Post-Doctoral Fellow, Advanced Multi-Scale Building Energy Research Group, Mechanical Engineering

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines is seeking applications for a post-doctoral researcher to lead cutting-edge, field-scale research within the Advanced Multi-Scale Building Energy Research Group (https://amber.mines.edu/ ) to perform high-impact research. This high-impact initiative bridges theory advancement and real-world deployment and validation. The project aims to advance distributed control architectures, grid-edge flexibility, and resilience, and demonstrate potential energy cost reductions and community-scale benefits through battery energy storage systems (BESS) implementation, exploring how BESS can enhance grid and residential resilience.

It involves installing, controlling, and analyzing BESS and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) bidirectional chargers across more than 30 homes and a community center in Colorado.

Candidates should have proven expertise in power systems and controls related to residential battery energy storage and/or electric vehicle chargers. This is a one-year position with the possibility of extension for a second year.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the real-world field deployment and experimental commissioning of residential BESS and commercial V2X pilot sites across Colorado
• Develop, physically implement, and validate controls for BESS and V2X chargers to maximize energy cost savings for households and provide resilience.
• Derive data-driven insights from high-resolution field telemetry across 30+ residential and commercial sites, quantifying economic value, battery degradation, and grid impact metrics.
• Publish results in high-impact journals

Additional responsibilities

• Research Mentorship: Mentor graduate and/or undergraduate students
• Proposal & Project Development: Gain competitive career development experience through participation in future DOE and federal grant proposal formulation.
• Performs other duties as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or a relevant area with a strong background in power systems and controls, and field testing or implementation
• Strong communication skills and ability to explain complex topics to nontechnical participants and listen to participants' questions and concerns
• Strong programming skills in Python, Ruby, or MATLAB

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or a relevant area with a strong background in power systems and controls, and field testing or implementation
• PE in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering
• Fluent in Spanish

Potential Environmental Conditions/Hazards:

• Part of this job will require the candidate to be on-site when BESS and/or V2X are installed by contractors
• Candidate should be able to move around the City of Denver and around Colorado to ensure all systems are working properly

TOTAL REWARDS

Salary Rate: $65,000-$70,000 annually

Mines takes into consideration a combination of candidate’s education, training and experience as well as the position’s scope and complexity, the discretion and latitude required in the role, work location, and external market and internal value when determining a salary level for potential new employees.

Benefits: Colorado School of Mines offers a robust portfolio of benefits for all employees. For this role, that includes:

• Flexible health and dental care options
• Generous sick/vacation time: 13 paid holidays per year – including a week-long winter break for the entire campus.
• Fully vested retirement plan on first day of employment, with generous employer contribution
• Tuition benefits (6 credits per year for employees, 50 percent discount for dependents)
• Free RTD Ecopass for regional bus and lightrail

All Mines employees also have access to discount programs through the State of Colorado and free…