guide application engineers through complex technical decisions, and ensure that contracted technical responsibilities are delivered successfully. As a senior individual contributor and regional technical leader, the Principal Application Engineer will act as the escalation point for high-risk implementations, critical customer issues, and complex architectural decisions. The role will also mentor Application Engineers, improve delivery standards, and develop reusable technical approaches that increase the quality, predictability, and scalability of customer delivery across APAC. The Principal Application Engineer will partner closely with Customer Success leadership, Sales Engineers, Account Managers, Product Management, Development, partners, and the Litmus Support Desk. This role reports to the Manager, Customer Success Operations, with global reporting and technical alignment to the Director of Technical Delivery. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Serve as the senior technical authority for Customer Success application engineering activities across the APAC region and provide technical direction, guidance, standards adherence and oversight to Application Engineers. - Establish technical priorities for the regional Application Engineering team in alignment with customer commitments, commercial objectives, available capacity, implementation risk, and business value. - Work with Customer Success leadership to assign technical resources and determine the appropriate level of engineering support for customer engagements. - Balance immediate customer requirements with long-term maintainability, product strategy, delivery scalability, and Litmus technical standards. - Ensure that technical solutions demonstrate measurable business value and support customers’ operational, manufacturing, data, automation, and digital transformation objectives. - Identify implementation dependencies, assumptions, risks, and technical gaps early in the customer lifecycle. - Support Application Engineers during customer meetings when senior technical leadership, architecture expertise, or escalation management is required. - Maintain consistency in how Litmus products are designed, configured, deployed, tested, and supported across the APAC region. - Define when technical exceptions may be approved and document the risks, conditions, and mitigation requirements associated with those exceptions. - Onboard, mentor and coach Application Engineers, helping them strengthen their architecture, implementation, troubleshooting, customer communication, and decision-making capabilities. - Serve as the regional escalation point for complex implementation issues, critical customer incidents, architecture concerns, and unresolved Level 2 support cases and provide advanced troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and remediation guidance for issues involving Litmus products, customer infrastructure, networks, integrations, data flows, and industrial systems. - Support Sales Engineers and Account Executives with architecture reviews, technical strategy, proposal development, scope validation, and implementation risk assessment. - Provide senior technical oversight during the transition from pre-sales to implementation. WHAT YOU’LL BRING Must Have - 10–15 years of progressive experience in application engineering, solution architecture, systems integration, technical consulting, customer success engineering, industrial technology, or a related technical discipline. - Significant experience leading complex software, infrastructure, automation, IIoT, analytics, edge-computing, or shop-floor implementations in manufacturing or industrial environments. - Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership, architecture oversight, design approval, and implementation governance across multiple simultaneous customer engagements. - Experience directing or overseeing the work of engineers, including setting technical priorities, reviewing deliverables, mentoring team members, and making technical decisions. - Strong understanding of industrial and enterprise solution architecture, including networks, security, protocols, Linux-based systems, databases, APIs, data pipelines, and distributed deployment environments. - Deep hands-on experience with product configuration, systems integration, technical troubleshooting, performance analysis, root-cause analysis, and production support. - Strong customer-facing skills, including the ability to lead architecture workshops, explain complex technical concepts, manage technical objections, and communicate risk clearly. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence customers, engineers, sales teams, partners, product leaders, and executives. - Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to balance customer urgency, contractual commitments, technical risk, team capacity, and strategic value. - Ability to operate independently as a senior technical leader while collaborating effectively across regional and global teams. - Willingness and ability to support customers and engineers across APAC time zones and to travel regionally when required. Nice to Have - Experience with Litmus Edge, Litmus Edge Manager, industrial data platforms, edge orchestration platforms, or similar technologies. - Strong knowledge of industrial protocols and systems, including OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus, PLCs, SCADA, historians, MES, and industrial control environments. - Experience designing highly available, secure, and scalable industrial edge architectures across multiple facilities or geographic regions. - Knowledge of cybersecurity practices for operational technology, industrial networks, edge devices, and hybrid cloud environments. - Experience supporting regulated, mission-critical, or high-availability customer environments. - Experience with pre-sales architecture, technical discovery, proposal approval, statement-of-work review, RFI/RFP responses, and commercial scope validation. - Experience working with systems integrators, channel partners, value-added resellers, and regional technology partners. - Experience contributing to product roadmaps, design reviews, beta programs, technical validation, or release-readiness processes. - Experience developing technical standards, reference architectures, implementation methodologies, and reusable engineering assets. - Relevant certifications in cloud architecture, Kubernetes, networking, cybersecurity, industrial automation, or solution architecture. - Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science, information technology, automation, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Measures of Success - Quality, consistency, and scalability of APAC customer implementations. - Successful delivery of strategic proof-of-concept and production engagements. - Reduction in implementation risk, technical rework, escalations, and recurring support issues. - Timeliness and quality of regional technical decisions and approvals. - Customer adoption, value realization, satisfaction, and expansion. - Development and technical readiness of Application Engineers. - Adoption of regional and global delivery standards, reusable assets, and best practices. - Effectiveness of pre-sales-to-delivery handovers and technical scope validation. - Quality and influence of APAC field feedback provided to Product Management and Development. - Ability to balance customer priorities, team capacity, delivery commitments, and long-term technical quality. Reports To: Manager, Customer Success Operations Global Technical Alignment: Director of Technical Delivery Regional Scope: APAC