Graduate Engineer Trainee

Newtrace; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 300,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

Newtrace is seeking a Graduate Engineer Trainee to join Bengaluru on-site and work across the full AEM development cycle for water electrolysis. You will contribute to catalyst and electrode development, MEA assembly, and electrochemical testing under the guidance of experienced engineers and scientists.

You should have a BE/BTech, M.E./M.Tech or MSc in a related field and 1–2 years of practical exposure to membranes, electrocatalysts, electrodes, or MEAs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• 1–2 years of academic or industrial exposure to fabricating or testing membranes, electrocatalysts, electrodes, or MEAs.
• Solid grasp of electrochemistry and polarization curves.

Responsibilities

• Synthesize and characterize PGM-free HER and OER for AEM electrodes.
• Formulate catalyst inks, tune ionomer content, and fabricate electrodes by spray coating and related methods.
• Work with partners to characterize membranes and ionomers.
• Assemble MEAs and single cells with PTLs, gaskets and bipolar plates.
• Run single-cell tests and short-stacks with KOH feeds and electrochemical tests.

Skills

Electrochemistry fundamentals

Python/data analysis

DoE knowledge

Material science basics

Education

B.E./B.Tech, M.E./M.Tech or M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Metallurgy, Chemistry or related field

Tools

Potentiostat

SEM/EDS

XRD

Job description

Job Summary

Job Title: Graduate Engineer Trainee

Location: Bengaluru

Type: On-site Full time

Role

You will work on anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis, from catalyst and electrode development through to cell and stack testing. AEM electrolyzers pair the low-cost, platinum-group-metal (PGM)-free catalysts used in alkaline electrolysis with the thin polymer membrane and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis. Your work will focus on making these MEAs perform better and last longer. You will work with our engineers and scientists on hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction (HER, OER) catalysts, membranes and ionomers, electrode fabrication, MEA assembly and electrochemical testing. The role gives a fresh graduate hands‑on training across the full AEM development cycle.

Responsibilities

• Synthesize and characterize PGM-free HER and OER for AEM electrodes.
• Formulate catalyst inks, tune ionomer content, and fabricate electrodes by spray coating, electrodeposition and related methods, as both catalyst‑coated substrates (CCS) and catalyst‑coated membranes (CCM).
• Work with partners to characterize anion exchange membranes and ionomers.
• Assemble MEAs and single cells with porous transport layers (PTLs), gaskets and bipolar plates.
• Run single-cell and short-stack with dilute KOH feeds running electrochemical tests such as polarization curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), constant current density durability tests and accelerated stress tests (ASTs).
• Break down cell voltage losses into ohmic, activation and mass‑transport contributions, and track how membranes, ionomers and catalyst layers degrade over time.
• Carry out post‑mortem analysis of tested MEAs (SEM/EDS, XRD) to identify failure modes such as catalyst layer delamination, membrane thinning and ionomer degradation.
• Analyse data, present findings to the team, and document methods, procedures and results so others can reproduce them.
• Keep up with AEM electrolysis research and bring relevant results back to the team.

Must Have

• B.E./B.Tech, M.E./M.Tech or M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Metallurgy, Chemistry or a related field.
• 1-2 years of academic or industrial experience fabricating or testing at least one of: ion exchange membranes, electrocatalysts, electrodes, porous transport layers, bipolar plates, MEAs or stacks.
• A sound grasp of electrochemistry fundamentals: HER and OER kinetics, the sources of voltage loss in an electrolysis cell, and how to read a polarization curve.

Should Have

• Hands‑on experience with a potentiostat: linear sweep and cyclic voltammetry, EIS and chronopotentiometry.
• Experience with membrane or ionomer characterization, or with catalyst ink and coating work (spray coating, electrodeposition, doctor blading).
• Exposure to materials characterization techniques such as SEM/EDS, XRD, XPS and BET surface area analysis.
• Data analysis in Python, MATLAB or Origin.
• Experience with wet chemistry and the associated safety procedures (MSDS), including handling KOH and other corrosive chemicals.
• An unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the ability to quickly adapt to new situations. Enthusiasm and curiosity for all things green hydrogen!

Nice to Have

• A thesis or project on AEM, PEM or alkaline water electrolysis, or on AEM or PEM fuel cells.
• Experience operating a single-cell or stack test station, including pumps, mass flow controllers, gas-liquid separators and gas purity measurement.
• Familiarity with design of experiments (DoE) and basic statistical analysis.
• Basic CAD skills for cell hardware and test fixtures (SolidWorks, Fusion 360 or similar).
• Excited to join a startup and put in the hustle required to get things done!

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.