Title:  Principal Member of Technical Staff, Ceramics

QuantumScape is on a mission to transform energy storage with solid-state lithium-metal battery technology. The company’s next-generation batteries are designed to enable greater energy density, faster charging and enhanced safety to support the transition away from legacy energy sources toward a lower carbon future.

About the team: The Film Engineering team is a diverse group of engineers, technicians, and scientists that develop the ceramic separator manufacturing process. The team addresses complicated materials science and process engineering problems that currently limit manufacturing throughput, yield and performance.

What we need: The team is seeking a highly motivated expert ceramist or material scientist to help advance the ceramic solid electrolyte technology. We are looking for a candidate with excellent fundamentals, and materials or process development experience to find novel and efficient solutions to ceramic quality. You will further improve the yield and help scale-up of the ceramic separator manufacturing process.

What You’ll do:

• Solve quality and yield related problems in our ceramic separator process and develop novel solutions to address performance gaps.
• Scale-up process to increase manufacturing output and robustness; work with equipment vendors to develop equipment and tools that can deliver the quality and output required.
• Conduct thorough and efficient design of experiments to address problems. Work with internal and external partners to develop materials and process measurement and characterization.

Skills You’ll Need:

• PhD with 6+ years of experience in an industrial process R&D setting is a plus. MS and BS candidates with equivalent industry experience and a proven track record in process research and development will also be considered.
• Knowledge and experience in safe chemical handling and laboratory practices
• Proven ability to understand, characterize and drive material and process development
• Knowledge of statistical methods and quality tools for R&D and quality control
• Capable of working independently and driving projects to completion
• Ability to communicate clearly and candidly; a strong affinity for teamwork
• Thrive in a fast-paced, technically exciting environment and quickly adapt to changes
• References that can attest to your resourcefulness, curiosity, creativity, and integrity

Nice to have: 

• Experience in ceramic materials and processing of thin ceramic films; ceramic green forming experience especially slurry-based coating methods
• Experience in process and/or manufacturing scale-up
• Experience in statistical analysis, scripting, and querying. Specifically, DOEs, statistical power analysis and significance, ANOVA, and regression. We use JMP and Python and hope you have some experience in at least one.
• Experience in solid electrolyte or energy materials

Physical requirements: Work is performed in a dry room, fume hood, lab area, or glovebox requiring the use of fine motor skills and may require sitting or standing for extended periods of time.

ONSITE: This position requires you to work onsite 5 days per week to meet the minimum essential duties and requirements of this position.  As an on-site R&D and manufacturing operations organization, in-person face-to-face interaction is essential to building authentic relationships, trust, teamwork, and collaboration. 

Compensation & Benefits: The expected salary range for this role is from $ 160,700 to $217,000, and a final salary will be determined by the candidate's experience and educational background. QuantumScape also offers an annual bonus and a generous RSU/Equity package as part of its compensation plan. In addition, we do offer a tremendous benefits plan including employee paid health care, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), and other benefits. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation.