Battery Sales Application Engineer - LOCATED IN EU

Role Overview

As a Battery Sales Application Engineer, you will work closely with technical leadership and customers to translate customer needs into technical requirements, assist in pack design calculations, and coordinate the testing that brings new energy solutions to life. This is a high-growth role for a technically minded engineer who wants to move from pure R&D into a customer-facing, solution-oriented career.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Support & Customer Discovery

●      Application Screening: Assist in initial customer conversations to gather requirements and help narrow down cell options based on provided technical catalogs.  Analyze customer data packages to define solutions to customer needs.

●      Data Package Preparation: Analyze technical test data and info-packages for customers to support cell design and pack integration design process.

●      Modeling design: Support customers with performing pack level capability modeling in pack integration. Review electrical, thermal, and mechanical design performance, and identify gaps from empirical testing results to assist pack integration design.

●      Product to market strategy: Tailor cell selection and pack design proposal to meet specific technical requirements, consider unique battery pack requirement, and target market regulation to ensure successful battery product launch.

Testing & Validation

●      Test Coordination: Oversee sample test plans for specific applications and track progress across internal and external labs to ensure schedules stay on track.

●      Qualification Support for sales: Assist in gathering data for certification and cell/pack level abuse testing.  Help prepare actionable risk management reports for the account management team to refine sales strategy.

Pack Integration & Partner Support

●      Design Calculation: Perform preliminary design for pack configurations (voltage, capacity, series/parallel layouts) and analyze design for manufacturing capability to ensure smooth production ramping.

●      Pack-House Support: Join site visits to pack houses to document capabilities and assist in the onboarding of new manufacturing partners.

●      Prototyping: Review first-article prototypes and document discrepancies between design drawings and physical samples to speed up the development cycle.

●      BMS development: Support customers or pack houses in developing BMS solutions tailored for unique lithium-ion battery cell designs.  Develop necessary BMS customization based on lithium-ion battery chemistry to ensure successful battery pack design and product launch.

Project Coordination

●      Timeline Management: Maintain and update cell samples and pack building qualification schedules, flagging potential delays to the account manager.

●      Feedback Loop: Document pack qualification feedback and cell-to-pack quality issues, ensuring customer concerns are channeled back to the R&D and Quality teams for resolution.

Requirements

Technical Foundation

●      Education: BS, MS, or ME degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Manufacturing engineering, Integration engineering (or a related STEM field) with at least 5 years of relevant professional experience. 

●      Battery Fundamentals: Understanding of Lithium-ion battery chemistry, charging profiles, and safety protocols.  Experience in technical product management within the battery, electric vehicle, aero-astro, drone, or consumer electronics sectors required. Knowledge of lithium-ion cell design, cell manufacturing, cell assembly, and cell electrochemical performance testing is a plus.

●      Analytical Skills: Strong ability to parse technical data and use Excel or similar tools for performance modeling.  Experience with cycling test systems including Arbin, Neware, Chroma is a plus.

●      Prototyping: Familiarity with CAD (SolidWorks/AutoCAD) or electrical schematic tools is required.  Hands-on experience building mechanical and/or electrical systems is preferred, including machining, mechanical manufacturing, sheet metal fabrication and welding.

●      Modeling: Prior experience with thermal-mechanical characterization methods and quantitative modeling is required.  Familiarity with python and direct experience in battery modeling packages such as Pybamm or COMSOL is a plus.

Competencies

●      Eagerness to Learn: A fast learner who can quickly grasp the nuances of "Cell-to-Pack" integration and thermal management.

●      Communication: Ability to write clear technical reports and communicate effectively with both internal teams and external partners.

●      Detail Oriented: High level of accuracy in tracking validation schedules and technical specifications.

Physical demands and working conditions

●      Travel requirement: This role is based in EU and involves regular collaboration with partnered companies.  Some travel (up to 25%) is required to visit external testing partners or manufacturing partners, attend industry events and conferences, or support account managers at trade shows.