Director of Battery Operations — Interim, Energy Storage

The mandate

Cell swelling appeared in packs built across two lots, prompting line shutdown and a limited field campaign. The operations director resigned as disagreement continued over incoming cell variation, drying controls and formation parameters.

The interim must start within ten days for twelve months through containment, process requalification and six months of steady production. An internal manufacturing leader will inherit the function after observed safety and restart gates.

Handover requires all affected packs dispositioned, root cause independently accepted, serial output above plan at ninety-five per cent first-pass yield, zero repeat swelling across six months, and the successor leading one emergency exercise.

The director may stop material, hold packs, change process windows through approved validation and fund recovery below ₹75 lakh. Field-campaign scope, cell specification change and capital above ₹3 crore need committee approval; Product Safety and Quality retain disposition authority.

Cell chemistry development, vehicle software and commercial warranty negotiation are excluded. The mandate covers pack manufacture, traceability and safe restoration of the authorised design.

Why this seat is open

Swelling exposed weak causal integration across supplier, process and field evidence. Departure removed the senior plant decision-maker during a product-safety event. A temporary battery operator must close the failure, prove control and qualify the internal successor.

What you will own

• Trace affected packs from cell lot through storage, drying, assembly, weld, formation, test and field deployment.
• Decide containment boundaries using electrochemical, dimensional, process and operating evidence.
• Approve validated process-window changes for moisture, compression, welding and thermal management.
• Requalify cell incoming controls and supplier evidence against the confirmed failure mechanism.
• Gate restart through controlled lots, destructive analysis, safety tests and traceable release approval.
• Restore output and first-pass yield without weakening leakage, insulation or end-of-line thresholds.
• Qualify the successor through a live restart review and thermal-event emergency simulation.

Candidate qualifications

• Eighteen-plus years in lithium-ion cell, module or pack operations with direct product-safety accountability.
• Led containment and restart after swelling, thermal event, internal short or comparable battery failure.
• Strong command of moisture control, weld quality, compression, formation, BMS interaction and pack traceability.
• Experience integrating supplier cell analysis with manufacturing and field-use evidence.
• Demonstrated production recovery only after validated safety gates and independent Quality approval.
• Practical emergency-command and workforce leadership in high-energy manufacturing environments.

Non-negotiables

• Can be onsite in Bengaluru within ten days and join product-safety escalation immediately.
• No current interest in the cell supplier, test laboratory or field-campaign contractor.
• Will preserve independent safety and Quality disposition decisions.
• Available for the full twelve-month proof and internal-successor qualification.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest site start and availability for battery-safety incident command.
2. 49 words maximum. Which battery failure population did you contain, and how did you define its boundary?
3. 49 words maximum. What restart test convinced you that the confirmed failure would not recur?