Battery Materials Lead

RefinyX AB is building the world’s most efficient critical materials recovery platform for sovereign Western supply chains. We are now looking to hire a Battery Materials Lead at the Refinyx R&D facility in Västerås, Sweden.
Scope. The role owns the technical direction of three work streams: recycled iron phosphate qualified to battery grade, LFP cathode active material (CAM) by spray pyrolysis, and NMC pCAM by conventional co-precipitation.
Mandate. The Battery Materials Lead runs a team of scientists and carries technical accountability for what the group delivers. The role is also the technical counterpart to customers on specifications and acceptance criteria.
Location. The role is based at the Refinyx R&D facility, Nätverksgränd 1, 721 36 Västerås. The pilot line, the laboratories, and the team sit on that site. Travel is to customer sites and partner laboratories, driven by business need.
Position. The role sits between three groups: customers on specification, the QC team on characterization and validation, and the industrialization team on scale-up.
Key responsibilities
Team, customers, and qualification
• Build and lead the battery materials team, and carry technical accountability for what it delivers.
• Agree technical specifications and acceptance criteria for recycled iron phosphate, pCAM, and CAM products directly with customers.
• Own the technical direction of characterization, validation, and qualification protocols, together with the QC team.
• Build in-house characterization and validation capability with the QC team. Establish external laboratory partnerships to cover immediate needs while that capability is built.
Iron phosphate and LFP, spray pyrolysis stream
• Lead the work to bring recycled iron phosphate to battery grade, against targets for crystallinity, particle size distribution, purity, and composition.
• Lead development of CAM and bare CAM production by spray pyrolysis.
• Set impurity limits with customers and hold the process to them, on the elements that govern LFP cell performance.
NMC pCAM, co-precipitation stream
• Set composition and morphology targets across NMC grades, including nickel-rich chemistries, against customer requirements.
• Lead the development of NMC pCAM by conventional co-precipitation, and take it into production: reactor conditions, particle growth, morphology, tap density, and composition
Direction, IP, and modelling
• Set the technical direction of the battery materials work streams and act as technical lead within the group.
• Run targeted R&D with the industrialization team on routes that scale at commercially viable cost.
• Develop IP around the iron phosphate and spray pyrolysis CAM processes, including patent applications and supporting documentation.
• Develop predictive machine learning models for spray pyrolysis process parameters with the AI partners of Refinyx, to speed optimization and cut experimental cycles.
• Apply AI platforms to particle characterization from QC data, to cut development and validation time and to raise throughput and consistency.
Qualifications
• More than 10 years on battery materials, cathode active materials, or battery recycling, in industry or in an industrially facing research group.
• Experience leading a team of scientists: setting direction, carrying technical accountability for the output, and holding the work to schedule.
• PhD in Materials Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgy, or a related field. An MSc with equivalent industrial depth is accepted.
• Hands-on record in iron phosphate or LFP synthesis, precipitation, or purification.
• Expertise in NMC pCAM production by conventional co-precipitation: reactor design and control, nucleation and particle growth, morphology, tap density, and composition control across NMC grades.
• Working knowledge of layered oxide cathodes, including lithiation and the effect of process conditions on electrochemical performance.
• Nickel-rich pCAM, NMC811 or above, taken through to a qualified cathode material.
• Surface coatings or dopants for layered oxide cathodes.
• Command of SEM, XRD, ICP-OES/MS, BET, and particle size distribution analysis, including method development, calibration, and uncertainty assessment.
• Experience building a laboratory from empty room to running operation, covering characterization and validation as well as QC.
• Experience taking a materials specification through customer qualification, with cell manufacturers or CAM producers.
• Written and spoken English.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites and partner laboratories