Posting Title

Smart Charging and Vehicle Grid Integration Researcher

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Location

CO - Golden

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Position Type

Regular

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Hours Per Week

40

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Working at NREL

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation's primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

From day one at NREL, you’ll connect with coworkers driven by the same mission to save the planet. By joining an organization that values a supportive, inclusive, and flexible work environment, you’ll have the opportunity to engage through our ten employee resource groups, numerous employee-driven clubs, and learning and professional development classes.

NREL supports inclusive, diverse, and unbiased hiring practices that promote creativity and innovation. By collaborating with organizations that focus on diverse talent pools, reaching out to underrepresented demographics, and providing an inclusive application and interview process, our Talent Acquisition team aims to hear all voices equally. We strive to attract a highly diverse workforce and create a culture where every employee feels welcomed and respected and they can be their authentic selves.

Our planet needs us! Learn about NREL’s critical objectives, and see how NREL is focused on saving the planet.

We invite all interested candidates to apply for this opportunity. While we recognize that job seekers may hesitate if they don’t meet every requirement, we encourage dedicated individuals who meet all the basic and additional required qualifications of the role to submit an application. We value the opportunity to consider those who believe they have the necessary skills and ambition to succeed at NREL.

Job Description

This position will help lead and contribute to efforts that lead to the seamless integration of the nation’s electric grid, electric vehicles, and electric vehicle charging.  You will join a group of industry-leading experts that develop unique solutions that identify, evaluate, and resolve interoperability and reliability challenges of charging electric vehicles. The successful candidate will explore electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) and electric vehicle charging reliability at our world-class Electric Vehicle Research Infrastructure (EVRI) laboratory in the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) and contribute to the development of megawatt-level charging facilities being developed through the NREL’s Advanced Research of Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) strategy.  As we strive to make EV charging a better experience than conventional refueling for drivers, your efforts will create new opportunities and solve critical challenges for electrification of vehicles to move goods and people across the country.

The successful candidate will design and develop solutions that support a robust and resilient charging infrastructure that is integration with the grid and transportation. The solutions will be developed with broad collaboration with researchers at NREL and National Laboratory teams as part of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and Department of Energy. This effort will require unique insights and experiences of the candidate to develop necessary data, knowledge, and approaches to demonstrate improvement in the reliability of charging hardware through laboratory and in-field evaluation. Today’s charging infrastructure faces considerable growth with many distinct EVSE manufacturers, EV manufacturers, and charging network operators innovating to develop a broad electric vehicle charging ecosystem. The objective of this position is to identify best practices for the design, communication, and integration of charging infrastructure with the grid considering the various approaches that different electric utilities use to manage their distribution system and the technologies that automakers have equipped vehicles with.

Successful candidates will have a background and expertise in the following topics:

• Understanding of EVSE to site an