Senior Materials Engineer

Are you ready to build America’s clean energy future with the team that will deliver? Form Energy is an American energy technology and manufacturing company. We are pioneering a new class of iron-air batteries to enable our electric grid to run on renewable, reliable, and affordable energy, every day of the year.

Form Energy has been recognized by TIME as “One of the Best Inventions of 2023” for its battery technology and by MIT Technology Review as a “Top Climate Tech Company to Watch”. We are making rapid progress on our mission of delivering energy storage for a better world, and are growing just as rapidly to meet demand. Our team has more than doubled in size in the past year, and continues to expand every day. We have signed contracts with leading electric utilities across the United States. Pilot production of our iron-air batteries has already begun, and later this year, production will take off to high volumes at our new factory in West Virginia.

Working for Form Energy is more than just a job, it’s a chance to be part of something extraordinary. And right now might be the most exciting moment in the company’s history to join. We are assembling a team of some of the most talented and motivated individuals across the country. Driven by our core values of humanity, excellence, and creativity, our team is determined to deliver on our mission and transform the energy landscape for the better.

Feeling energized to make a meaningful impact on the world? Then keep reading - you’ve come to the right place.

Role Description

Form Energy is seeking an experienced and curious Senior Materials Engineer to join our Cathode Engineering Team. In this role, you will be responsible for driving improvements to durability and degradation of Form’s Cathodes through materials analysis, characterization, and root cause analysis. By gaining alignment from stakeholders across the organization, you will enable implementation of data-driven product improvements to develop a truly cutting-edge technology.

This is a fantastic opportunity to have a direct impact on process, design, and manufacturing plans while taking into account the technical risks associated with product recommendations. As a Senior Materials Engineer, you’ll use your expertise to collaborate with experts in materials, chemistry, electrochemical testing, mechanical design, and manufacturing to drive cost and performance of our first and next-generation electrodes.

What you'll do:

• Prioritize safety as you carry out durability and failure analysis testing and analysis of Form’s Cathodes.
• Design, execute, and interpret data (electrochemical and metrology) to inform Cathode cost down and performance improvement opportunities.
• Lead coordination and strategy of cell teardowns to investigate failures and recommend corrective actions to design and process.
• Lead the development of new characterization methods for Cathodes after electrochemical cycling.
• Own, perform, and thoroughly document Root Cause Analyses to identify opportunities for improvement and recommend corrective actions to prevent Cathode degradation and failure.
• Collaborate closely with our Reliability team to build data-based predictions of component lifetimes.
• Identify key failure modes and design experiments to understand failure mechanisms and mitigations for Cathodes in product intent conditions.
• Pre/post-test materials characterization of electrodes in collaboration with our internal material experts and external vendors.
• Manage 1-2 team members with your expertise and practical experience, mentor the team in failure analysis best practices.

What you'll bring:

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field with 10+ years of industry experience or PhD with 6+ years industry experience.
• Expertise in materials metrology and characterization (e.g.: SEM, XRD, microscopy, surface area analysis, profilometry, XRF, TGA).
• Experience with failure prediction and investigation methods, such as RCA and FMEA.
• Experience in analyzing data from multiple sources for complex systems.
• Familiarity with design of experiment, statistics, and data analysis.
• Solid communication skills within a group of peers and the broader organization, including remote team members.
• Experience in fuel cells, electrolyzers, or secondary storage electrodes is a plus.

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Humanity is a cornerstone of Form Energy’s culture, and we make sure our compensation and benefits reflect that. Form Energy offers competitive salaries, stock options, and a holistic benefits package to ensure all employees have what they need to thrive while working here.

When it comes to you and your family’s health, we cover 100% of medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees - and 80% of healthcare premiums for dependents. This starts from day one. We also offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents (up to 20 weeks for birthing parents), and generous vacation policies to give employees time to recharge when needed.

To build a clean and equitable energy future, we need everyone at the table. We strive to form a team as diverse as the communities we will serve with our technology, and are committed to maintaining an inclusive environment for all employees. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply to our open jobs.