Principal Solution Consultant

The driving force behind our success has always been the people of AspenTech. What drives us, is our aspiration, our desire and ambition to keep pushing the envelope, overcoming any hurdle, challenging the status quo to continually find a better way. You will experience these qualities of passion, pride and aspiration in many ways — from a rich set of career development programs to support of community service projects to social events that foster fun and relationship building across our global community.

The RoleWe are looking to hire a Principal Solution Consultant with technical strength in Performance Engineering product suite for our Team in Japan and position is based in Tokyo. This role is to assist our account managers to grow our business and support sales of the Performance Engineering solutions with a focus on process simulation, cost estimation and plant conceptual layout software for capital projects. We target capital project execution in chemicals, refining, and EPC industry clients. Key traits of the role are industry understanding, deep consultative skills, conceptual capital project execution (FEED, FEL 1-2), understanding of the AspenTech product strategy, and the ability to communicate effectively to both technical and management audiences. The Principal Solution Consultant is an experienced engineer who will work with clients to understand their project workflow challenges. You will identify applications of our tools to address these business/technical issues. You will work both independently and jointly with the direct sales force to drive clients to adopt new software solutions.
The solution consulting team is tasked with supporting the sales process with knowledge of the AspenTech products and services, value definition and industry vertical knowledge as well as developing and maintaining key relationships with AspenTech's clients and prospects. The candidate will be responsible for working with our Sales Account Managers and the technical community within our clients.
The successful candidate must have technical consulting, strong business acumen and customer interaction skills. The role requires the ability to understand customer challenges and industry drivers, formulate potential solutions from Aspen's portfolio, build and justify the business case for client investment, and provide support to the direct sales force in the sales process.
The candidate will be measured against the license revenue and service bookings objectives established by management for the relevant region and BU.

Your Impact

• Apply consultative skills in customer-facing situations to identify customer problems and understand their business and operational issues.  Facilitate customer understanding of AspenTech Engineering products & solutions technical functionality, value creation and business process improvement.
• Articulate the overall solution and provide the vision with an understanding of the customer's business and technology needs, AspenTech's previous successes and the competitive landscape.
• Act as business partner with the account team to develop the account strategy based on the industry and client business environment maximizing product usage and growth. Refine the solution and vision messages for the overall project and work with other team members to develop presentation materials that effectively communicate these messages, leading clients to action.
• Participate and/or lead customer consulting engagements to facilitate sales, including demonstrations, workshops, value assessments, and technical seminars. Proactively support pipeline development (e.g. account planning, awareness sessions, workshops etc) and sales execution for assigned accounts and opportunities. 
• Develop commercial proposals for assigned opportunities.  Respond to RFI/RFQ/RFP questionnaires as required.
• Accountable for achieving personal targets such as productivity, bookings and other Solution Consulting related targets.
• Challenge customer’s current way of doing business to drive results.
• Strong drive to solve customer problems and rapidly convert pipeline opportunities into closed deals.
• Balance of business and technology acumen, including ability to articulate high-level technical solutions to business problems and the differentiated value those solutions can provide.
• Outstanding problem solving and analytical skills, including ability to create clear observations, analyses and conclusions based on customer interviews and data.
• Develop industry- and application-specific solutions for the customer. This is a very customer-facing position that will have you leading value discovery customer sessions, assessing customer needs, and developing solutions. 
• Determine and understand prospective customer’s critical business issues in order to present and demonstrate AspenTech’s software capabilities as the best possible solution to win the business.
• Build customer-specific solutions on the AspenTech platform using all the available tool options.
• Develop robust recommendations, proposals and scope of work documents for AspenTech Consulting engagements, while also identifying critical dependencies & gaps
• Consult with customers and advise on relevant AspenTech solutions and services and establish a credible value proposition.
• Develop & execute sales campaigns and plans together with the Sales teams

What You'll Need

• B. Tech/ M. Tech/ PhD in Chemical Engineering with 10-12 years practical experience in consulting, technology, and/or industry, preferably in Chemicals industry.
• Minimum of 8-10 years’ hands on experience in process simulation tools like Aspen HYSYS, Aspen Plus, PRO-II, ChemCAD, UniSim, gPROMS, Aspen Exchanger Design & Rating, HTRI, Optiplant and Capital Cost Estimation.
• Preferred experience from Chemical industries, including process modeling (steady state and/or dynamics), cost estimation, and/or digital twins.
• Deep Domain expertise in Petrochemicals, Fine & Specialty Chemicals or Polymer Industries required.
• Ability to collaborate with cross functional teams and manage multiple priorities under pressure.
• Strong business acumen.  Adept at performing customer interviews, identifying improvement opportunities, and overcoming resistance to change. Ability to assess and articulate customer value creation.
• Must possess a strong passion for cutting-edge technologies, with the aptitude and desire to learn new skills.
• A team player with the ability to relate to customers and maintain good working relationship.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal in Japanese language (Native or Bilingual).
• Advanced-level proficiency in English is required, with the ability to communicate effectively in both written and spoken formats.  
• This role is customer facing role, candidates should have strong interpersonal communication & presentation skills
• Flexibility to travel 50-60% of time.

Specific Product Knowledge:

• Experience with Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Fine & Specialty Chemicals, Polymers would be preferred.
• Experience in Concurrent Engineering / FEED design and deliverables
• Industry experience from operating companies would be preferred.
• Strong knowledge of fundamentals of Chemical Engineering, process simulation
• Familiar with Digital Twin Projects Implementation & Sustainability projects
• Experience in AI/ML, Data Modeling would be preferred
• Understanding of one or more of the following functions in the processing industry:
  • Experience in modeling & simulation of Chemicals or Refinery Process Units using Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus
  • Hands on experience in tools like Capital Cost Estimator, Aspen Custom Modeler, Aspen Adsorption, Aspen Plus Dynamics, Aspen Polymers, and Heat Exchanger Design and Rating tools