Principal Process Development Engineer

About the team

The Cobra Hardware & Process team develops the heat treatment equipment and process for scale-up of the Cobra ceramic separator manufacturing process. We custom design most of our tools in-house to the needs of our unique process and materials system. The team consists of both hardware and process engineers, who work closely together to identify and implement novel solutions for improving throughput, quality and robustness.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute experiments for fabricating ceramic films on prototype heat treatment equipment
• Analyze materials characterization data, prepare reports for colleagues, and make recommendations for process and hardware improvements
• Suggest, oversee and evaluate effects of hardware modifications to existing processing equipment
• Bring up, debug and transfer processes to new production equipment
• Identify potential process or hardware failure modes and develop robust mitigation strategies

Requirements

• PhD in engineering or science with 6+ years of experience, preferably in an industrial process R&D setting. MS and BS candidates with equivalent industry experience in process research and development will also be considered.
• Experience in materials characterization techniques (e.g. XRD, SEM, FIB, EDS)
• Experience in hands-on troubleshooting of mechanical systems, preferably processing equipment for battery, semiconductor, or related fields
• Familiarity with mechanical design, including at least one major CAD package, e.g. SolidWorks, AutoDesk Inventor
• Working knowledge of statistics and proficiency in data analysis software, e.g. JMP, Python, or equivalent
• Capability to drive projects to completion with little oversight

Skills

• Experience in web handling (nice to have)
• Deep familiarity with high temperature processing and equipment, e.g. Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) (nice to have)
• Experience fabricating or characterizing ceramic materials or thin films, especially solid electrolyte or energy materials (nice to have)
• Experience in process and/or manufacturing scale-up (nice to have)

Physical requirements

• Work is performed in a dry room or lab area, requiring the use of fine motor skills
• Sitting or standing for extended periods of time
• Reaching and twisting motions with hands
• Lifting up to 25 lbs.

Schedule

This position is required to work onsite 5 days per week to meet the minimum essential duties and requirements of this position.