Staff Application Development Engineer

WHO YOU ARE

You are creative, proactive, meticulous, and hands-on. You understand the potential of new materials and combine creativity and technical excellence to bring to life new applications and products. You are able to quickly survey and define key product requirements for new applications, develop novel fabrication methods to create new product prototypes, and rigorously develop and implement new test methodologies to establish data-driven customer value propositions. You possess a diverse skill set and are equally effective working with material development partners, customers, proactively capturing IP opportunities, and rigorously developing structure/process/property relationships to support new product development. You will leverage your previous experience in material and application development to collaborate with a diverse team of Research, Equipment Development, and Product representatives and help drive the development of novel, materials-based battery products

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

• Develop pigment contained coating formulation for roll-to-roll process to address needs for both scientific understanding and benchmarking of commercial products
• Develop novel fabrication methods to efficiently prototype new materials-based products  
• Plan and execute designed experiments (DOEs) both internally and with external development partners to elucidate structure/process/property/function relationships in novel, advanced materials
• Document and communicate findings for a broad set of partners
• Identify safety hazards and work cooperatively to implement improvements

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

• PhD degree in engineering or physical sciences and 3+ years of industry experience (or equivalent)
• Track record of independent, advanced product development experience and problem solving to introduce products to the market
• Demonstrated success collaborating in a highly technical interdisciplinary setting with internal stakeholders, suppliers, external development partners, and customers
• Ability to clearly communicate technical findings to a diverse audience including verbal, written, and presentation
• Experience with developing new sample fabrication methods to demonstrate proof of concept for new materials-based products
• Experience with defining industrially-relevant coating formulation development, establishing and validating test methods to address issues, and actively benchmarking against reference samples to demonstrate value propositions for new materials-based products
• Deep knowledges with polymer science, pigment dispersion, slurry rheology, wet coating with roll-to-roll process 
• Professional experience with materials-based new product development is a plus
• Experience with battery materials and/or electrochemical testing techniques is a plus

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORKING CONDITIONS

• Pass a respirator fit test and be able to wear respiratory protection on a periodic basis
• Wear personal protective equipment including, but not limited to, a lab coat, gloves, safety glasses, and steel toe safety shoes
• Use a glove box to prepare samples
• Operate analytical equipment at a bench
• Move items up to 25 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
• 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 $146,000 and $184,250 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, equity, and bonuses.  The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.