Research Scientist

Overview

Founded in 2021, NEU Battery Materials is a Singapore-based climate tech company that developed the world's first patented electrochemical redox recycling method to recycle used lithium batteries. The company focuses on extracting critical lithium from lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries that are found in electric cars and energy storage systems, which will be key in developing a circular supply chain. NEU aims to be the largest, cleanest, and most neutral source of recycled lithium globally. NEU's contribution to electrification and circularity has been recognized by the likes of the Temasek Foundation, BloombergNEF, Forbes Asia, and many others.

This role is about figuring things out. You'll spend your time understanding the current state of our technology, identifying what we don't yet know, and using a combination of your technical background and genuine curiosity to come up with ideas worth testing. Then you'll run those experiments, interpret the results, and work toward solutions that are designed from the start to translate to commercial scale.

The scope spans the treatment of complex process solutions: removing cations, anions and organics through ion exchange, precipitation, adsorption and filtration, understanding how the species in these mixtures interact, and the analytics needed to measure them. As the technology develops, you will also take on broader chemical, electrochemical and materials challenges as they arise. Some problems will be clearly defined. Others you'll need to frame yourself. You'll work closely with the Engineering Team.

If you enjoy research and the above sounds like you, click "Apply" below or send your resume to [email protected]

What You'll Work On

• Develop and optimise impurity-removal steps for complex process solutions, such as ion exchange (from resin screening and column testing to regeneration and process control), precipitation, coagulation and flocculation, adsorption and membrane filtration
• Investigate how ions and organics interact in mixed solutions, including precipitation kinetics, thermodynamics and crystal growth
• Measure and characterise organics and trace ions in aqueous samples, and own the analytical methods your work depends on
• Translate bench findings into parameters that matter at scale, supporting pilot and process engineering
• Contribute to grant proposals, patent filings and internal technical documentation as needed

Requirements

• PhD or MS/BS with strong hands-on research experience in Chemistry, Chemical or Environmental Engineering, Materials Science or a related field
• 3 to 5 years of experimental research in a related field, such as those listed below
• Solid grounding in solution chemistry: speciation, solubility and precipitation equilibria, kinetics and mass transfer
• Hands-on experience with at least one separation or purification method, for example ion exchange, adsorption, precipitation or crystallisation, solvent extraction, membrane filtration or electrodialysis
• Practical analytical skills, for example ICP-OES/MS, ion chromatography, TOC, UV-Vis, titration and sample digestion, with the judgement to assess data quality
• Track record of taking experiments from concept through to conclusions, and owning the outcomes

We care more about these fundamentals than about the field you built them in. Hydrometallurgy, battery or metal recycling, water and wastewater treatment, lithium or mineral processing, industrial brines, electrochemical systems, and chemical or pharmaceutical process development are all relevant backgrounds.

Technical Advantages

• Hands-on ion exchange and adsorption work, from resin or sorbent screening and column testing to regeneration
• Experience with electrochemical systems such as electrolysers, fuel cells, redox flow batteries or electrodialysis, including EIS, cyclic voltammetry and ion exchange membranes
• Experience with leaching and recovery of materials from battery waste, or with purifying and crystallising inorganic powders while controlling purity and particle properties
• Materials characterisation (XRD, SEM, particle size analysis, BET)
• Speciation or process modelling, for example OLI, PHREEQC, MATLAB or Python
• Awareness of safety and environmental standards, method validation and SOP writing

Who We're Looking For

Beyond the technical requirements, the person who will do well here is genuinely curious, not just about their specific area but about the broader system and how things connect. You are self-driven enough to identify what needs investigating without being told and motivated enough to go deeper when the first answer does not fully hold up.

You are also someone who can wear different hats: stepping outside your scope to unblock a problem, communicating clearly with people from different backgrounds, and working with engineers where research meets scale-up. We are a lean team where that range matters.

If you prefer executing well-defined protocols, this probably is not the right fit. If you have thrived when given a problem and the freedom to figure out how to approach it, we would like to hear from you.

Skills

UV/Vis, Materials Science, Design of Experiments, Analytical Skills, Data Quality Standards, Ion Chromatography, Environmental Engineering, Chemical Kinetics, Precipitation, Chemistry, Filtration, Scientific Research, Chemical Engineering, Adsorption, Crystallization, Chemical