Energy Storage System (ESS) Intern (Summer)

REGENT; North Kingstown (RI); On-site; USD 34,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing stipend

Daily catered lunches

Learning & professional development

Mentorship & guidance

Meaningful projects

Competitive compensation

Job summary

REGENT is seeking an ESS Intern to join our Hardware Engineering team in Rhode Island. You will split time between hands-on test support, battery characterization, and simulation work spanning our Squire and Viceroy programs.

This internship offers exposure to battery integration, high‑voltage vehicle architectures, and data‑driven design decisions. You should be a senior or graduate engineering student with strong fundamentals and a drive to learn by doing.

Qualifications

• Senior or graduate engineering student with strong fundamentals.
• Li-ion battery knowledge: capacity, C-rate, state of charge, internal resistance, voltage curves.
• Proficiency in Python or MATLAB for data analysis and modeling; Excel for energy budgets and trade studies.
• Comfort with ambiguity and self-directed work.
• Clear communication of findings and tradeoffs to engineers.

Responsibilities

• Characterize Battery Packs: tests to understand performance under Seaglider conditions.
• Support Paladin Test Operations: hands-on testing and battery servicing.
• Model Mission-Profile Performance: build simulations in Python or MATLAB across mission profiles.
• Contribute to Integration Documentation: document battery system integration into high voltage architecture.
• Own Energy Budgets and Trade Studies: create budgets and trade studies in Excel evaluating cost, performance, and integration.
• Track Cell and Pack Data: monitor pack characteristics during testing for performance and safety.

Skills

Engineering fundamentals

Li-ion battery knowledge

Python

MATLAB

Data analysis

CAD familiarity

Education

Senior or graduate student in mechanical, electrical, aerospace, or chemical engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Fusion

Creo

PyBaMM

Simulink/Simscape Battery

COMSOL

Job description

At REGENT, we’re on a mission to revolutionize regional transportation between coastal cities. We're not just building vehicles, we're creating a new category of transportation: the Seaglider. These groundbreaking wing-in-ground-effect craft travel just above the water’s surface, combining the speed of an airplane with the low operating costs of a boat. Capable of 180 miles at 180 mph on today's battery tech (and up to 400 miles with next-gen batteries), Seagliders will unlock fast, affordable, and sustainable coastal transit for passengers and cargo - connecting cities, islands, and communities like never before.

Backed by leading investors and powered by a team of passionate, forward-thinking engineers, builders, and operators, we’re now scaling from a breakthrough prototype to full production - and building the team to make it happen.

Role Overview

REGENT's Energy Storage System team is working on one of the most foundational questions behind our Seagliders: how do we store and deliver the energy that gets them across the water, safely and efficiently, mission after mission. As our ESS Intern, you'll dig directly into that question — splitting your time between hands‑on test support, battery characterization, and simulation work that spans our Squire and Viceroy programs. You'll help the team understand how individual cells and full packs actually behave under real conditions, how they should be integrated into our platforms, and how to optimally design the high voltage vehicle architecture. This isn't a narrow, single-task internship — it's a genuinely broad technical role with real scope behind it, built for someone who wants to learn by doing.

You'll sit within our Hardware Engineering group, working closely with the Electrical Systems and Mechanical teams, where precision and curiosity go hand in hand. The team moves fast and expects you to pick up REGENT‑specific tools and architectures quickly, but once you're oriented, you'll be trusted to run with real analysis and contribute findings that shape how we think about battery integration going forward.

If you're a student with strong engineering fundamentals who gets energized by ambiguity, hands‑on testing, and the chance to help define how next‑generation electric watercraft get their power, this is a place where you'll do work that matters from day one.

What You'll Do

• Characterize Battery Packs: You'll run tests on battery packs to understand how they perform under the conditions our Seagliders actually face. Your findings will directly inform how the team evaluates viable energy storage options.

• Support Paladin Test Operations: You'll get hands‑on with test support and battery servicing, working alongside engineers who rely on accurate, well‑documented testing to move programs forward. This is where you'll build real intuition for how packs behave outside of a datasheet.

• Model Mission-Profile Performance: Using Python or MATLAB, you'll build simulations that show how battery performance holds up across different mission profiles. This work helps the team make informed tradeoffs long before hardware decisions are finalized.

• Contribute to Integration Documentation: You'll help document how battery systems integrate into REGENT's high voltage architecture across platforms. Clear, thorough documentation here keeps the whole team moving faster.

• Own Energy Budgets and Trade Studies: You'll build and refine energy budgets and trade studies in Excel that compare options across cost, performance, and integration complexity. These studies feed directly into engineering decisions on the program.

• Track Cell and Pack Data: You'll help monitor pack‑specific characteristics during testing, keeping an eye on the details that matter for performance and safety. Good data here is the foundation for everything else the team builds on top of it.

What You'll Bring

• Strong Engineering Fundamentals: You're currently a senior or graduate student in mechanical, electrical, aerospace, or chemical engineering. You come in with the core fundamentals already in place, ready to apply them from week one.

• Li-ion Battery Knowledge: You understand the basics of lithium‑ion systems — capacity, C-rate, state of charge, internal resistance, voltage curves, and series/parallel configurations. This foundation is essential to the work you'll be doing all summer.

• Analytical Toolkit: You're proficient in Python or MATLAB for data analysis and modeling, and you're comfortable building energy budgets and trade studies in Excel. A significant part of this role involves analyzing battery performance across different mission profiles.

• Comfort With Ambiguity: You're self‑directed and don't need every task spelled out to make meaningful progress. You can take a loosely defined problem and figure out how to move it forward.

• Clear Communication: You can explain your findings and tradeoffs to engineers in a way that's useful and easy to act on. Translating technical analysis into clear takeaways is a core part of this role.

• CAD Familiarity, A Plus: Experience with a 3D CAD tool like SolidWorks, Fusion, or Creo, along with the ability to produce clear drawings, would help you move quickly and bridge gaps between electrical and mechanical work.

• Pack and Simulation Experience, A Plus: Any exposure to pack‑level design work — cell selection, BMS architecture, busbars, thermal management — or to battery simulation tools like PyBaMM, Simulink/Simscape Battery, or COMSOL will help you hit the ground running.

Who We're Looking For

• Collaborative Team Player: You believe that great things happen when teams work together. You communicate effectively and collaborate with engineers, stakeholders, and other cross‑functional teams to align on goals and move projects forward. You bring people together, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and moving towards a shared vision.

• Creative Problem Solver: You thrive on tackling complex challenges and finding innovative solutions. Whether you're resolving installation challenges, debugging elusive electrical issues, or adapting on the fly during integration and test, you bring a practical, inventive mindset to every problem. You don't just patch issues - you improve processes, anticipate downstream impacts, and help turn one-off fixes into scalable solutions that raise the bar for future builds.

• Adaptable & Agile: In a fast‑paced, ever‑evolving startup environment, you quickly adapt to changing priorities and requirements. You approach challenges with a calm, resilient mindset, and know how to pivot and adjust your approach as needed, ensuring that progress continues without missing a beat.

• Innovative Mindset: You’re driven by curiosity and a passion for technology. You’re passionate about driving continuous improvement, embracing new technologies and methodologies to enhance efficiency, quality, and team performance.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation

• Housing Stipend available for those temporarily moving to join our team

• Daily, free catered lunches

• Learning & professional development opportunities

• Meaningful projects that make an impact

• Mentorship & guidance from experienced team members

Equal Opportunity Employer

REGENT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.