Director of Engineering

The Company

Phillip Riley is proud to be supporting VRB Energy, a global leader in vanadium redox battery (VRB®) technology and driven to empower a clean energy future for the world. VRB Energy is a privately owned, US company majority owned by Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE:IE). They are currently producing the most advanced vanadium-redox batteries in the world that deliver the lowest levelized cost for the integration of renewable energy for developers and utilities.

With 65 staff globally, a manufacturing plant in China and increasing demand for their 4-12 hour VRB-ESS® products, they are looking to establish US operations. VRB Energy currently has 40MWh of installed capacity and a further 750MWh of projects in development.

The Role

The Director of Engineering is a critical hire for the business that will develop and lead the engineering function and team for the US operations whilst working very closely with the pre-existing engineering team in China. Because of the close working relationship between the successful candidate and the engineering team in China, it is essential that they will be able to communicate fluently in Mandarin.

Responsibilities of the role will include:

• Establish the US-based engineering function within the organization to support all aspects of the business from sales to product development to manufacturing and service of the Gen3 MW-class product
• Build & nurture a team of skilled US based engineers to deliver on company objectives
• Implement standard engineering processes, controls and methods
• Lead development of the technology roadmap
• Develop a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the organization
• Understand market trends and evaluate relevant technologies to improve product development and competitiveness
• Manage and deliver financial budgets & reporting for the engineering dept
• Regular travel to China for 1-2 weeks (at a time) until end of 2024 to promote knowledge sharing

About you

In order to be successful in this role, you will be a confident Director of Engineering, Engineering Manager or similar with 10+ years of experience. Given the nature of the role within the organization you will need to be self-motivated and enjoy building teams from the ground up.

• Relevant tertiary qualifications in Engineering (Chemical, Electrical, Power, Applications etc)
• Excellent understanding across the Power Generation sector (preferably with a battery storage or renewable energy technologies)
• Passionate about building high performing engineering teams
• Excellent understanding of developing new technology and setting roadmaps
• Strong knowledge of project and product development cycles including planning, budgeting, cost estimating and risk management
• Strong written and verbal communication skills - Bi-lingual in English and Mandarin Mandatory
• Ideally the successful candidate will be local to Arizona/Texas or will be willing to relocate in the future.

Next Steps & Benefits

If the above sounds like you, and you are eager to get involved with an industry leader within Vanadium-Redox batteries and play a key part in their US expansion, then please apply via the link below. The successful applicant will receive a salary commensurate with their experience, fully paid health insurance & participation in a long term incentive plan.

Please apply via the link, or email stephen@phillipriley.co.uk for more information.

Please note - any direct applications to VRB Energy will be managed by Phillip Riley for the purpose of an objective recruitment process.