Battery Safety Engineer

Joby Overview

Located in Northern California, the team at Joby Aviation is driven by our goal of creating an affordable, all-electric air transportation system. Imagine a piloted air taxi that takes off vertically, then quietly carries you and your fellow passengers over the congested city streets below, enabling you to spend more time with the people and places that matter most. Since 2009, our team has worked steadily to make this dream a reality. We’ve designed and tested many generations of prototype aircraft capable of serving in a network of electric air taxis. We’re looking for talented, committed individuals to join our team as we push onwards toward certifying the Joby aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration, scaling our manufacturing, and preparing to launch commercial service in 2025.

Position Overview

Joby Aviation is seeking an engineer to help make our batteries the safest in the industry. This person will lead our battery safety effort and drive aspects of our battery pack and vehicle designs. This person will also develop tests that will push our technology and help define the standards for eVTOL. The testing will encompass the full range of abuse—thermal, electrical, and mechanical—of individual cells and full scale battery packs, including propagation and short circuiting.

Responsibilities

• Work with design and certification engineers to refine certification and design requirements.
• Design and execute cell/module/pack level abuse tests and perform detailed failure analyses.
• Build out simplified thermal/statistical models to quantify design sensitivities and construct relevant DOEs.
• Work with cell test engineers to develop abusive test conditions and quantify damage criteria to li-ion cells.
• Analyze and present data-driven insights and interface with design and process engineers to drive design decisions.
• Build out testing capabilities by designing/maintaining custom test rigs and data visualization dashboards.

Required Qualifications

• BS or MS in mechanical engineering, materials science, physics, or related field.
• Experience working with abuse testing at cell/module/pack levels and familiarity with safety testing standards such as UN 38.3, SAE 2464, RTCA DO-311.
• Knowledge of li-ion testing protocols or experience with battery testing/design.
• Strong problem-solving mindset and knowledgeable in mechanical, thermal, and electrical systems.
• Experience in instrumentation, data acquisition, signal conditioning, and analysis.
• Great written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Willingness to get hands dirty and work with team-members on all levels of test execution, from planning to final cleanup.

Desired Qualifications

• CAD experience, CATIA preferred.
• Python or other language for data processing and visualization.
• LabVIEW or other language for interfacing with hardware.
• CFD or thermal modeling skills.
• Experience with cell testing hardware, such as Arbin/Maccor/Neware.

Compensation at Joby is a combination of base pay and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). The target base pay for this position is $100,400-$167,600/year. The compensation package will be determined by job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Joby also offers a comprehensive benefits package, including paid time off, healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan with a company match, an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, and more.

Joby is an Equal Opportunity Employer.