Director of Process Development
About The Position
As the Director of Process Development, you will lead the hands-on development, optimization, and validation of battery manufacturing processes across electrode fabrication, cell assembly, and formation at the pilot and production scale. This individual will develop, optimize, and scale the battery manufacturing process to ensure high quality throughput, ensuring process stability and improving yield. The ideal candidate will be a strong technical leader with direct experience working in scaling and optimizing battery manufacturing production Reporting to the EVP of Manufacturing and Commercialization, this role focuses on translating cell designs and performance targets—developed in collaboration with Cell Development—into robust and statistically controlled manufacturing processes. You will provide system-level ownership of process quality, ensuring that process development outcomes evolve into scalable and auditable production-ready processes.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical Engineering, or a related field (Master’s degree or PhD a plus, not required)
- 7+ years of experience in lithium-ion battery process development, scaling up, and improving yield, and maintaining high quality standards
- Demonstrated success scaling processes from pilot to production environments
- Proven experience PFMEA, DOE-based process development, CTP definition and control plans
- Strong understanding of process interactions across electrode, assembly, and formation
Nice To Haves
- Experience with prismatic or cylindrical cell formats preferred
Responsibilities
- End-to-End Process Development Ownership
- Lead process development across electrode fabrication (mixing, coating, calendaring), cell assembly, and formation/aging/testing
- Translate cell design intent and performance targets into manufacturable, scalable, and controllable process conditions
- Lead and govern scientifically grounded DOE strategies across all process development teams and Identify statistically significant CTPs (Critical-to-Process parameters)
- Translate DOE results into defined process windows and control plans enabling sustained quality, reproducibility, and process capability
- Partner with production teams to embed CTPs into systematic monitoring and change-control processes
- Identify opportunities to improve productivity, decrease costs, increase throughput, improve reproducibility and deliver cells in accordance with project timelines.
- Process Risk Management & Failure Mitigation
- Own and implement Process FMEA (PFMEA) across electrode, assembly, and formation processes and identify and mitigate process risks
- Apply Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) to trace system-level cell failures (e.g., gas generation, impedance growth, voltage drift, yield loss) to specific process, material, or equipment contributors
- Ensure PFMEA and FTA outputs are consistently reflected in cell design priorities, process changes, and control strategies
- Cross-Functional Integration and team leadership
- Work closely with Cell Development to ensure consistency between electrochemical design and process execution, and also work closely with Production & Equipment teams to ensure developed processes are manufacturable
- Through hands on leading, provide technical direction, prioritization to electrode, assembly, and formation process team leads
- Establish consistent standards for documentation, data integrity, and technical decision-making across process development teams
Benefits
- Medical
- dental
- vision
- 401(k)
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
