Charging up the talent pool

The Faraday Institution’s Training and Diversity Panel showcase career options in the battery sector.

What are the career options in the battery sector, and why is it important to signpost the range of opportunities?

SQ: The battery sector offers an extraordinarily diverse range of opportunities, yet these pathways – and the connections between them – are not always visible to those developing their knowledge, skills and professional identities within the field. Clear, early signposting of career options is essential, because people cannot aspire to careers that they don’t even know exist.

This matters more as the sector grows. The Volta Foundation’s Battery Report 2025 highlights a significant misalignment between talent aspirations and operational needs, with students’ career aspirations remaining heavily concentrated in research and R&D roles. Making the full career landscape visible early on gives people greater agency to make purposeful choices about their skills, professional networks and career development opportunities. 

The Faraday Institution’s Battery Career Portfolio moves beyond the traditional concept of a single, linear career path. It is a navigable tool that showcases diverse career possibilities and transferable skills, and supports individuals to build adaptable and resilient careers. 

Importantly, signposting is also an inclusion issue. Access to informal career knowledge, professional networks and role models is unevenly distributed. We cannot assume everyone has someone in their orbit who can help them navigate unfamiliar pathways. 

Early signposting helps diversify aspiration itself, enabling the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators to see where they might contribute. This helps build a diverse, dynamic talent pipeline that reflects the breadth of opportunity, expertise and skills the battery sector requires.

What skills are employers seeking in early-career recruits?

RB: As an R&D Manager, when looking to employ early-career scientists, I look for deep subject knowledge – in a particular area of Materials Science, Chemistry, or Electrochemistry, for example. This could be gained through a Master’s or PhD research project, or from prior industrial research experience. The materials and chemistry do not have to be directly relevant to our technology, but the skills and insight are transferable.

We also look for some level of understanding and experience of cell testing, ideally linking materials properties to system-level performance. Experience building and testing cells (especially pouch cells) is advantageous, but also teachable on the job. Good practical lab skills in areas like synthesis and formulation are also useful, as well as having a good understanding of statistical significance of data. Finally, the ability to conduct experiments and collect, record and manage data is beneficial. 

Critical non-technical skills include teamwork, creative problem solving and time management – being able to meet and report on targets on a regular basis. New recruits should aim to demonstrate adaptability and flexibility, particularly when coming from academic backgrounds. The ability to effectively communicate work and its impact is important too.

What are the principal barriers facing graduates moving into roles in the battery sector?

IH: University education undoubtedly equips graduates with many of the attributes needed for a career in batteries – critical thinking, problem-solving ability, curiosity and the capacity to learn quickly. The main barriers arise when translating these strengths into the specific demands of a rapidly developing, highly interdisciplinary industry.

Graduates might have strong foundations in Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, or Engineering, but battery roles increasingly require an understanding of how these disciplines connect. This can make the transition challenging.

A second barrier is candidates’ limited exposure to industrial practice. Academic projects often focus on carefully controlled experiments and lab-scale battery cells, whereas industry places greater emphasis on reproducibility, scale-up, process control, quality assurance, safety and decision-making under practical constraints. 

This also leads to an experience gap when employers are seeking industrial or hands-on experience even for junior positions. Internships, placements, multidisciplinary projects and access to pilot-scale facilities can help bridge this gap by giving graduates experience of how materials, electrodes and cells move from laboratory research towards manufactured products.

A further barrier is visibility. Battery careers extend far beyond R&D, yet there is less awareness of opportunities in manufacturing, systems engineering, modelling, validation, safety, recycling, supply chains and policy. Clearer signposting can help graduates understand where their skills fit and prepare more effectively for the roles available.

How well do relevant university degrees prepare people for such careers?

IH: Electrochemical Engineering and related programmes provide an excellent technical basis for careers across electrochemical energy technologies, including batteries, fuel cells, electrolysers, supercapacitors and redox-flow systems. Their greatest strength is that they teach the fundamentals needed to understand electrochemical devices – thermodynamics, kinetics, transport phenomena, materials behaviour, electrochemical characterisation and, increasingly, modelling and data analysis. These are highly transferable foundations that allow graduates to move across technologies as the energy sector evolves.

For battery careers, the question is not whether these programmes prepare people well, but how their scope aligns with the sector’s increasingly broad range of roles. In the UK, programmes vary considerably – some are rooted in Electrochemistry and Materials Science, while others place greater emphasis on Engineering Systems, Electrification, or Manufacturing. This diversity is valuable, but it also means graduates can enter battery roles with different levels of exposure to electrode processing, cell design, formation, degradation, diagnostics, safety, quality, battery management systems and recycling.

Another gap is the connection between these individual topics across the full technology lifecycle. Understanding electrochemical mechanisms is essential, but so is recognising how materials selection influences manufacturability, performance, safety, cost and end-of-life considerations.

The opportunity is to strengthen integration rather than simply add more content – linking rigorous electrochemical fundamentals with device engineering, manufacturing, systems thinking and lifecycle considerations, while preserving the disciplinary depth that underpins innovation across electrochemical energy technologies.

How is the Faraday Institution helping researchers explore potential career paths?

DG: Our PhD training programme combines technical, commercial, policy and transferable professional skills, alongside networking opportunities and bespoke training, such as at Faraday Battery School at Warwick Manufacturing Group. This helps members of our cohorts understand career opportunities beyond academia and develop the skills needed to move into them. 

The model works – 85% of researchers in our first three cohorts have stayed in the battery sector. Many start their PhDs without any thought of leaving academia. Four years on, three PhD researchers have launched start-ups, 31% have moved to other industry roles, 17% have taken analyst or policy roles, and 38% have stayed in a university setting.

We have alumni leading new departments in industry organisations, advising on policy and legal changes around the use of batteries, winning seed funding to develop their start-up ideas, and being awarded prestigious fellowships at leading universities.

What role do internships, industrial placements and apprenticeships play in strengthening the talent pipeline?

DG: Batteries still don’t feature significantly on many undergraduate science and engineering curricula, so initiatives such as internships are invaluable in exposing students to the battery sector. For example, the Faraday Undergraduate Summer Experience (FUSE) programme offers undergraduates eight-week, paid, hands-on battery research experience, exposure to a network of researchers, and opportunities to take part in a meaningful research activity, exposing them to potential careers. 

The numbers speak for themselves. A third of the PhD researchers in our seventh cohort previously participated in FUSE, demonstrating the continuation from early undergraduate engagement and future progression into battery research. Around 40% of former interns go on to undertake a PhD, more than half of which are batteries-related. 

PhD internships are equally valuable, as they offer direct experience of a different working environment, as well as networking and relationships that could lead to future employment. A third of our PhD researchers who have completed internships have gone on to work for the host organisation full time.

How does the Faraday Institution’s skills activity complement university, industry and external training programmes?

DG: Our PhD training programme fills gaps rather than duplicating university training. Universities deliver intensive training weeks using their facilities. We provide what looks like standard training in professional and transferable skills – project management, communication, negotiation and entrepreneurship – but we also work with external training providers to build battery-related context into those courses. Negotiating down the price of a battery cycler is a favourite training exercise.

We aim to build knowledge and skills to create a strong, ‘all-round’ researcher who is not only an expert in their field of research, but also ready to enter the battery workforce.

We also provide opportunities beyond training courses. For example, through the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Collaboration Award, researchers can bid for small grants to get their first taste of being an independent researcher. 

Meanwhile, the Faraday Institution ECR Conference provides a platform for researchers to build confidence in presenting their work, maybe for the first time. Training budgets provide flexibility to build skills around individual career goals.

All these initiatives are set within a PhD cohort model and the wider collaborative and interdisciplinary Faraday Institution community – two powerful assets that early-career researchers cite time and time again as the defining feature of their time with us. It’s all about access and trust. Access to the expertise and knowledge of people at other universities, projects, disciplines and seniority levels, and a trusted place to develop skills and a network that endures.

How are public and private investment priorities shaping demand for skills?

RB: Batteries are seen as a strategic subsector of the UK Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, with targeted delivery of a globally competitive battery supply chain for the UK by 2030. 

Investment priorities are focused on domestic battery manufacturing and scale-up, circularity of supply and developing local supply chains, and bridging the gap between lab research and commercial deployment of technology. These priorities call for a workforce for gigafactories.

For their deployment and operation to be successful and for the battery manufacturing sector to stay competitive, the UK needs access to specific skills and talent, including process engineering and quality control. This might look like learning from other countries who are established in this field to get set up, coupled with workforce development and training programmes. It will mean transitioning workers from automotive and existing manufacturing roles, and specialist technical training for young people. 

The UK will also need people who can navigate regulation and compliance (e.g. the EU Batteries Regulation) and engage with the EU to support collaborative efforts to build and maintain local supply chains. Translational research skills enable the transition from lab R&D to commercial application, including intellectual property development and linking of fundamental materials properties to cell- and system-level performance.

How can the sector attract, develop and retain talent over the next few years?

JD: Since its inception, the Faraday Institution has shown the value of engaging people early, providing high-quality technical training and building networks that connect academia and industry. Looking ahead, the sector should prioritise a talent pipeline that is broader, more interdisciplinary and better connected to industry need. 

Broadening routes into battery careers is essential. This means inspiring students before they specialise and making the full breadth of battery careers visible, including the researchers, technicians and process engineers that gigafactories urgently need. It also involves removing barriers to entry and progression for talented people. 

Diversity needs to remain central throughout by drawing on different backgrounds, disciplines and career paths to bring new perspectives and strengthen the sector’s capacity to innovate. We will not fill the scale of forecast vacancies without it. 

Battery technology increasingly requires people who can work across disciplinary boundaries. Future training should combine deep technical expertise in electrochemistry, materials and manufacturing with data science, modelling and systems engineering, alongside transferable skills such as communication, leadership and entrepreneurship. Stronger, regionally delivered links between universities, national facilities and industry, especially near new manufacturing sites, will be essential to provide this experience. 

Finally, attracting talent is only half the challenge. We must create sustainable careers with clear progression and genuine mobility between academia and industry, underpinned by investment that survives funding cycles rather than stopping and starting. A diverse pipeline, excellent training and visible long-term career opportunities will be critical to building a UK battery ecosystem that is genuinely globally competitive.