Samsung Electronics recently started a global recruitment endeavor in an effort to hire new experts in battery sciences, industry sources said on Monday. The South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is understood to be looking for individuals with at least a master’s degree in the field and is reportedly preferring those with experience and knowledge of cell development and battery materials. The move is said to be the latest step in the tech giant’s effort to improve a number of its manufacturing practices that led to the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco last fall, forcing the company to issue two worldwide recalls of its highly advertised device and ultimately discontinue the phablet, possibly losing billions of dollars in the process. Samsung is now interviewing candidates across the United States and Europe, sources with knowledge of the effort said, without clarifying on the matter.
The endeavor started at some point last month and it’s currently unclear how long will it take to be concluded, with Samsung apparently opting not to heavily publicize its initiative. The Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer may not have a set number of openings that it’s looking to fill and could simply be scouting the talent pool in the U.S. and Europe with the goal of bolstering its battery design, manufacturing, and quality assurance operations, something that the company promised to do so on a number of occasions following the Galaxy Note 7 ordeal. That promise was already at least partially fulfilled, with Samsung making significant investments in its laboratories and factories in recent months and being keen to publicize them in order to recover from the publicity hit it endured last year.
The tech giant is also said to be looking to establish a more robust, in-house battery inspection system that it plans to utilize in the future and is ramping up its efforts to do so, with the current smartphone design trends requiring constant decreases in battery size on an annual basis. The upcoming Galaxy Note 8 is still expected to feature a cell that’s mostly similar to the one powering the Galaxy S8 series, though more significant advancements in battery tech may debut next spring with the Galaxy S9 lineup.