About Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel, co-founder and former CTO of Tesla, on a simple but radical idea: the critical minerals powering the energy transition already exist. They just need to come back. Today Redwood is the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America — recovering, refining, and redeploying critical minerals from end-of-life batteries back into the supply chain. On the energy side, Redwood has deployed the largest second-life battery project in the world, delivering power to AI data centers in months rather than years using proprietary energy architecture engineered entirely in-house. The company is profitable, the market it operates in is projected to grow 20 to 50 times over the next decade, and Redwood is the only company with the supply chain, the technology, and the operational scale to lead it.
Position Summary:
The Equipment Engineer in the Production Engineering team will be a part of operating, sustaining, and improving the manufacturing equipment at Redwood BMC1. The best candidate for the position will demonstrate previous applicable experience and has a high aptitude to learn new skillsets in the position. The expectation is that Engineers will start with strengths in multiple given fields (PLC programming, 3D CAD, robotics, vision, etc.) and then learn all other areas from those who work with them. This role requires capability across the board to sustain all parts of the automated/semi-automated equipment.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Responsible for the equipment performance and improvement of multiple assigned production processes
- Support 24/7 production by responding to and resolving breakdowns quickly to minimize downtime.
- Active participant of cross functional teams while taking on improvement projects to assist in improving production lines. Diagnoses equipment failures, finds root cause and improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness. Lead equipment upgrades with a focus on serviceability, reliability and process capability
- Become expert level on all equipment and responsible for technician training. Provide hands-on support to Maintenance team to troubleshoot and resolve downtime issues.
- Takes initiative to create, implement and improve preventative and predictive Maintenance documents and schedules in collaboration with maintenance team.
- Ability to troubleshoot ladder logic to appropriately identify controls issues and program ladder logic (Beckhoff). Familiarity with Atlas Copco torque tool systems to troubleshoot and continuously improve.
- Participate in spare part analysis and inventory development, cost reduction, improvement working with Spares Department to RMA faulty components and communicate needs to the vendor
Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
- Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial Engineering, Mechatronic, or equivalent experience
- 2+ years of engineering experience in a high-volume environment
- 2+ years of experience developing and improving HMI’s and with PLC (Ignition and Beckhoff preferred) programming, motion control, safety devices
- Experience with 2D/ 3D modeling software (AUTOCAD and Solidworks/CATIA preferred)
- Experience teaching and troubleshooting vision systems (Cognex and Keyence preferred)
- Experience commissioning and improving equipment. Have a demonstrated track record of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) improvement, Preventative and Predictive Maintenance activities
- Experience coding/debugging and troubleshooting End of Line Test machines
- Good understanding of Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), Safety, Ergonomics, Change Point Management, Spare Parts Management
- Strong problem solving skills and an aptitude for learning systems quickly. Able to utilize structured problem solving techniques such as DMAIC, Ishikawa, Five Why (5W) or Eight Disciplines (8D). Able to resolve high level performance issues into addressable actions
- Experience with statistical data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Software proficiencies: Microsoft Office, 2D CAD, any linear programming software.
The position is full-time. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
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Skills Required
- Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, or Mechatronic Engineering, or equivalent experience
- At least 2 years of engineering experience in a high-volume environment
- At least 2 years of experience developing and improving HMIs and programming PLCs, motion control, and safety devices
- Experience with Ignition and Beckhoff programming preferred
- Experience with 2D or 3D modeling software
- Experience with AutoCAD and SolidWorks or CATIA preferred
- Experience teaching and troubleshooting vision systems
- Experience with Cognex and Keyence vision systems preferred
- Experience commissioning and improving equipment, including demonstrated OEE improvement
- Experience with preventive and predictive maintenance activities
- Experience coding, debugging, and troubleshooting End of Line Test machines
- Understanding of CMMS, safety, ergonomics, change point management, and spare parts management
- Strong problem-solving skills and familiarity with DMAIC, Ishikawa, Five Why, or 8D methods
- Experience with statistical data collection, analysis, and reporting
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, 2D CAD, and linear programming software
Redwood Materials Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Redwood Materials and has not been reviewed or approved by Redwood Materials.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered okay to good overall, often competitive for engineering and corporate roles while closer to local norms in hourly operations.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock options or equity are included in many offers, providing additional upside beyond base pay.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is viewed positively, with maternity and paternity leave standing out within the package.
Redwood Materials Insights
What We Do
Redwood is developing a fully closed-loop, domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. Our team manufactures critical battery components using as many recycled batteries as possible — localizing a 50,000-mile global supply battery chain on a single site.
