Staff Equipment & Controls Engineer

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?

As a Staff Equipment & Controls Engineer within the Manufacturing Organization, your expertise and technical leadership will be critical to the success of our existing production line in Alameda, CA, and future factories. Using a combination of equipment, controls, reliability, 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 process throughput, performance, reliability, 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 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!

• Troubleshoot and provide day-to-day technical support for production equipment and controls. Get passionate about firefighting, analyzing, and addressing operational challenges 


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


• Support and lead cross-functional teams to execute projects that improve equipment performance, reliability, safety, and scale our manufacturing work processes


• Provide feedback to equipment & controls design teams to affect future equipment and factory design


• Effectively collaborate with multiple teams to lead the implementation and management of scalable manufacturing systems and work processes that drive efficiency, quality, reliability and safety.


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

• Minimum of 10 years of related production or manufacturing equipment/controls experience in the automotive, semiconductor, chemical, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, battery industry or similar


• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, controls & automation, electrical engineering, or similar field


• Demonstrated technical understanding of complex production equipment such as pneumatic/motor driven valving, pumps, compressors, abatement technologies, furnaces, and pressure/vacuum vessels


• Demonstrated technical understanding of coding languages (i.e. Structured Text, C#, Python, etc), industrial control systems (i.e. PLC, SCADA, HMI’s, etc), and basic electrical engineering


• Experience leading project teams and managing medium to large scale projects


• Experience using key manufacturing and process safety systems/tools such as Management of Change, Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), and Root Cause Analysis (RCA)


• 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

• 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 may require 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 $137,000 and $174,000 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, equity, and bonuses.  The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

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.