Battery System Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About ALSO.

We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.

We’re looking for a Battery Systems Engineer (all levels) to own the battery system architecture and analytical foundation behind our battery systems. You will help define not just the battery pack, but the broader energy strategy and operating philosophy of the vehicle platform.

You will drive the key technical decisions across cell selection, charging strategy, pack architecture, thermal behavior, controls integration, performance, degradation, and operating strategy. Your work will directly shape product direction, vehicle capability, user experience, range, cycle life, cost, and the long-term energy strategy of the platform.

This is a highly cross-functional systems role spanning battery engineering, vehicle architecture, controls, thermal systems, and product definition. You should be equally comfortable building models, defining operating concepts, debating architecture tradeoffs, and helping teams converge on the right technical decisions.

What You Will Do

• Own the analytical foundation behind the battery system. Lead trade studies across chemistry, pack topology, SOC window, cell selection, and operating limits — translating engineering decisions into cost, range, performance, and cycle life tradeoffs that drive product and business direction

• Build and advance cell- and pack-level electrical, thermal, and degradation models. Develop battery duty cycles from real-world usage data and mission profiles, correlate models against measured data, and use them to set architecture decisions, design targets, and operating limits.

• Define how the battery operates — charging strategy, operational use cases, user-facing behavior, degradation management, and end-of-life operating strategy. Ensure these are reflected in system requirements, controls logic, and vehicle integration.

• Own cell evaluation and down-selection. Define characterization test plans, interpret performance and degradation data, and translate cell behavior into pack-level model inputs, design constraints, and BMS operating envelopes.

• Define battery system requirements: protection thresholds, thermal limits, charge/discharge constraints, contactor and fuse sizing, fault detection, and end-of-life criteria. Partner with BMS hardware, firmware, and controls teams to ensure what gets implemented reflects real-world operating realities — you bring the use case context and cell behavior constraints they need to succeed.

• Close the loop between analysis and hardware. Define test cases, support bench and vehicle-level bring-up, and drive model-to-measurement correlation across electrical, thermal, and degradation domains.

• You'll be an early member of a growing battery engineering team. How you work — your rigor, your speed, your standards — sets the bar for the engineers who come after you.

What You Will Bring

• 8+ years in battery systems engineering with demonstrated ownership of battery architecture and requirements on a shipped product — not program support, not analysis in isolation

• Deep understanding of lithium-ion cell behavior: electrochemical operating principles, thermal characteristics, degradation mechanisms, and how these translate into real-world duty cycle and pack design constraints

• Hands-on modeling expertise (Python, MATLAB, Simulink): equivalent circuit models, thermal networks, degradation behavior, pack-level simulation. You have built these from scratch, not just run them

• Experience developing or validating duty cycles for EV or electrified powertrain applications and translating mission profiles into battery requirements and operating limits

• Proven ability to translate cell and pack behavior into BMS hardware and firmware requirements — including protection thresholds, contactor and fuse sizing, parallel cell current balance, and fault detection logic — working directly with embedded teams

• Fluent enough in controls and embedded systems to be technically credible and drive alignment at BMS and controls design reviews

• BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field

Bonus Points

• Cell characterization experience: HPPC, OCV curves, degradation cycling.

• Experience with advanced simulation tools (Ansys Mechanical, Fluent, Icepak, or equivalent).

• Background in small EVs, two-wheelers, or light electric mobility platforms.

• Fast-charge protocol development and optimization.

• Familiarity with BMS state estimation algorithms (SOC, SOH, SOE) and how they interface with controls.

• Familiarity with requirements management tools.

• Strong business acumen — comfortable framing engineering tradeoffs in terms of cost, program risk, and product impact.

The salary for this position ranges from $150,000 - $255,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications.

Perks & Benefits:

• Robust health coverage — excellent health, dental, and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO, with FSA & HSA options
• One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates
• Rich fertility and family-building benefits with Progyny
• Flexible time off
• 401(k) match

Why ALSO.

We’re passionate about helping the world find a better way to get there—wherever it is you’re headed.

We’re located in the heart of Silicon Valley and have brought together a world-class team from some of the biggest brands in the technology, automotive, cycling, outdoor recreation and retail spaces. 

Together we’re working hands-on to imagine, design and build an entirely new solution to a global set of transportation challenges.