Role Overview
The Senior Research Chemist is responsible for bringing in innovation and resolving fundamental technical challenges towards advancing Li-ion and Li-metal batteries. This role works with the Research and Product Development teams and engages in activities and trends in the external energy storage industry, specifically focused on development of lithium materials for lithium batteries for near future and long-term applications.
The Senior Research Chemist will be responsible for identifying and leading strategic initiatives, conducting and designing technical development activities to enable innovation, either through executing in-house research and/or collaborating with external partners.
The successful candidate for this position should be comfortable working independently and in a hands-on manner that interacts with a wide range of team members.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Promote a strong belief that all incidents are preventable and that no job is worth doing that would risk the health, safety, or welfare of the plant employees or community.
- Promote SHE policies and practices through participations in the safety team and through interactions with all employees.
- Collaborate with cross functional teams in developing future Road Maps, defining milestones and deliverables.
- Develop and test new rechargeable energy storage technologies that are fundamentally scalable at the Gigafactory level.
- Facilitate strategic decision-making processes by applying quantitative methods such as machine learning/statistics and fundamental modeling.
- Lead establishment of the new equipment capabilities.
- Provide technical leadership: design, direct and execute laboratory experiments.
- Interpret data and communicate clearly and proactively in formal and informal manners.
- Participate as member or resource to the commercial team to address technical issues with external partners.
- Prepare high quality and well written technical reports.
- Communicate insights and recommendations clearly and visually through presentations and interactive tools.
- Identify relevant intellectual property, including monitoring competitive activity and assist in drafting patents for Livent inventions.
- Lead projects and/or teams in a timely and organized manner through clear communication and through setting and monitoring goals.
Education and Experience:
- M.S. or Ph.D. in a related discipline (e.g., Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Applied Physics, Physical Chemistry, Electrochemistry) required.
- 3 to 6 years of experience working within the lithium battery industry is required.
- Experience in sourcing, applying to, and executing government/academic funding opportunities to further strategic innovation and R&D initiatives is a plus.
- Extensive experience and deep understanding of LiB technology including xEV is required; knowledge of LiB electrolyte additives/salts is a plus.
- In-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with the materials characterization techniques such as Cyclic Voltammetry, Galvanostatic cycling, electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), light-scattering, NMR, FT-IR, XRD, BET surface area, GC mass spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis (DSC/TGA/DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive spectrometry, electron mapping, Raman spectroscopy, surface techniques, etc.
- Polymer science, organic synthesis and organic compounds characterization experience is a plus.
Knowledge and Skill Requirements:
- Demonstrated strong communication skills with the ability to build internal and external relationships with business and research personnel.
- Proven ability to take initiative and to perform duties in a self-directed manner.
- Track record of successful grant proposal writing is a plus.
- Demonstrated strong technical writing skills.
- Demonstrated portfolio of publications and/or presentations.
- Experience in DOE (Design of Experiment) is required.
- Prior experience in project management is a plus.
Supervisory Responsibility: N/A