Senior Technician - Cell Testing

Senior Technician - Cell Testing Department: TEC Electrical & Battery Experience Level: 4–5 Years Location: Chennai, India Position Type: Full-Time / New Role About the Role As the Senior Technician for Cell Testing, you will be the hands-on anchor and operational manager of our cell validation laboratory. You will not only execute daily testing routines but also own the setup, maintenance, and technical readiness of our laboratory infrastructure. Your core focus will be translating engineering requirements into physical test setups, maintaining adaptive jigs and fixtures, and ensuring our lab runs continuously and safely to feed high-fidelity data into our aircraft development pipeline. What You Will Do Protocol Implementation & Execution: Interpret engineering test profiles and independently configure, program, and execute advanced electrochemical test protocols (RPT, HPPC, capacity checks, cycle life, thermal mapping) on Lithium-ion cells. Lab Ownership & Capability Evaluation: Maintain the entire cell testing laboratory in pristine, calibrated condition. When new cell chemistries or form factors arrive, evaluate the physical space, electrical hookups, and thermal requirements needed to test them safely. Jig & Fixture Management: Design, fabricate, and maintain robust test jigs, custom cell holders, and contact fixtures. Ensure the lab can seamlessly adapt to a variety of cell form factors (cylindrical, pouch, prismatic) with minimal downtime and zero contact resistance. Equipment Operation: Program and run Neware or Arbin battery/cell testers, ensuring channels are properly allocated, calibrated, and synchronized with environmental chambers. Data Control & Integrity: Monitor and ensure clean data capture across thousands of test cycles, managing file exports, channel cycle logs, and initial data sorting. Failure Analysis Support: Assist engineers in isolating and documenting physical cell anomalies or field failures, correlating physical laboratory inspections with test data trends. Cell abuse testing : Assist in scaling cells level test results to packs level interpretations. Cell abuse testing - ARC (Accelerated Rate Calorimetry), FTRC - Fractional Thermal Runaway Calorimetry). Test planning & execution : Planning cell tests, ensuring cell sample readiness, test setup readiness, ensuring safe storage of cells before & after tests. What We Are Looking For (Must-Haves) Experience: 4 to 5 years of technical, hands-on experience working in a battery test lab, cell characterization facility, or cell manufacturing environment. Fixture & Mechanical Savvy: Proven track record of building, maintaining, and troubleshooting electrical test fixtures, wiring connections, and custom mechanical jigs for various cell types. Protocol & Hardware Familiarity: Strong working exposure to programming and operating Neware or Arbin cell testers, including setting up safety cut-offs and multi-step test scripts. Cell Chemistry & Li-ion Safety Knowledge: Solid foundational understanding of Lithium-ion cell behavior, electrical characteristics (voltage, current, internal resistance), and strict hazard containment protocols. Cell Testing protocols : Excellent understanding of : Reference Performance Tests (RPT), Hybrid Power Pulse Characterization (HPPC), Capacity estimations, Cyclic ageing / Calendar ageing characterization, Power map characterization, Incremental Capacity Analysis (dQ/dV) Great understanding of handling different types of Li-ion cells / Supercapacitors & solid awareness of risks associated with working around them. Preferred Skills (Good-to-Have) Experience in correlating physical field failures (e.g., leakage, swelling, venting) with electrical test data curves. Basic machining or 3D printing experience for fast prototyping of cell fixtures and test brackets. Safety first approach Extracting insights from large datasets