Research Director, Materials Science

WHO YOU ARE

Are you a scientific leader experienced in unlocking new frontiers in material technologies and enabling them to be deployed at scale? Are you passionate about building creative, resilient, and healthy teams of scientists to tackle difficult scientific challenges for a massive global impact? Sila Nanotechnologies seeks a Research Director - New Materials to galvanize and support our outstanding team of scientists as they invent revolutionary materials for commercial deployment in next-generation Li-ion batteries. You will be joining a committed management team and work closely with the CTO as well as strategy, new product development and commercialization teams to feed the pipeline of Sila’s future product innovations for manufacturing at automotive scale. You are a critical thinker and ethical leader who believes that both science and commercialization success require collective effort, healthy debate, and diverse perspectives.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES 

• Lead a team of scientists in the discovery and exploration of new materials and their synthesis pathways for the development of Sila’s next-generation products at a multi-billion dollar scale.
• Build trusting relationships with other teams and leaders across Sila’s product development efforts to enable commercialization success. 
• Identify new scientific, process, characterization, and collaboration opportunities to strengthen the team and accelerate the time to market. 
• Recruit, interview, hire, and onboard extraordinary new scientists to expand the team’s capacity, capabilities, and diversity; help to guide their career growth.
• Maintain processes, systems, and infrastructure that help the Research group function efficiently and ensure team members have the resources they need to excel at their jobs.
• Support and motivate the team through the ups and downs; set clear performance expectations and deliver regular feedback.
• Foster an environment of psychological safety to enable research groups to passionately engage in both creative scientific risk taking, healthy conflict, and deeply collaborative work.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

• Demonstrated experience building and leading scientific teams to solve ambitious, multifaceted research challenges in a mission-driven environment, resulting in a product that reached the market
• Demonstrated experience building lasting multidisciplinary collaborations that led to new insights, research outcomes, and organizational wins.
• Exceptional scientific experimentation and materials characterization abilities within your area of expertise.
• Demonstrated experience managing and mentoring teams of scientists, catalyzing their professional growth and career advancement. Experience leading teams of 6+ individuals preferred.
• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or related discipline

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORKING CONDITIONS

• Pass a respirator fit test and be able to wear respiratory protection on a daily basis
• Move long distances (such as from building to building) and be stationary for extended periods of time
• Operate a computer and other office equipment, such as a laptop, copier/printer, etc in a fixed location
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