Technical Specialist, Battery Algorithms and Digital Twin, Ford Energy

Ford Motor Company • Dearborn, MI

7d • $115,500 - $218,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

Ford Energy is seeking a Technical Specialist to own the battery intelligence stack for its Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) products. This includes state estimation, diagnostics, prognostics, and digital twin capabilities that influence system performance over a 20+ year lifespan. The role is for an individual with prior experience shipping battery algorithms who will set technical direction and remain hands-on in building, validating, and deploying algorithms on both production BMS hardware and in the cloud. As Ford Energy is a new entity, decisions made regarding architecture, data, and validation will form the foundation of the platform. The specialist will collaborate closely with BESS Cell, Modeling, BMS, EMS, and Digital Services teams, and leverage Ford's Auto battery organization for methods and test data, adapting them for stationary storage applications.

Requirements

• Master's degree with 8+ years of experience, or PhD with 5+ years, in Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, or Controls Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience developing and deploying battery algorithms on production systems (vehicle, stationary storage, or consumer device), meaning code or models that ran on real hardware or in a live fleet, not only in simulation. Includes at least two of: SOC, SOH, state of power, RUL/degradation, thermal estimation, or fault detection.
• Working knowledge of equivalent-circuit models and Kalman-family observers, and familiarity with reduced-order electrochemical or semi-empirical aging models.
• Solid understanding of Li-ion physics: electrochemistry, thermal behavior, and aging mechanisms (e.g., SEI growth, lithium plating, loss of active material).
• Proficiency in Python and MATLAB/Simulink, with working familiarity in C/C++ or another production language.
• Experience calibrating and validating models against cycling, characterization, and ideally field data, including quantifying estimation error.
• Technical leadership across functions without formal authority, and the ability to present trade-offs clearly to executives and non-specialists.

Nice To Haves

• PhD in a battery-relevant discipline, or a publication/patent record in state estimation, aging, or controls.
• Algorithms running in a deployed fleet: over-the-air updates, model-drift monitoring, and learning from field returns and warranty data.
• Stationary storage and LFP experience, including SOC/SOH estimation on flat OCV curves and long calendar-life behavior.
• Model-based design, auto-code generation, and SIL/HIL validation of BMS software.
• Machine learning for SOH/RUL or anomaly detection, with judgment on when physics-based, data-driven, or hybrid methods fit best.
• Digital twin or time-series data platforms (cloud, streaming, MLOps) and edge-to-cloud architecture.
• Knowledge of BESS safety standards and practices (e.g., UL 9540/9540A, IEC 62619, NFPA 855) and thermal-runaway early detection.
• Experience linking degradation models to warranty, levelized cost of storage, or dispatch optimization, and familiarity with PCS/EMS interactions and grid-service duty cycles.
• Prior experience in an OEM battery organization, or standing up an algorithm team or platform from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Production-grade state estimation: SOC, SOH, Dynamic OCV, and power/energy capability estimators that meet defined accuracy, robustness, and compute targets across temperature, aging, and partial-cycle duty.
• A deployable digital twin architecture: a defined edge (BMS/EMS) and cloud split, with data, model, and interface specifications agreed with BMS, EMS, and Digital Services.
• A field-data feedback loop: a working pipeline from operating systems to model recalibration, with drift monitoring and a release process for algorithm updates.
• Prognostics the business can use: degradation and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) models with quantified uncertainty that support warranty, performance guarantees, and dispatch decisions.
• Early-warning diagnostics: fault and anomaly detection that contributes to the safety case, with false-alarm and missed-detection targets set and measured.
• A validation framework: test-to-field correlation, SIL/HIL coverage, and release criteria the whole organization trusts.
• Lead battery intelligence development across the BESS architecture, and engage Pack, Container, PCS, DC Block, AC, and Controls teams as program needs require.
• Define requirements for monitoring, diagnostics, prognostics, and digital twins, including accuracy, latency, compute, memory, data-rate, and sensor needs, and set the interfaces between the algorithm stack and BMS, EMS, and cloud platforms.
• Translate battery physics, degradation mechanisms, and operational requirements into implementable software and control strategies.
• Build hybrid (physics-based and data-driven) digital twins at cell, pack, and container levels, working with Battery Modeling to turn electrochemical, thermal, and degradation models into reduced-order forms suited to embedded execution.
• Design, develop, and deploy algorithms for: SOC, including approaches that work with flat-OCV chemistries such as LFP; SOH, capacity and resistance tracking, and state of power; Thermal state estimation; RUL and degradation prediction, covering calendar and cycle aging; Cell imbalance, anomaly, and fault detection, including early indicators of safety events.
• Link lab testing, validation, and field monitoring into one workflow, and quantify uncertainty with explicit error and confidence targets.
• Lead technical reviews, architecture decisions, and deployment strategy; align modeling, hardware, controls, and software organizations around them.
• Adapt algorithms, monitoring approaches, and validation methods from Ford's Auto battery teams to BESS needs, and share what you learn back.
• Mentor engineers across modeling, controls, and software, and help shape the battery intelligence team as it grows.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior