Lead Technical Advisor

It’s not just about your career or job title… It’s about who you are and the impact you will make on the world. Because whether it’s for each other or our customers, we put People First. When our people come together, we Expand the Possible and continuously look for ways to improve what we create and how we do it. If you are constantly striving to grow, you’re in good company. We are revolutionizing the way the world moves for future generations, and we want someone who is ready to move with us.

Lead Locomotive Maintenance Technical Advisor

Note: This position covers a large geographic area, enabling flexibility on where the employee could be based out of/live, but requiring travel 50%+ of the time. Primary travel locations include South Dakota, Missouri, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Arizona, Vermont, and Indiana. Due to frequency of travel to each location, it’s preferable that the employee be based out of/live somewhere in the eastern US.

 Who will you be working with?

This role is a member of a dispersed team of technical experts, supporting the Short-line Field Services account for Wabtec. Our Lead Locomotive Maintenance Technical Advisors (LTA’s) are technical experts on our locomotives who may serve in “independent duty” assignments where they are the only Wabtec employee at a customer location(s), and are the customer’s daily point of contact for Wabtec.

This allows for a great deal of leadership, ownership, exposure, and responsibility. We provide in-depth training and certifications on our products to our Lead TAs to ensure they have the detailed knowledge necessary to be successful in the role.

How will you make a difference?

Our Lead Locomotive Maintenance Technical Advisors are locomotive technical experts, relied upon for their expertise and problem-solving capabilities. This role is a critical steppingstone within Wabtec’s Field Services division, as employees take on roles of increasing leadership responsibility and/or technical expertise.

What do we want to know about you?

• Strong leadership presence, ability, and preferably prior successful experience
• Demonstrated success in a customer facing technical role – preferably in the railroad industry
• Undergraduate degree (preferably in a technical discipline) from an accredited university/college
  • OR an associate degree in a technical discipline + 2 years of relevant professional work experience in lieu of the undergraduate degree
  • OR high school graduate/GED + 4 years relevant professional work experience in lieu of the undergraduate degree

• An additional 3+ years shop operations or engineering experience.
• Experience, willingness, and ability to work in shop environment and to work various shifts on various days as required, including having a flexible work schedule to perform auditing and training on various shifts.
• Ability and willingness to travel as required
• Strong proficiency in MS office applications
• Ability to gather, comprehend, and analyze large sets of data and present findings and conclusions based on the analysis
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong customer service and problem-solving abilities
• Demonstrated interpersonal, leadership, and influencing skills
• Demonstrated ability to leadership experience (both front line leadership of others and coordination projects)
• Wabtec Level 2 Certification highly preferred
• The ability to maintain reliable and predictable attendance
• A high level of dependability, a great attitude, and an ability to work well with a team towards achieving a common goal

What will your typical day look like?

• Provide technical expertise, instruction, and services to railroad employees (the customer) concerning subjects such as, but not limited to:  
  • Preventative and corrective actions
  • Troubleshooting
  • 5Y analysis
  • Material ordering and handling
  • Tooling
  • Safety procedures
  • Contract requirement clarification.

• Work with railroad employees and management (the customer) to promote, maintain, and drive continuous improvement in safe work practices while monitoring quality, productivity, and adherence to contract requirements.
• Coordinate and provide instruction on key quality and process improvement programs and procedures.
• Provide clear communication to customer and Wabtec employees on work to be performed, quality scope, process improvements, and liaison with other cross functional departments as necessary.
• Establish production plans for labor, material, and logistics
• Ensure compliance with all applicable regulations, OSHA work practices, and industry / site specific work rules.
• Make operational risk assessments, balancing customer requests with Wabtec requirements.
• Work with various software systems to manage Safety, Quality, Material, and Production plans, along with other system requirements
• Order material across multiple sites at full lead-time to match associated schedules
• Monitor on hand active and upcoming material to ensure material is available
• Assist in monitoring constrained or critically allocated material including daily monitoring of extremely low on hand material and attending regular calls to obtain parts needed for locomotives
• Engage supply chain on critical needs and communicate potential upcoming problem parts
• All other duties as required

What about the physical demands of the job?

• Standing for long periods of time
• Walking throughout the day
• Walking up and down stairs
• Climbing on/off of locomotives
• Fitting into small or tight spaces if/when needed
• Wearing all required personal protective gear (hardhat, steel toe boots, ear plugs, eye protection) throughout the day
• Speaking and hearing
• Typing and operating a computer
• Working overnight shifts and/or multiple days in a row, as required
• You may also be asked to perform other duties outside of your function or trade, for which adequate training will be provided if necessary.

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The salary range for this role is between

The actual salary offered to a candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, education, business needs, market demands and work location. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. More information on offered benefits, which include health, welfare, and retirement, are available at mywabtecbenefits.com. Other benefit offerings for this role may include an annual bonus, if eligible.

Who are we?