Where can you find hydrogen propulsion skills?

The future of fuelling is on its way.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles are just one of the potential options for future transportation. While it's currently more niche than electrified vehicles, it’s a growing segment of the market, particularly when it comes to heavy-duty and commercial vehicles like trucks and buses.

But where are companies focused on hydrogen-powered propulsion finding the people they need to achieve their goals? And how are they building their teams when the tech is still in its relative infancy?

Here are a few of the key places that house the skills and engineering talent these companies need.

More traditional automotive environments

The first, and potentially most obvious, place to look is in traditional and electrified powertrain environments.

At their core, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still vehicles. Because of this, factors like packaging, safety, and durability are all considerations in hydrogen-powered vehicles just as they are in traditional propulsion methods. This means engineers who understand these factors can map across nicely. There's also the fact that challenges around controls and calibration are likely to resemble hybrid and EV platforms closely, meaning that people with experience on those platforms will have transferable skills.

So, what are these transferable skills? Think of things like vehicle-level systems integration, powertrain controls and calibration, thermal management, functional safety, and validation and testing. This means candidates from this sector are most suitable for roles in Systems Engineering, Powertrain Engineering, Energy Management, Thermal Engineering, Controls & Calibration Engineering, and Performance Engineering. These roles need a deep understanding of things on a vehicle level, something that mirrors the work they're likely to have done on ICE or EV powertrains.

Naturally, when taking talent from one propulsion type to another, there will be areas to upskill. The skills gaps here are most likely to be around fuel cell electrochemistry fundamentals and, essentially, anything that is hydrogen-specific. Focusing on training that covers these areas and gets "traditional" engineers clued up on hydrogen safety standards and the differences between ICE, BEV, and FCEV propulsion systems will set you up for success.
 

Fuel Cell OEMs & Tier 1 Suppliers

Another place you can look is within fuel cell OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. These companies sit between vehicle development and electrochemistry, so it is little wonder many hydrogen vehicle start-ups are staffed with people who have this background.

People from this industry will be used to working to targets around quality, cost, and durability. All of this is hugely important in hydrogen propulsion, too. Plus, they are likely to bring skills around stack design, testing, and an understanding of the balances required in hydrogen fuel cells. This makes them great Stack Design Engineers, Durability & Validation Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers among other things.

Where might you need to upskill? This is mostly around broader systems-level vehicle integration. As programs move toward higher volumes and tighter cost targets, skills development should focus on cost reduction, simplification for manufacturing, and making trade-offs that work at the vehicle level, not just at the stack level.

Power Electronics & Batteries

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles rely on hybrid architectures comprising a fuel cell plus a battery. Because of this, looking at power electronics or battery systems environments means you can access directly transferable skills, specifically across power electronics and controls. People working in these areas will bring an understanding of topics relating to high-voltage systems, converters and energy management. Fundamentally, this is all about power handling, which maps nicely from BEVs to FCEVs.

All of this means that these people are a best fit for roles like Systems Engineering, Power Electronics Engineering, and roles relating to batteries, energy storage, and high-voltage tech. These engineers already understand transient power management, HV safety, and energy optimisation, which are core challenges for FCEVs.

You'll find that engineers from this background adapt fast, but there will be a learning curve as they get to grips with the differences between fuel cells and batteries. Investing in upskilling around fuel cell response times, hybrid control strategies, and the thermal and water management that comes with hydrogen systems is the best approach to getting this talent pool operational quickly.

Automotive Adjacent Industries

Another option is to look at industries that are 'automotive adjacent' such as those producing high pressure storage systems. The reason these environments translate well is that the storage system is one of the most safety-critical and technically demanding subsystems on the car. Their skills in lightweight design, pressure vessels, and supplier industrialisation directly impact both safety and range, just as they would in high-end automotive components. On top of that, their familiarity with rigorous quality and manufacturing processes makes them well-prepared to bring hydrogen storage from prototype to production at scale.

They will, however, have more limited exposure to hydrogen-specific considerations as well as the requirements present within the traditional automotive sector. Upskilling is usually required around a variety of competencies, such as long-term material compatibility, cyclic refuelling stresses, and hydrogen regulatory testing.

There are other sectors that transfer well into hydrogen fuels, but more generally than specifically in automotive applications. Industries like oil and gas, petrochemicals and broader chemical engineering will all house talent with core skillsets that map well to a career in the hydrogen fuel space. These talent pools are typically used by companies specialising in hydrogen fuels with wider applications than just propulsion, like electricity and water power.

These can also be good talent pools to look in if you're in the automotive space, as long as you're aware of the retraining (this goes deeper than upskilling!) required specifically around propulsion applications. The learning curve may be steeper, but you may also access talent that your competitors are overlooking.

Academia & Higher Education

The last and often most future-proof talent pool you can fish from is university programmes. These make excellent talent pools because, on a fundamental level, they teach students core principles designed to translate into real-world settings. There are a few avenues to explore. Those studying Engineering (electronic, mechanical, etc.) are likely to have a good practical and theoretical understanding of the engineering components that align to FCEVs. Another option is to go for those studying Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or Metallurgy who come with a strong scientific background and a good understanding of the volatility of materials like hydrogen.

Taking people straight from education can be a great strategy if you're looking for long-term loyalty, too. Securing people as they come out of university into the world of work and providing them with upskilling, development, and (ultimately) autonomy can build a lot of loyalty within a team, meaning they're often with you for the long haul.
 

Are you looking to hire engineers to work on next-gen propulsion systems?

Get in touch with me on rhys.greenslade@fmctalent.com for a non-committal introduction to how we could help. And look out for some future content on how you can attract the best of the best, coming soon!