Staff Mechanical Engineer

Staff Mechanical Engineer

Redwood is localizing a global battery supply chain that seamlessly integrates recovery, reuse, and recycling — keeping critical minerals in circulation and driving the energy transition. Founded in 2019, we're delivering low-cost and large-scale energy storage and producing battery materials in the U.S. for the first time, all from batteries we already have.

Staff Mechanical Engineer – Battery Recycling

We are in the early design stage of our next industrial-scale battery recycling plant and are looking for a Staff Mechanical Engineer to join the team. This is a fast-moving, high-impact project. We're targeting build and commissioning in under a year, with big equipment and serious engineering challenges. You'll be part of a small, highly capable team that's driving this from concept to operation—hands-on and end-to-end.

Responsibilities Will Include:

• Full ownership of critical equipment packages within the plant:
• Bottoms-up understanding of the process to determine equipment functional requirements
• Design equipment to satisfy functional requirements, either with vendors or independently
• Propose clearly thought-out solutions with means to manufacture, including cost and lead time detail
• Produce 2D drawing/3D model detail to initiate fabrication
• Track fabrication, oversee QA/QC and manage Factory/Site Acceptance Tests
• Oversee site install; complete ownership of equipment commissioning
• Equipment package integration: design for seamless interconnects between subsystems
• Plant layout development:
• Rapidly optimizing for space, cost, simplicity, flexibility
• Design of buildings/structures to house equipment and materials
• Running point on model and drawing development
• Cross-functional coordination with other internal teams to make the design fit-for-purpose
• System-level utilities design:
• Define plant utility requirements working with infrastructure teams on design
• Design systems for managing waste streams: gas/liquid; hazardous/combustible
• System-level fluids and energy design:
• Track full-system mass and energy balances; manage equipment design to rectify any imbalances
• Selective prototyping of lab/pilot-scale systems to derisk commercial design

Desired Qualifications:

• Someone who is able to mix design from first principles along with designing large equipment with uncertainty:
• Determine what physical phenomena need to be considered and to what accuracy
• Have a good feel for relative orders of magnitude around key design requirements
• Progress design despite uncertainty but with clear logical reasoning
• Someone who will proactively jump into problems; identify the key challenges and frame the analysis/tests necessary to solve!
• Someone who is always curious: you're not afraid to ask lots of questions so that you know the system inside out
• Strong theoretical knowledge of:
• Heat and mass transfer
• Fluid mechanics
• Solid mechanics
• Desired working knowledge of:
• Mechanical separation equipment
• Solids handling: conveyance systems
• Fluid control systems: tanks, pumps, valves
• Someone who has demonstrated these skills in past projects with a high degree of independence
• Someone who can distil complex designs for effective communication between team members and teams
• B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering or similar

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to safely perform job duties in both office and production environments.
• Must be able to lift and carry up to 50 lbs. as needed.
• Must maintain regular and punctual attendance in alignment with company and regulatory standards.

Working Conditions:

• Work may involve extended periods of working in the production facility.
• Ability to work in challenging working conditions which may include exposure to noise, dust, chemicals, and temperature extremes, while protected by PPE, for extended periods of time.
• May require occasional work weekends or alternate shifts to support production needs.
• Occasional travel to support vendor FATs, or projects at sister sites

The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience. We collect personal information (PI) from you in connection with your application for employment with Redwood Materials, including the following categories of PI: identifiers, personal records, professional or employment information, and inferences drawn from your PI. We collect your PI for our purposes, including performing services and operations related to your potential employment. If you have additional privacy-related questions, please contact us at privacy@redwoodmaterials.com.