Senior Engineer, Manufacturing Process

About Us

We are Sila, a next-generation battery materials company. Our mission is to power the world’s transition to clean energy. To create this future, our team is building a better lithium-ion battery from the inside out today. We engineer and manufacture ground-breaking battery materials that significantly increase the energy density of batteries, while reducing their size and weight. The result? Smaller more powerful batteries that can unlock innovation in consumer devices and accelerate the mass adoption of electric cars to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. We're tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time every day, and together we're redefining what's possible. Are you ready to be a part of a team committed to changing the world?

Who You Are

As a Senior Process Engineer within the Manufacturing Organization, your expertise and technical leadership will be critical to the success of our production line in Alameda, CA, and future factories. Using a combination of chemical engineering, process safety, and operations knowledge you will efficiently solve production issues at their core, as well as suggest and implement improvements to the equipment design. You will play a significant role in our long-term success by leading throughput, reliability, quality, and safety improvements; ensuring that the manufacturing team can consistently deliver more of our product to a growing list of customers. As we grow and scale our operations, you will have an opportunity to support the design of equipment, systems, and work processes needed to run our next generation battery technology factories. You will become an integral part of the manufacturing organization so that together we can make materials to power our future!

Responsibilities and Duties

- Troubleshoot and provide day-to-day technical support for production equipment and processes. Get passionate about problem-solving, analyzing, and addressing operational challenges

- Analyze production performance, investigate upset conditions, lead RCAs, and implement corrective actions to maintain high overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

- Utilize and improve process documentation such as P&IDs, PFDs, HAZOPs/PHAs, and Standard Operating Procedures

- Drive the collection, analysis, and interpretation of process data (SPC, SQC, Cpk, OEE) to identify root causes of deviations and implement corrective actions

- Lead and/or support cross-functional teams to scale our manufacturing work processes and execute projects that improve equipment reliability, throughput, product quality, and safety

- Serve as a manufacturing representative on teams developing the next generation of production equipment, processes, and products

- Act as a servant leader to other manufacturing and engineering team members through focused listening, consistent information sharing, mentoring and development/delivery of training

Knowledge and Skill Requirements

- Minimum of 5 years of process engineering experience supporting a high volume production line in the chemical, oil & gas, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, battery, automotive industry or similar

- Bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in chemical engineering

- Demonstrated technical understanding and ability to troubleshoot complex production equipment such as furnaces, reactors, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, abatement technologies, controls valves, and instrumentation

- Experience with process safety management elements such as management of change, HAZOP/PHA studies, safety critical instrumentation, safety relief, and operational alarms

- Experience using root cause analysis methodologies such as cause/fault trees, 5-Why, Fishbone Diagrams, etc. and identifying/implementing corrective & preventive actions

- Experience leading small projects and collaborating with cross-functional teams

- Strong data analysis and presentation skills

- Can effectively manage multiple responsibilities, is self-motivated, and can work autonomously with minimal guidance; comfortable with ambiguity and eager to create structure

- Excellent listening and verbal/written communication skills

Physical Demands and Working Conditions

- Pass a respirator fit test and be able to wear respiratory protection

- Wear personal protective equipment including, but not limited to, a lab coat, gloves, safety glasses, and hard toe safety shoes.

- This role requires routine production support during nights and weekends

- Move long distances (such as from building to building) and be stationary for extended periods of time

The starting base pay for this role is between $128,000 and $162,000 at the time of posting. The actual base pay depends on many factors, such as education, experience, and skills. Base pay is only one part of Sila’s competitive Total Rewards package that can include benefits, perks and equity.  The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

Working at Sila

We believe that building a diverse team at Sila helps us amplify our individual talents. We are an equal opportunity employer and committed to creating an inclusive environment where good ideas are free to come from anyone. We are proud to celebrate diversity and all qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, national origin, or any other status protected by law.