Principal Battery Scientist / Process Engineer

Ocrea Energy Ltd is a UK battery technology company developing advanced interface solutions to reduce battery cell manufacturing burden while improving cell performance and reliability. Founded in 2024, the company addresses critical electrode-electrolyte interface challenges that constrain the manufacturability and performance of lithium batteries.

Ocrea’s interface engineering technology creates engineered protective coating layers on battery electrodes before cell assembly, stabilising critical electrode-electrolyte interfaces from the outset. By shortening formation and ageing, the technology aims to reduce production costs, energy consumption and capital requirements, while improving cell performance and reliability. We are now entering an important stage of technical validation, moving from pouch-cell-level demonstration towards process reproducibility and customer-relevant evidence.

Role Description

The Principal Battery Scientist / Process Engineer is a full-time, on-site role based in London. This role leads the design, development, and optimization of battery interface materials and processes, with a focus on templating layers for Si-anode and all-solid-state batteries. Day-to-day responsibilities include designing and executing experiments, analyzing electrochemical and materials data, and translating findings into scalable manufacturing processes. The person in this role will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, oversee lab activities, guide junior scientists and engineers, and document results for internal reports, patents, and publications. Additional responsibilities include supporting partner and investor discussions with technical insights and contributing to the strategic roadmap for Ocrea’s advanced battery technologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimise interface coating processes on silicon-based and graphite-based battery electrodes.
• Support pouch-cell-level validation of Ocrea’s coating technology, including coated versus uncoated electrode comparisons.
• Design and run electrochemical testing protocols, including formation, ageing, cycling, EIS, DCIR, rate performance and reliability testing.
• Conduct or coordinate materials and interface characterisation to assess coating quality, reproducibility and performance impact.
• Analyse and interpret data to assess technical performance, manufacturability and industrial relevance.
• Build SOPs, process windows, test plans, technical reports and partner-facing data packages.
• Identify technical risks around coating uniformity, electrode compatibility, pouch-cell integration, process reproducibility and scale-up.
• Work with external partners, facilities and collaborators on coating, testing, characterisation and cell-level demonstration.
• Support project delivery, customer validation, technical documentation and future patent or manuscript contributions where appropriate.

Experience and capabilities

We are looking for candidates with strong hands-on battery experience. Relevant backgrounds may include lithium-ion batteries, electrochemistry, materials science, thin-film coating, electrode processing, pouch-cell testing, solid electrolytes, interface engineering or battery manufacturing.

You should have:

• A PhD or equivalent experience in Chemistry, Materials Science, Electrochemistry, Physics, Chemical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Proven experience in lithium-ion battery research, development or manufacturing.
• Hands-on experience with pouch cells, battery prototyping or cell-level validation.
• Experience with thin-film deposition, coating or electrode processing methods, such as spray coating, spin coating, dip coating, slot-die coating or related techniques.
• Strong experimental and analytical skills in electrochemistry and battery testing.
• Experience with formation, ageing, cycling, EIS, DCIR or related battery test methods.
• Ability to design, optimise and troubleshoot experiments independently.
• Strong data analysis, technical reporting and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving early-stage company with technical uncertainty and evolving priorities.
• Interest in translating battery research into manufacturable, customer-relevant technology.
• Experience with silicon anodes, graphite electrodes, solid-electrolyte coatings, interfacial engineering, advanced characterisation or pilot-line battery processes would be highly desirable.

What success looks like

Within the first two weeks, you will understand Ocrea’s coating technology, current data package, experimental priorities and partner activities. By the end of the 9-month contract, you will have helped generate robust pouch-cell validation data, improved coating and process reproducibility, built clear technical documentation, and supported Ocrea’s transition from lab-scale proof-of-concept towards pilot-relevant battery validation.

Right to work:

Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK

Reporting to:

Founders

What we offer

• A senior hands-on role in an early-stage UK battery technology company.
• The opportunity to work directly on next-generation lithium-ion battery manufacturing challenges.
• Exposure to thin-film coating, silicon-anode validation, pouch-cell development and industrial translation.
• Close collaboration with the founder and external battery partners.
• The opportunity to shape Ocrea’s technical direction during an important company-building stage.
• A role with meaningful ownership, responsibility and visibility.