Director of Battery Cell Development
Experience Level
Senior Level
Location
United States (Required)
Commitment
Full-time
Date Posted
27 February 2023
Job Summary
About Us
Nanotech Energy is developing cutting-edge energy storage solutions that are transforming the consumer electronics and electric car industries. Our technology is based on the wonder material graphene that is established as the thinnest, strongest and most conductive material. Our mission at Nanotech Energy is to harness the power of graphene into world-changing battery solutions. We also take advantage of the outstanding structural, mechanical and electronic properties of graphene to develop conductive inks and adhesives as well as electromagnetic interference shielding materials with unparalleled performance. We are a rapidly growing business with opportunity for the right candidate to continue advancing their role and responsibilities as the company grows.
Why Nanotech Energy?
Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life. Our commitment to innovation brings together people, products and processes that answer and solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. At Nanotech Energy, you will be given the opportunity to participate and join in the growth stage of a startup company and contribute at all levels to make an impact.
Position Summary
Nanotech Energy, Inc. is currently seeking a principal scientist/engineer (manager) for our battery cell prototyping and manufacturing team located in Northern California. Our patented technology are positioned to enable the production of powerful, lightweight, and cost-effective rechargeable batteries for electric car and portable electronics. The successful candidate will be leading our talented engineers and scientists for the development and manufacturing of advanced lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries. The responsibility of this position will be covering the development, validating, and commercializing our patented energy storage technology based on commercial and proprietary materials. This role also includes cell design, analysis, validation, and support for the product launch. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience in cell design, electrode processing and translating battery technology from the lab to pilot manufacturing lines.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Lead, grow, and mentor our Cell Engineering, Cell Safety, Cell Modeling & Cell Testing groups.
- Ensure our products exceed the highest safety standards.
- Responsible for formulating, implementing and evaluating new battery technologies to meet the requirements of the electric car and portable electronics markets.
- Assist in analyzing, developing and executing short term and long-term plans for new product development and material cost reduction.
- Manage development timelines, budgets, testing equipment, and technical deliverables both with Cell Engineering team and Executive Leadership team.
- Initiating, planning, and directing research and development projects to resolve complicated battery and battery material related technical problems.
- Develop or improve slurry and coating characterization techniques to determine formulation-performance relationships and offer chemical and cell level corrective strategies.
- Utilize electrochemical techniques such as voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy, charge/discharge and reliability tests to characterize, understand and improve the performance of Nanotech batteries.
- Assisting the engineering team to conduct scientific and industrial development of new materials and protocols for electrode assembly with emphasis on how the materials and processes impact cell performance.
- Staying current on lithium battery publications and patent status, test procedures, instrumentation, professional meetings, and reading technical articles.
- The candidate will be our residential expert in batteries and is expected to assist other scientists and engineers in the team in designing and executing the electrochemical experiments and in characterizing materials, electrodes and other cell components and cell design.
- Perform materials characterization using a variety of methods including thermal analysis, mechanical testing, electron and optical microscopy, rheology, spectroscopic tests.
- Assist in collecting data and writing of patent inventions associated with the development of new products.
- Assist our engineers and plant production personnel in scaling up the technology from bench to manufacturing.
- Develop and improve safety practices, methods or standards to exceed or meet the regulatory and corporate standards for safety.
- Review and write standard operating procedures for analytical development.
- Assist in the supervision of less experienced chemists and technicians in the team. Provide other support as needed to help maintain an efficient development lab.
- Communicate ideas and results internally across multiple teams.
Required Qualifications
- PhD in Materials Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or related field with a focus on electrochemistry.
10 years+ experience in battery development, preferably within a lithium-ion battery manufacturing organization in support of portable electronic and electric cars. - At least ten years of industrial experience in the lithium-ion pouch and/or cylindrical cells.
- The applicant should be a creative and analytical thinker with a deep technical understanding of lithium ion battery cells and proven leadership and project management expertise.
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of lithium-ion battery technologies including material selection, cell design, electrode fabrication, cell assembly, testing and failure mode analysis are required.
- The candidate must have strong analytical and problem-solving skills and must be able to design and conduct complex experiments, employing DOE approach to interpret and correlate experimental results with battery product performance.
Desired Characteristics
- Ability to respond to multiple priorities simultaneously; ability to coordinate team and projects to meet the company needs and deadlines.
- Strong project management skills.
- Skilled in troubleshooting and analytical thinking with an interest in solving complex problems.
- The candidate should stay up to date regarding relevant patent and technical literature, and write detailed technical reports for the company and for the battery industry publications.
- Strong background in electrochemistry
- Knowledge of chemistry (organic, polymer, inorganic), electrochemistry and materials science and related characterization techniques would be preferable
How to Apply
Qualified applicants are referred to send their applications to Beth Votaw at evotaw@nanotechenergy.com In the subject of the email, please indicate which position you are applying to.