Senior Battery Test and Validation Engineer

Redwood Materials•San Francisco, CA

15h•$170,000 - $195,000•Onsite

About The Position

Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel, co-founder and former CTO of Tesla, on a simple but radical idea: the critical minerals powering the energy transition already exist. They just need to come back. Today Redwood is the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America — recovering, refining, and redeploying critical minerals from end-of-life batteries back into the supply chain. On the energy side, Redwood has deployed the largest second-life battery project in the world, delivering power to AI data centers in months rather than years using proprietary energy architecture engineered entirely in-house. The company is profitable, the market it operates in is projected to grow 20 to 50 times over the next decade, and Redwood is the only company with the supply chain, the technology, and the operational scale to lead it. The Staff Battery Test and Validation Engineer owns and runs Redwood's battery characterization program and serves as the technical authority on what gets tested, how, and why. This is a fully on-site role at 100 Hooper. The role translates open-ended performance, compliance, and system-level questions into test protocols and delivers data-driven answers that inform pack qualification decisions. This role sits at the center of understanding how second-life battery systems for data centers behave across varied cell chemistries, form factors, and usage histories, generating the foundational data that feeds site operating parameters, battery models, and algorithms. This is an on-site role.

Requirements

BS or MS in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Materials, Electrical), or a related field
Strong intuition for lithium-ion cell behavior, operating limits, cell-level failure modes, and degradation mechanisms
Hands-on experience with electrochemical characterization techniques such as HPPC, EIS, dQ/dV analysis, and cycle life testing
Proficiency in data analysis and scripting with Python or MATLAB
Experience with battery cycler platforms (e.g., Arbin, Maccor, Neware) including test programming and troubleshooting
Minimum 3 years of experience
Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with systems engineers, battery algorithms engineers, compliance teams, and program managers to ensure cross-functional stakeholder needs are met
Deep drive to automate workflows and reduce manual processes to improve test efficiency and minimize errors

Nice To Haves

experience with AI tools, especially coding assistants like Cursor or Claude Code
background in EV battery pack qualification or validation programs
familiarity with battery safety and compliance standards (e.g., UN38.3, UL2580, UL1974)

Responsibilities

Design test protocols by translating high-level performance and compliance questions into concrete test matrices, channel allocations, and timelines
Execute and manage concurrent test and screening campaigns across multiple battery types at the cell, module, and pack level, including cycler programming, test monitoring, and failure root-cause analysis
Drive lab infrastructure and equipment strategy, evaluating and recommending cycler and chamber purchases, fixture design, and channel capacity planning as the program scales
Analyze, interpret, and present test data to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, turning raw results into clear engineering conclusions that inform qualification decisions and program risk assessment
Innovate on test methodology and execution to extract maximum insight from limited channels and time, including smarter test matrix designs, advanced cycler programming, and developing automation scripts
Collaborate with the battery software and data engineering team to define, prioritize, and validate software automation of characterization processes