At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team in Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, Energy and Materials, Machine Learning, and Robotics.

The Challenge
Achieving net-zero carbon emissions is one of the most important challenges facing our world and vehicle electrification is an important pathway toward decarbonizing transportation. Additionally, there are challenges beyond cars, such as understanding people’s mobility needs and limitations, creating a carbon-free electrical grid, securing resilient supply chains of critical materials for batteries and fuel cells, developing cleaner structural materials, deploying convenient charging and alternative fuel infrastructure, and decarbonizing heavy duty vehicles. Faced with these challenges, how can Toyota truly get to net zero by 2050 and meet near-term decarbonization goals? What comprehensive strategies will we need? How should we work with diverse stakeholders? What are the most impactful things we can do today while we plan for future technologies and hedge uncertainties? These are questions we need to continually answer over the coming years and decades.

The Opportunity
We are looking for someone who can work across the interdependent and critical areas of technology, economics, policy, and society in order to help evaluate and continuously evolve Toyota’s medium- and long-term carbon neutral strategy.

As our Research Scientist for Energy Systems, you will:

- Provide timely and responsive analysis for Toyota leadership on key issues at the intersection of energy, climate, and transportation.
- Scope, build, conduct, and/or manage systems modeling for decarbonization pathways, considering techno-economic and policy factors, and coordinating with other researchers in Toyota group.
- Represent Toyota at industry and academic consortia to guide research priorities and facilitate strategic partnerships.
- Develop in-house business case analyses for carbon neutral technology adoption, and collaborate with Toyota partners (Toyota Ventures, Toyota Financial Services, etc.).
- Compile and maintain benchmark data, including industry-wide carbon neutral efforts such as competitor’s committed goals, technical developments and metrics, public announcements, and government mandates and incentives while communicating with internal and external stakeholders.

The Team
We encourage you to join a creative team of scientists and engineers dedicated to enabling a sustainable future! You will be part of the Carbon Neutral team in the Energy and Materials (E&M) division which is fostering a transition to more sustainable mobility. Other research in the division applies AI, data-driven methods, and automation to materials science and manufacturing, spanning the atomic to the device scales. The Carbon Neutral team operates  at the intersection of technology, business, policy, and society, using energy systems modeling to inform decarbonization strategy development across the Toyota ecosystem. While we are physically based in the United States, our scope has global reach. We collaborate with TRI colleagues with backgrounds in robotics, behavioral science, and computer science, with Toyota colleagues spearheading business development and policy analysis, and with scientists at leading universities and national labs. We all grow working alongside other inspiring people and learning new skills together!