Production Engineer, Cathode

Tesla's Cathode Advanced Manufacturing Production Engineering group is looking for a highly motivated Production Engineer to work on a critical challenge facing the world's energy transition - Battery Cathode materials. This includes the scale-up of novel, high-energy, low-cost cathode materials and the steady state operation of first-of-a-kind cathode manufacturing processes that shorten the path from mine to battery cell. This is one of the most critical chemical engineering challenges of our time, and success will unlock a diversified green energy ecosystem.

As a Production Engineer, you will study our novel manufacturing processes, assisting with their continuous development at pilot scale, and be the first on-the-ground, technical point of contact for a portion of our first Cathode Advanced Manufacturing plant in Austin. You will be responsible for maintaining and transferring all gathered process knowledge to the operations team as we ramp up production. You will directly support production ramp and aid the team by troubleshooting equipment availability, product yield, mass throughput, and product quality issues as the plant approaches steady state production.

• Provide technical support to production teams on processing activities in a novel chemical plant
• Develop operating procedures, safety protocols, and maintenance plans for large scale chemical process equipment
• Planning and coordinating operations of various unit operations, ensuring consistent flow while minimizing quality variability
• Track and analyze root cause for process upsets, equipment failures, near misses and safety incidents to eliminate repeat failures and capture and communicate learnings in team training
• Create sustainable data acquisition systems and monitor to present relevant high quality data visualization for team to accelerate development
• Train, coach, develop, manage operator staff to ensure fidelity to standards developed by process engineers, and encourage individual ownership towards reaching overall team goals
• Support operations teams with achieving production and material quality targets on pilot and commercial scale systems
• Initiate, develop, and lead the implementation of process improvement projects
• Collaborate with R&D teams to develop/refine tests for the materials that provide early indications of product quality

• Bachelors Degree or equivalent experience in Chemical/Process Engineering, Materials Engineering, Industrial Engineering or similar
• Evidence of exceptional ability, including a strong understanding of engineering fundamentals and demonstrated ability to leverage this understanding to solve challenging technical problems
• 2-3 years experience in chemical production environments, with demonstrated experience supporting production teams in root cause analysis and troubleshooting of production processes
• Experience with process monitoring, statistical process control, process dashboards, and their use in improving the precision and rigor of chemical processing
• Experience working with/developing process control narratives, and working closely with controls engineers to design and implement control systems to ensure safe and efficient operation of complex chemical process systems
• Preferred experience with some, or all, the following industries and production environments: High Purity production facilities (specialty chemicals, semiconductor, food, pharmaceuticals)
• Bulk solids handling and powder processing systems, including powder blending, powder/spray coatings, crushing/milling, mechanical sorting/sieving/separation
• Elevated temperature thermal processing/calcining systems
• Washing, leaching, filtration, mechanical/thermal purification, precipitation, and crystallization processes

Along with competitive pay, as a full-time Tesla employee, you are eligible for the following benefits at day 1 of hire:

• Medical plans > plan options with $0 payroll deduction
• Family-building, fertility, adoption and surrogacy benefits
• Dental (including orthodontic coverage) and vision plans, both have options with a $0 paycheck contribution
• Company Paid (Health Savings Accounts) HSA Contribution when enrolled in the High-Deductible medical plan with HSA
• Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) with employer match, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, and other financial benefits
• Company paid Basic Life, AD&D
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance (90 day waiting period)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions, Accrued hours for Hourly positions), and Paid Holidays
• Back-up childcare and parenting support resources
• Voluntary benefits to include: critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, theft & legal services, and pet insurance
• Weight Loss and Tobacco Cessation Programs
• Tesla Babies program
• Commuter benefits
• Employee discounts and perks program