BESS Fire Safety Engineer

DIS Fire is currently hiring for a Fire Safety Engineer focused in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Job Title: BESS Fire Safety Engineer

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field is required.

Location: CAN BE BASED IN MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, BRISBANE - Can be remote but will require travel up to 50% to regional areas of Australia for site assessments, meetings and presentations regarding fire safety.

Australian citizenship or permanent residency is required due to extensive travel requirements across regional Australia.

1 quarterly visit to headquarters in Melbourne if working interstate.

Job Description:

This position centers on fire safety expertise for utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). It involves technical analysis, fire risk analysis inc Heat Flux density design reviews, compliance checks, stakeholder education, and standards development—all to ensure fire risk is compliant to local state requirements.

Act as a Fire Safety subject matter expert (SME) for utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).

Experience with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) fire safety or general fire safety engineering experience is acceptable for this position.

Minimum 4+ years of fire safety engineering experience is required to serve as a subject matter expert.

• Review all UL 9540A reports from cell, module, and up through unit/installation level, and provide direction.

• Analyze, approve, and offer guidance toward the fire safety system designs of BESS manufacturers and projects.

• Review, provide feedback, and offer guidance for all project and product level designs regarding BESS safety and code compliance, ensuring adherence to all applicable codes and standards, especially Australian Requirements as well as UL and NFPA.

• Oversee all safety analyses for project level reports, including hazard mitigation analysis (HMA), failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), heat flux analysis, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations ensuring that all fire safety requirements are met or exceeded.

• Initiate and foster relationships with national, state and local fire brigades.

• Travel to local jurisdictions to present BESS and fire safety to end users, authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), public utility commissions (PUCs), and community meetings, addressing and educating about the concerns of each stakeholder.

• Work closely with local fire brigade and risk assessors to educate them about the potential BESS hazards, hazard mitigation, fire safety system designs, sequences of operation, and emergency response/operation plans (ERP/EOPs).

• Standardize information around BESS fire safety systems throughout the organization, ensuring consistent messaging in every region in which our projects are deployed.

• Participate in task groups and technical committees for collaboration and direction of the advancement of industry codes and standards pertaining to the safety of battery energy storage systems.

• Create standard outlines for third party analysis and reporting to allow for consistency across the board with various suppliers and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of onboarding a new supplier.