Manager Design Engineering, Battery Modeling

About the role

The primary responsibility of the Manager, Design Engineering – Battery Modeling is to build and lead a simulation team that guides the design, development, validation, and delivery of high-power-density lithium-ion battery packs. This role combines people leadership, advanced modeling and simulation expertise, technical strategy, and project portfolio management to improve product performance, safety, reliability, cost, and development speed.

Responsibilities

• Build, lead, coach, and develop a team of simulation engineers supporting multiple battery development programs.
• Serve as the technical leader for battery-pack modeling and simulation, providing clear recommendations to Project Leaders and Global Engineering teams to support design trade-off decisions.
• Own and execute the battery modeling and simulation technical roadmap, including methods, tools, computing resources, validation strategy, and capability development.
• Prioritize simulation work across programs based on technical risk, business impact, timing, and available resources.
• Establish modeling standards, review practices, documentation requirements, correlation targets, and simulation quality metrics for components, assemblies, and battery packs.
• Balance simulation and physical testing to support battery development, qualification, and risk reduction.
• Drive correlation of analytical models to component-, assembly-, and pack-level testing; continuously improve model accuracy and predictive capability.
• Partner with Battery Systems, Pack Design, Electronics, Test, Reliability, Manufacturing, and Program Management teams to translate simulation results into actionable design decisions.
• Develop and deploy scalable, automated simulation workflows that support design exploration, optimization, Design of Experiments, and rapid design iteration.
• Communicate technical risks, assumptions, limitations, recommendations, and trade-offs to engineering and executive leadership.
• Support recruiting, performance management, career development, workload planning, and technical succession for the simulation team.
• Execute and oversee engineering analyses using the following tools and methods:
  • 0D and 1D system simulation using MATLAB/Simulink or equivalent tools
  • Structural, thermal, electro-thermal, durability, and coupled Multiphysics simulation using ANSYS, Altair, or equivalent tools
  • Design of Experiments, optimization, and parametric studies
  • Statistical data analysis, model calibration, and simulation-to-test correlation

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field
• Seven or more years of relevant modeling, simulation, product development, or validation experience.
• Two or more years of demonstrated technical team leadership; direct people-management experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a team of three to five engineers with varying levels of simulation experience.
• Strong experience with ANSYS simulation tools; experience with Altair HyperWorks, LS-DYNA, Abaqus, MATLAB/Simulink, or equivalent platforms is beneficial.
• Experience developing and validating structural, thermal, electro-thermal, durability, or coupled multiphysics models.
• Demonstrated experience with simulation-to-test correlation, material characterization, model calibration, and assessment of model accuracy.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB scripting, workflow automation, optimization, Design of Experiments, or statistical analysis.
• Working knowledge of lithium-ion cells, battery-pack architecture, battery safety, durability, thermal management, and product validation practices.
• Strong understanding of 3D CAD tools such as SolidWorks, Siemens NX, or equivalent platforms.
• Strong analytical, project planning, and communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical information to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ability to travel up to 10%, including domestic and international travel.
• Interest in tools used in the construction trades.