Jobs at Sila Nanotechnologies

Develop and manage product roadmaps for next-generation battery materials. Translate market demand and customer needs into product strategy, prioritize development opportunities, conduct competitive and market analysis, build business cases, support go-to-market planning, and guide products from concept through commercial launch. Collaborate with R&D, engineering, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders to drive decisions and communicate product vision, updates, and priorities.

Leads development, scaling, commissioning, and continuous improvement of pilot and commercial manufacturing equipment and processes for battery materials. Provides technical support, improves throughput, reliability, performance, and safety, and scales synthesis, coating, thermal, and material-handling operations. Designs custom automated equipment, manages CAD and engineering specifications, troubleshoots production issues, analyzes process data, and leads equipment vendor and contract manufacturing transfers through FAT, SAT, and commissioning.

Designs and implements process control and instrumentation systems for production-scale battery materials equipment. Responsibilities include control strategies, PLC and HMI programming, instrumentation selection, P&IDs, alarm and safety documentation, HAZOP participation, vendor collaboration, regulatory compliance, commissioning hardware and code, and closing safety recommendations. The role requires strong industrial controls expertise, cross-functional collaboration, and up to 20% travel.

Coordinates recruiting activities, including interview scheduling, candidate communication, ATS maintenance, job postings, hiring events, career fairs, and administrative support for the Talent Team. Partners with hiring managers and Talent Acquisition Partners to ensure an efficient, welcoming candidate experience. The role requires regular on-site attendance in Alameda, California and supports recruiting-related projects, sourcing, job descriptions, and training documents.

Leads global sourcing and commercial strategy for battery cells, supporting new product introduction, supplier qualification, capacity reservation, complex contract negotiations, cost modeling, BOM optimization, and supply-chain resilience. Manages multi-tier material readiness, tariff optimization, dual sourcing, international compliance, and supplier risk mitigation while scaling advanced battery technologies from development through mass production. Requires extensive strategic sourcing experience, lithium-ion manufacturing knowledge, advanced cost-analysis skills, and 25–30% global travel.

Lead a team of engineers in designing and building innovative battery materials and testing equipment, ensuring project success and team development.

Owns end-to-end talent acquisition, including sourcing, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and recruiting strategy. Partners with hiring managers and executives on workforce planning, talent-market intelligence, compensation insights, scorecards, and job descriptions. Leads recruiting process improvements, governance, compliance, service-level agreements, candidate experience, and proactive sourcing initiatives. Engineering recruiting experience is preferred. This role is onsite five days per week in Alameda.

Own end-to-end talent acquisition for high-impact business areas, partnering with hiring managers and senior leaders to define hiring needs, source candidates, conduct structured assessments, and deliver hires. Advise leaders using talent-market, compensation, and competitive insights; develop pipelines; improve recruiting processes, governance, compliance, candidate experience, and operational efficiency. Engineering recruiting experience is preferred.

Develop physics-based and computational models for lithium-ion battery materials and cells. Integrate quantum chemistry, advanced materials characterization, electrochemical testing, and high-performance computing to establish material-property and performance relationships. Build automated Python and Linux-based workflows, translate modeling insights into material and cell design improvements, and guide internal teams and customers on energy and power optimization.

Leads Sila’s Battery Engineering organization across customer application engineering and cell scaling. Oversees cell design transfer, prototyping, OEM qualification, manufacturing integration, contract manufacturer execution, and customer adoption. Partners with Commercial, Business Development, Product, R&D, and Operations to support commercial milestones. Builds organizational structure, workflows, career pathways, and team development while identifying scaling risks and resolving technical bottlenecks.

Leads R&D testing for battery-materials hardware and process development. Designs and executes experiments on laboratory and pilot-scale equipment, analyzes experimental data and system logs, identifies failure modes and root causes, implements solutions, manages test platforms, and communicates findings. The role requires expertise in reactive or thermo-mechanical systems, engineering fundamentals, Python-based data analysis, instrumentation, electronics, sensors, actuators, and measurement systems.

Leads Sila’s talent acquisition strategy, recruiting operations, workforce planning, and end-to-end hiring processes. Manages and develops talent acquisition professionals, partners with leaders and hiring managers, improves recruiting governance and candidate experience, builds employer branding and diverse talent pipelines, and uses analytics, AI, and automation to optimize hiring. Supports headcount planning, recruiting training, compliance, and scalable processes in a high-growth environment.

Leads Sila’s enterprise Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning process for next-generation battery materials. The role owns demand, production, inventory, supply chain, scenario, and financial planning while developing real-time systems, automation, ERP reporting, and value-chain optimization models. Responsibilities include supporting gigafactory scaling, aligning long-term forecasts with commercial and capital plans, and building a high-performing strategic planning team.

Leads instrumentation and controls engineering for greenfield manufacturing capital projects, including instrument selection, sizing, specification, procurement, installation, commissioning, design reviews, documentation, SIS integration, loop checks, calibration, FAT/SAT, and startup. Collaborates with process, automation, vendors, and external engineering partners while providing technical leadership across construction and commissioning activities.

Lead end-to-end new product introduction for battery cell products, including supplier and manufacturing-partner qualification, cross-functional execution, risk management, FMEA frameworks, safety certification, NPI documentation, and transition to mass production. Manage international partner relationships, coordinate R&D, operations, quality, and product teams, and communicate program risks and progress to executive stakeholders.

Leads complex, multi-year programs integrating battery R&D, manufacturing scale-up, capital projects, and commercial execution. Orchestrates cross-functional workflows, sequencing, governance, executive communication, risk management, financial targets, and strategic decision-making. Ensures novel technologies transfer from research into high-volume manufacturing while maintaining alignment across executives and technical teams.

Architects, designs, and deploys deterministic industrial automation control software and electrical systems for production-scale materials processing equipment. Responsibilities include PLC programming in Structured Text, HMI development, industrial networking, electrical design, functional safety, system integration, troubleshooting, FAT/SAT validation, technical documentation, vendor engagement, and mentoring controls engineers.

Develop bespoke software solutions to enhance battery data management and user interaction. Collaborate with various teams to optimize workflows and ensure data integrity through advanced architecture and visualization.

Lead quality systems and controls across lithium-ion cell production and CM sites. Manage IQC/IPQC/OQC/ORT, drive RCCA/8D, implement SPC and metrology, define PFMEAs and control plans, execute reliability testing, monitor quality metrics and lot disposition, and ensure production-level compliance with battery safety standards. Travel to contract manufacturers in Asia (~30–40%).

Lead mechanical design and development of manufacturing-scale reactor equipment, perform FEA/thermal/fluid analysis, create detailed engineering packages, drive safety-by-design and PSM activities, manage vendor/fabricator coordination and FAT/installation, and mentor junior engineers to ensure manufacturability, reliability, and compliance.