Applications Engineer - Battery Diagnostic Systems

THE ROLE: As Sention’s first dedicated Applications Engineer, you will deliver the technical customer journey from advanced discovery through deployment and adoption, while helping establish the practical processes needed to deliver this work consistently as we grow.

About Sention

Sention Technologies is transforming diagnostics for the electrochemical industry, enabling unprecedented insight into battery performance, quality and safety. Our proprietary ultrasound-based technologies allow us to see inside batteries and turn complex measurements into actionable data through our hardware and software platforms.

By reducing waste, increasing productivity and improving safety, our solutions help R&D teams, battery manufacturers, cell and pack integrators, and fleet operators meet the demands of the energy transition. Our ambition is to make advanced battery diagnostics practical from the laboratory to high-volume manufacturing.

Role summary

This is a newly created role and Sention’s first dedicated applications engineering position. The work is currently shared across several teams, and we need someone who can take responsibility for customer-facing technical delivery while helping turn our existing knowledge and experience into simple, repeatable ways of working.

Reporting to and working closely with our Chief Product Officer, you will be the technical bridge between customers and Sention’s Commercial, Product, R&D and Operations teams. The CPO will retain overall responsibility for applications strategy, product priorities and the future development of the function. You will take day-to-day responsibility for delivering applications engineering work and for improving the processes, tools and documentation that support it.

You will initially shadow the CPO during advanced customer conversations and demonstrations, then lead an increasing proportion of this work as your product knowledge develops. You will take responsibility for deployments, commissioning and ongoing technical customer success early in your ramp-up.

The Commercial team will continue to own prospecting, pricing, contracts and deal closure. Your responsibility will be the technical work that allows qualified opportunities to progress credibly and ensures that customers can deploy and obtain continuing value from Sention’s systems.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: This role involves substantial travel to customer sites in the UK and internationally, including Europe, North America and Asia. Travel may account for up to 40% of working time—approximately 85–90 working days per year—and will not be evenly distributed. Some periods may involve consecutive multi-day trips, occasionally arranged at short notice.

What you will do

1. Technical discovery and solution definition

Contribute to advanced customer conversations to understand the application, operating environment, decision process, technical constraints and success criteria.

Translate customer needs into feasible system configurations, test plans, pilot scopes and deployment requirements, while being clear about product limits and technical risk.

Support the Commercial team with technical input to proposals, tenders, statements of work, timelines and technical negotiations.

Help qualified opportunities progress by identifying the technical questions, evidence and decisions required to reach a clear next step.

Develop straightforward standard operating procedures and handover rules so that customer requirements, technical risks, decisions, commitments and next steps are captured consistently.

2. Demonstrations, evaluations and pilots

Plan and lead demonstrations and evaluations of Sention’s hardware and software, tailored to the customer’s application and audience.

Present results clearly to prospective customers and internal stakeholders, including the limitations and uncertainties in the available evidence.

Take responsibility for the technical workstream of customer-site pilots from scoping through delivery and close-out.

Develop reusable approaches to pilot preparation, data capture, analysis, reporting and technical follow-up.

3. Deployment and commissioning

Lead the installation, configuration, commissioning and performance verification of systems deployed in customer laboratories and manufacturing environments.

Integrate and troubleshoot mechanical, electrical, electronic, control and software interfaces, adapting fixtures, wiring, test setups or scripts where necessary.

Train operators and technical users, document the commissioned configuration and complete a clear handover of the system and any outstanding issues.

Develop and improve deployment-readiness checks, commissioning records, acceptance criteria and handover documentation so that deployments become faster and more consistent.

4. Ongoing technical customer success

Act as the primary day-to-day technical contact for deployed customers, helping them adopt the system, interpret results and obtain continuing value from it.

Diagnose and resolve complex support issues across hardware, software, data and the customer’s test environment, coordinating internal escalation when specialist input is required.

Identify technical risks to customer satisfaction, adoption, renewal or expansion and provide the Commercial team with clear evidence and recommended actions.

Help establish practical routes for support triage, escalation and resolution, with clear responsibilities across Applications Engineering, Product, R&D and Operations.

5. Develop repeatable applications engineering practices

Work with the CPO and relevant team leads to document and improve responsibilities, decision points and handovers across the applications engineering customer journey.

Turn experience from customer engagements into reusable discovery procedures, application notes, demonstration scripts, pilot plans, deployment checks, commissioning checklists, training materials, technical reports and troubleshooting guides.

Propose and maintain a small set of practical measures covering areas such as demonstration quality, pilot progression, deployment time, commissioning outcomes, customer adoption and recurring support issues.

Capture field evidence consistently so that Product and R&D can distinguish recurring product needs and defects from isolated customer requests.

Recommend improvements to applications engineering practices based on delivery experience, without introducing unnecessary process or bureaucracy.

What success looks like in the first 12 months

You have become a trusted day-to-day technical lead for customer engagements from advanced discovery onwards, following a clear and deliberate handover from the CPO.

You independently deliver high-quality demonstrations, pilots, commissioning and technical customer support across Sention’s hardware and software portfolio.

You have worked with the CPO and relevant teams to establish the first practical set of applications engineering procedures, decision points, handovers and records.

Colleagues use the core readiness checks, templates, documentation and guidance you have helped develop.

Customer engagements have become more consistent and measurable, without creating unnecessary administrative overhead.

Commercial opportunities advance on technically credible evidence, commitments remain aligned with what Sention can deliver, and recurring field issues are translated into clear recommendations for product or process improvement.

Experience and qualifications

Around 5–8 years of relevant professional experience, typically combining substantial hands-on engineering experience with customer-facing applications engineering, field engineering, systems engineering, technical consultancy or technical sales work.

A degree in electrical, electronic, mechanical, mechatronic, systems or control engineering, physics, or another relevant discipline—or equivalent capability dev