Job Description
Position Overview: Solid Power is seeking a Computational Materials Scientist to join our talented team working to revolutionize the battery industry through the development of next-generation, all solid-state rechargeable batteries. Solid Power is a dynamic, fast-paced, collaborative, and innovative team environment. The candidate must have deep experience performing density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The candidate will play a pivotal role in evaluating the behavior of solid-state electrolytes when brought into contact with common solid-state battery materials. A strong candidate will have ample experience working with inorganic crystalline solids, especially in using computational techniques to generate candidate structures from isovalent/aliovalent substitutions. An ideal candidate will have familiarity with ML-based forcefields and ML techniques for accelerating ab initio calculations.
Job Duties: - Starting from a library of proprietary solid-state electrolytes, generate lists of candidate materials via isovalent/aliovalent substitutions. Order disordered structures where necessary.
- Establish a DFT pipeline to perform structural relaxations on all theoretical candidate materials.
- Employ MD simulations to assess the ionic diffusivity and stability of theoretical candidate materials. It will be especially important to evaluate reactivity of candidates against common solid-state battery materials.
- Corroborate diffusivity results with other common first principles techniques (e.g. Nudged Elastic Band).
- Thoroughly understand the academic literature around ML-accelerations for ab initio calculations and leverage promising strategies to expedite calculations. Periodically validate accelerated results via DFT/MD simulations.
- Work closely with data scientists to prioritize simulations, using strategies such as Bayesian Optimization.
- Actively drive (or contribute to) the development of new computational capabilities and clearly communicate vision to internal stakeholders.
Qualifications/Requirements: - Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry, Computational Physics, Materials Science, Data Science, Statistics, Math, or a related field.
- Minimum of 3 years of experience in an industrial or postdoctoral setting, with a very strong preference for those who have worked with electrochemical data.
- Deep understanding of first principles calculations, sensitivity analysis, and validation approaches.
- Experience using Quantum Espresso or VASP to perform first principles simulations, especially within a HPC environment.
- Strong communication skills in conveying the intricacies of first principles simulations to stakeholders who are not necessarily well-versed in the topic (e.g. the ability to clearly explain a k-point mesh to a college student).
- General understanding of electrochemistry, preferably with some experience in battery systems.
- High motivation to stay abreast of the academic literature and propose incorporation of advances into existing Solid Power computational solutions where it makes sense to do so.
- Familiarity with machine learning techniques to guide or accelerate first principles simulations.
- Demonstrated experience performing and validating first principles simulations (e.g. publications, Github).
- Proficiency with Python and common data science libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy.
- Demonstrated experience working within an HPC ecosystem.
- Rapid learner and a self-motivated individual who thrives in a collaborative start-up environment.
- Excellent negotiation and organizational skills with strong attention to detail.
Physical Requirements: - Prolonged periods of time in front of a computer.
Salary Range: $120,000 - $152,000/Annually
Application Deadline: 06/13/2024
Benefits: Solid Power offers a comprehensive benefit package that includes medical/dental/vision insurance, employer paid Life/AD&D/STD/LTD insurance, 401k with company match, paid holidays, unlimited PTO, cell phone reimbursement and eligibility in our bonus and equity plans.
Export Control Requirements: This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls. Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items.
Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.
All offers of employment at Solid Power are contingent upon clear results of a thorough background check.
Job Tags
Holiday work,