Senior Failure Analysis Engineer

QuantumScape Corp. • San Jose, CA

29d • Onsite

About The Position

QuantumScape is on a mission to transform energy storage with solid-state lithium-metal battery technology. The company's next-generation batteries are designed to enable greater energy density, faster charging and enhanced safety to support the transition away from legacy energy sources toward a lower carbon future. What we need: Help crack the toughest reliability puzzles behind next‑gen products. You'll lead deep physical characterization and failure analysis, turning noisy data into crisp insights and partnering across engineering to ship solutions that boost yield and reliability at scale. Your work will reveal material behaviors, structural integrity, and degradation mechanisms, directly preventing repeat failures, accelerating learning cycles, and lifting production quality-impact you can see on every build and customer release. You'll be the connective tissue across FA, reliability, manufacturing, and leadership-translating findings into corrective actions that stick.

Requirements

• PhD in Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related field; OR Master's degree with 3+ years of relevant experience; OR Bachelor's degree with 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Strong command of physical characterization techniques and failure analysis methods.
• Proficiency in statistical analysis & visualization tools (e.g., Python, R, JMP, Tableau).
• Experience with reliability modeling (Weibull, Kaplan‑Meier).
• Clear communicator who collaborates well in a fast‑paced environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building FA/reliability dashboards used by cross‑functional teams.
• Background in high‑volume manufacturing or high‑reliability applications.

Responsibilities

• Perform hands‑on physical characterization and failure analysis on components and systems to pinpoint true root causes behind defects and reliability issues.
• Apply advanced material and structural analysis techniques (e.g., SEM, TEM, XRD, spectroscopy, mechanical testing) to understand failure modes.
• Use statistical and analytical methods to find patterns, model reliability performance (e.g., Weibull, Kaplan‑Meier), and quantify risk.
• Build and maintain intuitive dashboards so teams can see the signal-fast-and make better decisions.
• Partner with cross‑functional teams to design, verify, and land corrective actions that improve manufacturing processes.
• Write crisp, technical reports and present conclusions to engineering and leadership.
• Support customer investigations and provide timely feedback on field reliability concerns.

Benefits

• QuantumScape also offers an annual bonus and a generous RSU/Equity package as part of its compensation plan.
• In addition, we do offer a tremendous benefits plan including employee paid health care, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), and other benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees