Good engineering work no longer needs a fixed desk, and the last six years proved it. At the same time, the automotive industry, especially in Europe, is cutting jobs, and many of the people affected are exactly the engineers that electrification projects still need. The eMOBINO Expert Network is our answer to that mismatch. This article explains why we built it, how it works and what it does not promise.
Covid turned remote engineering into normal practice
Before 2020, most automotive and energy programs assumed that the people doing the work sat in the same building. Design reviews happened in meeting rooms, test results were discussed at the bench and trust was built over coffee. Covid removed that option almost overnight.
What followed was a large, unplanned test. Teams ran programs across time zones, reviewed designs on a shared screen and worked with suppliers and colleagues they had never met in person. The test showed that a large part of engineering work does not depend on location. It depends on clear scope, good documentation and people who know what they are doing.
Flexible and remote work did not stay an emergency measure. It became normal practice, and it changed what companies and engineers expect from each other. A specialist in another country is now a realistic option for a program, not an exception.
AI is starting a second adjustment
Now a second change is under way. AI tools are entering the daily work of engineers: writing and reviewing code, drafting test plans, searching standards, analysing large data sets from test benches and vehicle fleets.
This adjustment is different from the first one. Remote work changed where people work. AI changes what parts of the work people still do by hand. Some tasks become faster, some disappear, and some roles come under real pressure. Most engineers and managers are still learning what this means for their own jobs, and nobody has a complete answer yet.
What we see so far is that deep field experience gains value in this environment. A tool can summarise a standard. It cannot tell you which test failed on a real pack, why a homologation file was rejected or what went wrong during the commissioning of a storage site. That knowledge sits with people.
The automotive industry, especially in Europe, is going through a hard test
At the same time, the automotive industry, especially in Europe, is under serious pressure. We would not call it a crisis, but over the last year or so carmakers and their suppliers have announced job cuts, and the cuts have not stopped. The effect reaches beyond the carmakers themselves, into tier suppliers, engineering service companies and related industries.
Wars in and around the region add to the pressure
The industry is not dealing with competition alone. Russia's war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year, changed the energy picture for European industry. Gas and electricity became more expensive and less predictable, and energy-intensive production, from cell and material plants to foundries and component suppliers, felt it first. Some investment plans in Europe were slowed down or moved to regions with cheaper energy.
Further south, the war between Israel and Iran, in which the United States also took part, raised tension across the Middle East. Shipping routes through the Red Sea had already been disrupted, and every new escalation reaches oil prices, freight costs and delivery times. For an industry that depends on long supply chains for cells, raw materials and electronics, this uncertainty is a real cost.
None of this is ours to judge or to solve. But it shapes the decisions companies make. When the outlook is uncertain, companies delay hiring, pause programs and look for flexibility, and each of those choices has consequences for the people working on them.
Competition from Chinese carmakers is the main pressure
In our view, the main driver is competition from Chinese carmakers. It started with batteries, where Chinese cell makers built a strong position in cost and volume. Today the competition covers the whole vehicle: price, speed of development, software and the ability to bring a new model to market quickly.
Under that pressure, carmakers look for efficiency. The first lever is usually headcount, because it is the fastest cost to change. AI adds a second argument for the same decision, since some tasks can now be automated or done by smaller teams.
We understand the logic. A carmaker that cannot compete on cost has a bigger problem than its headcount. But the decision has a side effect that is easy to overlook: a large pool of experienced engineers is suddenly outside the companies that trained them.
Experienced engineers are between roles while projects still need them
Our founder, Mustafa Şimşek, has worked in batteries, electric vehicles and energy storage since 2009, and he sees this in his own network. Engineers with ten or twenty years of real experience in battery systems, high-voltage architecture, functional safety, homologation or production are between roles. Many of them did not choose this.
At the same time, the demand for that experience has not gone away. It has moved. Electrification programs in Asia, the Middle East and Europe still need people who have built packs, passed type approval, investigated failures and brought storage sites into operation. Often the need is specific: one problem, one skill, a few months. Hiring a full-time employee for that is slow and expensive. A generic freelance platform rarely understands the technical context well enough to find the right person.
So we have experienced people on one side and projects that need them on the other, and too few channels that connect the two with the necessary technical judgement.
What the eMOBINO Expert Network does
We cannot solve this completely. What we can do is connect the two sides, with engineers doing the matching. That is why we built the eMOBINO Expert Network.
Engineers, specialists and senior leaders in batteries, electric vehicles and energy storage can register with their profile and CV. The network covers four broad areas:
- Battery systems: cell chemistry, pack design, BMS, thermal management, abuse testing and Thermal Runaway
- Electric vehicles: vehicle control, e-drive, high-voltage architecture, charging, functional safety and homologation
- Energy storage: BESS integration, EMS, grid connection, fire safety, commissioning and operations
- Industry and business: manufacturing, supply chain, cost, regulation, market entry, investment and due diligence
The process has four steps. You register and share your profile, which takes about five minutes. An engineer on our team reads every profile and may call you to learn more. When a client project fits your expertise, we send you the scope, timing and terms, and you decide whether to take it. If you accept, you work under a confidentiality agreement as an expert, engineer or leader on an eMOBINO team.
The projects come from the work we already do: technical due diligence, failure and risk investigations, fractional leadership, engineering programs and the audits behind our Gateway work.
The commitments, and what we do not promise
A network like this only works if the people in it can trust how their information is used. Our commitments are simple:
- Joining is free. You do not pay to be in the network.
- Assignments are paid. Expert time is work, not a favour.
- Your details stay with us until you accept a specific project. Nothing goes to a client without your approval.
- We check for conflicts before we propose you for a project, so you are not placed in a position that clashes with a current or former role.
We also want to be clear about what we do not promise. We do not guarantee a number of projects or a level of income. Matches depend on what clients need, and some profiles will fit more often than others. We would rather say this now than create expectations we cannot meet.
Who should join
If you have hands-on experience in batteries, electric vehicles or energy storage, and you are open to project work, the network is built for you. That includes engineers between roles, specialists who already work independently, and senior leaders who want to contribute to a specific program without a full-time commitment.
If you are not looking for work yourself but know someone who fits, sharing this with them may help more than you think.
Experience built over many years should not sit unused while projects that need it look for people.
You can register on the eMOBINO Expert Network page on our website.
