Test Engineer, Abuse Test & Engineering

Battery cells and power electronics are a common denominator for every Tesla product. In the Abuse Testing & Engineering group, we push battery systems to their limits and beyond using specialized equipment to apply electrical, mechanical, and thermal stresses. Our goal is to provide rapid feedback to inform designs early in development, by understanding how robust systems perform under abusive conditions. We accommodate external regulations but have a strong focus on internal requirements and testing to failure. Every Tesla battery product comes through our lab, both vehicles and energy storage. Our environment is fast-paced and incredibly exciting.

We are looking for an engineer to test a variety of electrically abusive scenarios for battery packs, across both vehicle and energy products. In this role, you would collaborate with "pack" and electronics design engineers to design subscale and full-scale tests that meet our requirements, as small as a single cell and as large as an entire product. You would own the testing, through planning and execution (with technician support), results summary and shared decision-making with design teams, resulting in products with world-class safety performance.

• Engage battery pack and electronics teams to understand and prioritize test needs
• Create test plans and execute tests for pre-production validation, such as overcharge, overcurrent, issues with electrical joints, conductive fluid exposure, or arc flash
• Develop sub-pack-scale tests to study novel failure modes with higher fidelity
• Develop any new test equipment needed to conduct tests
• Anticipate and mitigate test execution hazards
• Share results and maintain documentation to be easily referenced by other teams
• Recreate field incidents and suggest countermeasures

• Bachelors Degree or Masters Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical Engineering, or applied physics, or equivalent
• 2 years experience in physically applied engineering (lab testing, hobby or school projects)
• Must be hands-on (wiring, prototyping, troubleshooting, instrumentation)
• Enjoys working in cross-functional groups and leading technicians
• Able to plan many concurrent activities in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment
• Up to 20% travel
• Bonus: experience with battery packs / cells, CAN bus, battery management systems, python, National Instruments data acquisition hardware / LabVIEW, CAD, oscilloscopes, or similar