Buyer, End-of-Life Batteries

Buyer, End-of-Life Batteries  

We are seeking an end-of-life battery buyer, to join the team at Redwood. In this position, you will be responsible for regional purchasing activities related to our lithium battery sourcing efforts. In our battery recycling operations, we take lithium battery materials from these sourcing activities into our recycling and manufacturing partners to convert them back into critical minerals for new battery cell production.  This role is vital to our overall mission and is a key driving force to meeting our company goals in accelerating the production of local, sustainable battery materials and ensuring that end-of-life batteries and materials are collected and processed safely. The person(s) who takes on this challenge, if successful, will be instrumental in paving the way for how this industry is shaped and the future of sourcing at Redwood.

Responsibilities will include:

• Being the flywheel behind our lithium battery sourcing business, working with teams spanning sourcing, operations, planning, logistics, and quality. You’re part architect, part coordinator, and part strategist.
• Responsible for making sure the business is gliding – the plant is at full utilization, with a strong customer mix, and that we’re exceeding customer expectations, feeding the machine that is producing the most sustainable battery materials in the world.
• Being held accountable for making sure the battery material is procured profitably, considering sourcing cost, operating costs, and logistics cost.
• Develop regional sourcing strategy and customize recycling solutions for customers.
• Identify future growth opportunities for the lithium battery sourcing business. What should we do? What should we avoid? How do we scale bigger and faster? What are our bottlenecks and how do we eliminate them? What should we prioritize?
• We want the buyer(s) to be the oracle of the battery sourcing space but to back it up with facts, analysis, and scenario planning. You’ll develop business cases and justify them. Call it strategy, but you’ll need to bring it back down to earth, with an executable plan.
• Must be able to collect external data (pricing, market demand, etc.) and document customer interactions in CRM tool. Developing a solid understanding of our industry (recycling and battery materials, both copper foil and cathode).

Desired Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Engineering or Finance/Business Administration, or proof of previous excellence in similar roles.
• 2 years’ experience in experience in buying, recycling, new business development, sales & marketing, procurement, or corporate strategy.
• Battery, Battery Materials, Battery Metals (mining or recycled) industry experience preferred.
• Strong analytical skills. Must be able to interpret data/analysis and intuitively identify/troubleshoot gaps. Distilling data into actionable recommendations.
• You won’t have the entire organization reporting to you, but you’ll need to be able to influence them to accomplish your goals. An ability to foster and maintain relationships both internally and externally is essential.
• Smart, scrappy, entrepreneurial, science-loving, having a bias for action and a lot of grit.
• An ability to have fun while tackling hard problems!
• A passion for sustainability and making the world a better place!