Field Service Engineer

Job Title

Field Service Engineer (Polokwane)

About Abbott

Abbott is a global healthcare leader, creating breakthrough science to improve people's health. We're always looking towards the future, anticipating changes in medical science and technology.

Working at Abbott

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You will have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of.
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

The Opportunity

This position works out of our Abbott Molecular division. Abbott Molecular is a leader in molecular diagnostics and the analysis of DNA, RNA, and proteins at the molecular level.

Reporting to the Technical Service Manager, the Instrument Engineer is responsible to deliver technical support on the assigned Molecular Diagnostics instruments and systems to the customer within the assigned region in order to guarantee customer satisfaction through an outstanding service and efficient mastery of reported incidents and requests of the customer. This role performs advanced troubleshooting on complex instrumentation and may be assigned to more difficult customer situations, requiring advanced experience in customer management both within the individual assigned territory and within the region.

In addition, this position provides, besides customer instruction on basic system operation and maintenance procedures, also technical coaching and mentoring of other field engineers.

What You'll Do:

Onsite support operational Excellence

• Perform local technical support on the assigned Molecular instruments and systems as agreed in the customer service level agreements: such as installations, deinstallations, relocations, certifications (IQ & OQ), repairs.
• Handle from a more in-depth knowledge of certain instruments & systems, more complex problems, in an independent way by:
  • scheduling the appointments with the customer,
  • ensuring all necessary goods, spare parts and tools are available,
  • managing and assuring the logistics, executing the necessary actions,
  • checking performance and reporting & documenting completion and performance of service intervention, in order to deliver a qualitative service in accordance with Abbott specifications and customer Service Level Agreements.

Remote support, diagnostics & troubleshooting

• Investigate, diagnose, troubleshoot and support the customer remotely for technical problems reported by the customer on Abbott related instruments and systems that are not supported by the help desk or the Field Service Engineer and,
• In case an immediate solution cannot be offered, goes on site for more in depth problem handling in order to deliver an adequate and qualitative service with minimal inconveniences for the customer.

Field corrective actions & preventive maintenance

• Prioritize, plan and execute field corrective actions, upgrades and actions for preventive maintenance on all Abbott instruments and systems according to the regulatory instructions and mandatory procedures within the predefined timeframe to ensure business continuity for the customer.
• Successfully completes all formal training on Abbott Molecular products as required by territory assignment.
• Maintains professionalism at all times through dress, behavior, oral and written communications.

Technical Mentorship

• Support the local Field Service Engineers with technical guidance, advice and knowledge with regard to her/his expertise field in order to maximize knowledge transfer and to contribute to the technical development of the Field Service engineers.

Technical forum

• Attend the required technical forum for the instruments and systems within the field of expertise:
• share information on practical situations and give feedback on encountered problems within the region with regard to the specified instrument or system.
• share outcome of technical forums with all relevant colleagues of the region.

Service contract selling

• Explain the content of a service contract to the customer, its terms of condition, the benefits and pricing in order to raise the customers' awareness on the content of the technical support related to Abbott instrument or system and advantages of a service contract.
• Inform local Administration on the status of the contract of the customer in order to guarantee good contract service to the customer.

Pre-installation

• Inform and check at the customer site if the requirements for ensuring a successful installation of the requested Abbott instrument or system are present,
• Report and document the results of the visit to the Technical Service Manager,
• Inform the customer to undertake the necessary actions before initiating the installation process in order to minimize complications during installation.

Functional administrative reporting

• Manage the personal planning and administration, as required by management.
• Inform the planning and dispatching function of performed assignments (by means of service reports, Engineering Change Notice files, Field Change Notices, technical reports, service bulletins, historical account information, etc...)
• Put all relevant data in the service management systems in order to guarantee optimal operational efficiency and to deliver the necessary information for an adequate capacity planning and dispatching.

Maintenance of car stock

• Maintain the personal car stock by completing missing and returning excessive spare parts and tools, according to the recommended guidelines in order to be fully equipped and prepared for the successful execution of the operational tasks.

Opportunity detection/customer focus

• Manages customer satisfaction by instilling confidence in Abbott products and services through quality workmanship and professionalism:
• Providing qualitative after sales services,
• Continuous monitoring the satisfaction of the customer,
• Detecting the customers' expectations and needs,
• Offer possible solutions to the customer and
• Communicate possible opportunities to the relevant departments in order to ensure the expectations of the customer with regard to delivered service are fulfilled and to expand business for Technical Support.

Problem escalation

• Escalate problems per procedure to the Technical Support Team Leader in case an immediate solution cannot be offered to the customer.

Quality compliance

• Comply with all quality, ISO, GMP and safety regulations as required by the organization and with the Service levels as agreed with the customer in order to always deliver an outstanding quality.

Required Qualifications

• University degree or National Diploma, ideally in one of the following fields: Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Medical Technology, Biomedical Or related. (THIS MUST BE COMPLETED).
• VALID DRIVERS LICENCE is essential.
• Minimum two years field experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Must live in Polokwane or surrounding areas and can travel.
• A background in IT is advantageous.

Apply Now

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.

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