Who We Are
Spectrum E-Coat is a family-owned West Michigan manufacturer serving customers who value quality, trust, and long-term relationships. We operate with a high-trust, hands-on culture and are looking for a future leader to work alongside our Quoting Manager. This role is critical to company profitability because pricing decisions made today shape the quality of work we win for years to come.
Why This Role Matters
This is not a desk-only estimator role. The person in this seat helps determine which work Spectrum should pursue, how it should be priced, how new jobs move from quote into launch, and how smaller sample work is managed. The right person will learn directly from a long-tenured expert, build deep knowledge of our processes, and help us blend sound commercial judgment with emerging AI-assisted quoting tools.
What You’ll Do
- Evaluate parts, prints, CAD files, specifications, and customer requirements to determine accurate production cost and disciplined pricing.
- Build and refine quotes for new and existing work while determining long-term fit with plant capabilities.
- Work closely with production, operations, and quality to validate racking methods, labor assumptions, pack rates, tooling needs, and launch readiness.
- Communicate with customers daily regarding RFQs, quote assumptions, packaging details, samples, and follow-up questions.
- Support movement of jobs from quote into launch by helping document packaging instructions, quality planning requirements, and job-specific expectations.
- Oversee or coordinate sample activity for smaller jobs, including communication, timing, and documentation.
- Review customer feedback on pricing, identify creative ways to win large packages of work without giving away margin, and explain the numbers clearly.
- Work with AI-assisted quoting tools as they are implemented, using experience and judgment to validate outputs rather than accepting them blindly.
What We’re Looking For
- Strong culture fit with a humble, dependable, innovative, and optimistic working style.
- Experience in a manufacturing environment where you had to understand how work actually runs through a plant.
- Ability to connect shop-floor reality to pricing decisions, especially labor, movement time, throughput, and process fit.
- Comfort communicating with customers in a calm, professional, numbers-based way.
- Confidence to stand behind the right price when needed, while still being flexible and creative on larger packages of work.
- Strong judgment, follow-through, and willingness to take ownership without waiting to be told every next step.
- Comfort learning and working with new technology, including AI-supported quoting tools.
Preferred Backgrounds
1. Manufacturing or process engineering
2. Estimator or quoting analyst in manufacturing
3. Finance or cost analyst with direct plant exposure
4. Customer service or account management in manufacturing
5. Project management or launch coordination in manufacturing
Education
A bachelor’s degree in engineering, accounting/finance, supply chain/operations, or general business is preferred, but equivalent hands-on manufacturing experience will be considered.
Success in This Role Looks Like
- Quotes are accurate, disciplined, and grounded in real process knowledge.
- The person earns trust from customers, production leaders, and operators.
- New jobs launch more smoothly because assumptions were right at quote stage.
- AI tools improve speed and consistency, but human judgment still makes decisions.
Why Join Spectrum
- Direct mentorship from a long-tenured expert before a planned retirement transition.
- A high-impact role with visibility across customers, operations, and leadership.
- Long-term growth opportunity in a stable, family-owned manufacturing company.
- A culture where trust, humility, and follow-through matter.
Pay: From $65,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
