Who You Are

Sila’s Process and Equipment R&D group is seeking a Senior Staff R&D Engineer to help tackle hard technical challenges as we scale up next-generation battery materials and first-of-a-kind manufacturing technology. This team dives deep into the core principles governing our products and their production — including reaction kinetics, energetics, transport phenomena, process & equipment architecture, and material properties – to develop the fundamental knowledge required to design technology and predict behavior at giga-factory scale. You’ll explore new reactions and their impacts, lead root-cause investigations, develop novel experimental approaches, and lead R&D projects.

You’re an engineer with a curiosity and drive to understand how things actually work. You have a tendency to crush problems completely, breaking them down to interpret the relevant physics, ensuring you have a fundamental understanding, then applying that to a robust solution. You don’t need to be a CFD expert, you’re an engineer with breadth, having learned a wide array of skills and domains to stay unblocked on a problem, whether they be 3D simulation, designing experimental hardware, or hands-on know-how of tube bending or soldering custom circuits - anything to get to the answer. You’ll split your time roughly evenly between modeling and experimentation, and lead the projects that tie them together. As part of a team of R&D engineers, you’ll help Sila build the foundation of knowledge required to reach Sila’s ultimate goals of delivering advanced battery materials at world-scale.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Lead R&D projects, including method selection, experimental design, preparation, execution, and analysis
• Apply the scientific method to technology problems and convert learnings into robust solutions
• Build and validate physics-based models — from 0D/1D/2D models in Python to 3D simulation in COMSOL or similar — for thermal-structural, reactive, and flow problems in high-temperature reactor systems, including fluidized beds, and use them to drive R&D and process and equipment design decisions.
• Identify and evaluate new technologies and tools that will enhance our capabilities
• Work closely with engineering teams (e.g. process, equipment, controls, manufacturing) to translate fundamental knowledge into practical applications
• Synthesize, contextualize, document, and communicate learnings for technical and non-technical audiences
  
  

Knowledge and Skill Requirements

• A track record of technical leadership and mentoring without formal authority, particularly leading and delivering experimental R&D projects
• Demonstrated use of physics-based models to drive real R&D outcomes, with the judgment to know when a 0D energy balance answers the question and when a 3D model is worth building, and the skill to design real-world validation experiments
• Demonstrated excellence in data analysis; data cleaning, validating, and interpreting large experimental and process datasets to reach defensible conclusions
• Strong laboratory testing aptitude, intuition for what will work and ability to execute quickly and effectively
• Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages and data analysis tools
• Understanding, and proven application of, physics and engineering fundamentals: heat transfer, fluids, structures, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, transport phenomena, and materials.
• 10+ years of relevant professional experience; an MS or PhD counts towards this

Preferred:

• Hands-on COMSOL Multiphysics (heat transfer, structural, CFD modules) or comparable tools
• Experience with high-temperature gas–solid reactors or chemical vapor deposition
  
  

Education

• B.S. in engineering or physical sciences (e.g. Mechanical Engineering, Physics, etc.), advanced degrees preferred.

Location

• On-site in Alameda, CA.
• Up to 15% travel, domestic or international.

Physical Demands and Working Conditions

The work environment and physical demands are representative of those the employee encounters while performing the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Wear personal protective equipment including, but not limited to, a lab coat, gloves, safety glasses, and steel toe safety shoes
• Pass a respirator fit test and be able to wear respiratory protection
• Use a glove box and/or fume hood for experiments
• Move items up to 50 lbs with the assistance of lift equipment and carts
• Move long distances (such as from building to building) and be stationary for extended periods of time
• Reach low shelves or items on the floor
• Climb stairs or over containment walls
• Operate a computer and other office equipment, such as a laptop, copier/printer, etc in a fixed location

The starting base pay for this role is between $172,000 and $218,000 at the time of posting. The actual base pay depends on many factors, such as education, experience, and skills. Base pay is only one part of Sila’s competitive Total Rewards package that can include benefits, perks, and equity. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.
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