Sales Engineer Apprentice H/F FORVIA

Your mission, roles and responsibilities

Our activity is looking for a Sales Engineer Apprentice for its R&D Center based in Bavans (30 min from Belfort; 15 min from Monbéliard; near Switzerland). The Center R&D from Bavans, with close to 1000 collaborators, develop innovative solutions for sustainable and clean mobility. It is Forvia's global center of expertise on hydrogen storage systems.

As a Sales Engineer Apprentice, you will develop core sales and commercial skills while supporting customer business for a defined perimeter (Programs, Serial Life, and New Business). Under the guidance of experienced Sales Engineers and the Sales Manager, you will contribute to customer intimacy, offer preparation, commercial administration, and cross-functional coordination to help secure and grow profitable business.

Key Responsibilities (under supervision)

• Support relationship building with customer stakeholders (Purchasing, Engineering, Program teams): prepare visit briefs, attend meetings, capture minutes, and track actions.

• Contribute to the preparation of commercial offers: consolidate technical/commercial inputs, align with costing files provided by internal teams, and help formalize quotations and negotiation arguments.

• Assist in monitoring piece price, tooling and D&D impacts; help track Variable Cost Margin (VCM) and prepare productivity proposals.

• Help manage Engineering Change Requests (ECRs): gather data, draft commercial responses, and follow approvals and implementation timing.

• Maintain sales administration hygiene: purchase orders, invoices, terms of payment, and overdues tracking in line with internal guidelines.

• Support program sales activities: contribute to gate reviews, risk/opportunity logs, and cross-functional alignment (Program, Finance, Engineering, Supply Chain).

• Prepare customer and internal dashboards: pricing status, open claims, KPIs, and risks; ensure data accuracy in CRM/ERP and shared trackers.

• Participate in competitor and market monitoring for your perimeter and propose insights to the sales team.

• Contribute to spare parts commercial management when applicable (pricing updates, volumes follow-up, obsolescence topics).

• Continuously document lessons learned and standard work to enrich the sales playbook.

Learning Objectives

• Master end-to-end offer preparation, from cost inputs to quotation issuance and archiving.

• Understand commercial levers impacting profitability (pricing tactics, productivity roadmaps, indexation).

• Gain fluency in ECR process and its commercial implications across piece price, tooling, and D&D.

• Build effective customer communication habits and meeting discipline (prep, minutes, follow-up).

• Develop data-driven decision making using Excel/BI dashboards and CRM hygiene.

Your profile and competencies to succeed

Candidate Profile

• Currently enrolled in a Master's degree in Business/Commerce (or equivalent). Apprenticeship contract required for 24 months.

• Strong interest in B2B sales and the automotive/industrial environment.

• Analytical mindset with solid command of Excel (pivot tables, lookups), and proficiency in PowerPoint; familiarity with Power BI is a plus.

• Comfortable reading technical inputs and translating them into commercial language.

• Excellent communication skills in English; French or other European language is a plus.

• Organized, rigorous, and reliable, with a sense of ownership and curiosity to learn.

Tools & Systems

• Microsoft 365 (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Teams)

• CRM/ERP (e.g., SAP, Salesforce or equivalent) - training provided

• Internal quotation and costing tools - training provided

Key Success Indicators (illustrative)

• On-time and right-first-time support to quotation submissions

• Accuracy and freshness of sales trackers/CRM data

• Timely closure of action items from customer and internal meetings

• Quality of ECR commercial files and coordination with stakeholders

Practical Information

• Apprenticeship rhythm: [to be defined with school/company agreement]

• Start date: TBD

• Travel: occasional visits to customer sites and internal plants may be required

What we can do for you

• At Forvia, you will find an engaging and dynamic environment where you can contribute to the development of sustainable mobility leading technologies.
• We are the seventh-largest global automotive supplier, employing more than 157,000 people in more than 40 countries which makes a lot of opportunity for career development.
• We welcome energetic and agile people who can thrive in a fast-changing environment. People who share our strong values. Team players with a collaborative mindset and a passion to deliver high standards for our clients. Lifelong learners. High performers. Globally minded people who aspire to work in a transforming industry, where excellence, speed, and quality count.
• We cultivate a learning environment, dedicating tools and resources to ensure we remain at the forefront of mobility. Our people enjoy an average of more than 22 hours of online and in-person training within FORVIA University (five campuses around the world)
• We offer a multicultural environment that values diversity and international collaboration. We believe that diversity is a strength. To create an inclusive culture where all forms of diversity create real value for the company, we have adopted gender diversity targets and inclusion action plans.
• Achieving CO2 Net Zero as a pioneer of the automotive industry is a priority: In June 2022, Forvia became the first global automotive group to be certified with the new SBTI Net-Zero Standard (the most ambitious standard of SBTi), aligned with the ambition of the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Three principles guide our action: use less, use better and use longer, with a focus on recyclability and circular economy.

Why join us

FORVIA is an automotive technology group at the heart of smarter and more sustainable mobility. We bring together expertise in electronics, clean mobility, lighting, interiors, seating, and lifecycle solutions to drive change in the automotive industry.

With a history stretching back more than a century, we are the 7th largest global automotive supplier, employing more than 157,000 people in 43 countries. You'll find our technology in around 1 out of 2 vehicles produced anywhere in the world.

In June 2022, we became the 1st global automotive group to be certified with the SBTI Net-Zero Standard. We have committed to reach CO2 Net Zero by no later than 2045.

As technological innovation and the need for sustainability transform the automotive industry, we are ideally positioned to deliver solutions that will enhance the lives of road-users everywhere.