Senior Battery Systems Simulation & Validation Engineer

About the Job

The Battery Engineering team at Pivotal is seeking a Senior Battery Systems Simulation & Validation Engineer to develop predictive battery models, define verification strategies, and correlate analytical results with laboratory and flight-test data. This role will support cell and pack development for electric aircraft and will work across battery, aeromechanical, electrical, systems, manufacturing and flight-test teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintaincell and pack-level thermal, electrical, and performance models.

• Simulate charging, discharging, heat generation, cooling, environmental exposure, aging, and off-nominal operating conditions.

• Evaluate battery performance across ambient-temperature extremes, solar loading, rapid charging, ground turnaround, and representative flight missions.

• Plan model-correlation activities and use bench, environmental, and flight-test data to improve model accuracy and engineering confidence.

• Define verification methods, andevidence for battery-systemrequirements.

• Define performance test objectives, test profiles, and acceptance criteria in partnership with the test team.

• Author and review engineering analyses, verification plans, test plans, test reports, and technical decision records.

• Support pack-architecture trades involving cell selection, packaging, cooling approaches, venting, sensing, and protection features.

• Analyze battery degradation, state of charge, state of health, energy capability, power capability, and thermal margins.

• Partner with the Battery Management System, electrical, and software teams on models, interfaces, diagnostics, and data quality.

• Partner with mechanical engineers on thermal-management design, structural interfaces, installation constraints, and aircraftintegration.

• Identifytechnical risks early and recommend practical mitigation, validation, or redesign actions.

• Improve reusable simulation, data-processing, requirements-traceability, and verificationworkflows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical, Chemical Engineering, or a relatedtechnical discipline.

• Five or more years of relevant experience in battery modeling, simulation, validation, testing, or system development.

• Experience developing equivalent-circuit and thermal models of lithium-ion cells and packs.

• Strong understanding of lithium-ion cell behavior, heat transfer, battery-pack operation, and test-datainterpretation.

• Experience developing and validating engineering models against measured data.

• Proficiencywith MATLAB, Python, Simulink, or comparable engineering analysis tools.

• Experience with CFD, thermal-network modeling, electrothermal modeling, or multiphysicstools such as STAR-CCM+, ANSYS, Simcenter, or COMSOL.

• Experience defining verification activities and producing clear technical documentation.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and cross-functional communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with electric aircraft, electric vehicles, UAVs, aerospace systems, or other high-power battery applications.

• Experience with battery-aging, degradation, state-estimation, or mission-performance models.

• Exposure tobattery abuse testing, thermal-runaway analysis, and propagation-mitigation concepts.

• Familiarity with aerospace verification, environmental qualification, requirements management, and configuration control.

• Experience with high-voltage battery systems and battery-management-system data.

Ideal Candidate

• Uses first-principlesreasoning while remainingpragmatic about schedule, hardware, and available evidence.

• Is equally comfortable working independently on analysis and collaborating at the test article or aircraft.

• Communicates assumptions, uncertainty, correlationquality, and technical risk clearly.

• Thrives in rapid development cycles and converts incomplete information into focused learning plans.

Attributes aligned with Core Values

• Safety Above All: Demonstrates a proactive safety mindset by embedding safety into daily work, identifying and mitigating risks, encouraging open dialogue about safety concerns, and continuously improving practices and protocols.
• Customer Focus: Puts customers at the center of every action by understanding their challenges, delivering meaningful value, and supporting their success.
• Work Better Together: Seeks and values diverse perspectives, builds cross-functional relationships, and fosters trust through empathetic, fact-based communication and commitment to shared decisions.
• Be the Pilot: Drives results with clarity and purpose by focusing on what matters most, adapting to change, taking initiative, and owning outcomes.
• Embrace the Unknown: Navigates ambiguity with resilience and bold thinking, challenges the status quo, and combines innovative ideas with practical approaches to overcome obstacles and drive progress.
• Respect for People: Fosters a high-performance culture grounded in respect, professionalism, and support by balancing high expectations with a healthy, collaborative environment and being a trusted, dependable teammate.