Director of Engineering, Modules

U.S. Fusion Energy; Energy (IL); On-site; USD 272,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision

31 Days of PTO

401(k) match

Parental leave

Job summary

Helion is seeking a senior engineer to own the Orion capacitor bank architecture, coordinating pulsed power design, thermal management, and control interfaces. You will mentor a cross-functional team and drive manufacturable designs, partnering with manufacturing to scale from prototype to production while controlling cost and schedule.

You will collaborate with Research, Science, and Controls to stay ahead of physics learnings, and you will hire and establish engineering standards to support

Qualifications

• 10+ years developing complex electromechanical hardware.
• 4+ years leading multidisciplinary engineering teams (Electrical, Mechanical, Firmware, Thermal).
• Track record taking hardware from prototype through qualification into production.
• Design-for-manufacture judgment to speed transitions.
• Ownership of cost, schedule, and reliability at program scale.
• Cross-functional leadership with research, science, controls, and manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture of Orion's capacitor bank and its interfaces with the machine core.
• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team across pulsed power design, thermal, and controls.
• Drive manufacturable design; partner with manufacturing to move modules to production weekly.
• Own the portfolio's cost, schedule, and reliability; set qualification bars.
• Collaborate with Research, Science, and Controls to keep designs ahead of learnings.
• Build the team; hire, develop, and set design-review and engineering standards.
• Baseline Orion bank architecture and stand up qualification for production modules in year one.

Skills

Electromechanical hardware

Leadership of multidisciplinary teams

Prototype to production

Power electronics

Cost, schedule, reliability

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical/Mechanical/Physics

Job description

About Helion

We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone.

Location

Everett, WA

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

Electrical Engineering

Compensation

• $272K – $320K

About Helion

We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone.

Since Helion's founding in 2013, we have raised $1.5 billion from long-time investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group as well as new investors including Thrive Capital, LightSpeed Venture Capital, SoftBank, and others to propel us forward. Our current prototype, Polaris, has reached record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius (13 keV). Helion is continuing to iterate and on the path to the world's first fusion power plant, Orion.

This is a pivotal time to join Helion. You will tackle real-world challenges with a team that prizes urgency, rigor, ownership, and a commitment to delivering hard truths – values essential to achieving what no one has before. Together, we will change the future of energy, because the world can't wait.

What You Will Be Doing

The capacitor bank is the beating heart of a Helion machine: it stores the energy for every fusion pulse, delivers it in under a millisecond, and takes it back. You will own the organization that architects, designs, qualifies, and produces hardware for Orion, our first fusion power plant.

You Will

• Own the architecture of Orion's capacitor bank and its interdependencies with the machine core: requirements, decomposition, and the interfaces that let the bank, core, and controls behave as one machine
• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of electrical and mechanical engineers designing and qualifying pulsed power circuit modules for each section of the machine with ownership spanning pulsed power electrical design, mechanical and thermal solutions, and the high precision low voltage control interfaces that command them
• Drive manufacturable design: partner day-to-day with manufacturing engineering to move modules from prototype test to production at rate, against a capacitor line building megajoules of pulsed power energy capacity per week
• Own cost, schedule, and reliability for the module portfolio: make the architecture and design trades, set the qualification bar for hardware that must survive million-pulse campaigns and be accountable for hitting the objectives on a schedule you influenced
• Work day-to-day with Research, Science, and Controls to keep module designs ahead of what the physics and operations teams learn from running machines
• Build the team: hire, develop, and set the design-review and engineering standards that let the organization move from prototype to production without losing rigor
• In your first year, you will baseline the Orion bank architecture, stand up the qualification program for the first production modules, and have production-intent hardware under test.

Required Skills

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or a related field
• 10+ years developing complex electromechanical hardware, including 4+ years leading multidisciplinary engineering teams (Electrical, Mechanical, Firmware, Thermal)
• A track record of taking hardware from prototype through qualification into production, and of the design-for-manufacture judgment that makes that transition fast
• Technical depth in at least one of: power electronics or pulsed energy systems, high-reliability electromechanical design, or high-volume hardware production with fluency across the others
• Demonstrated ownership of cost, schedule, and reliability at program scale, including making and defending hard trades
• Cross-functional leadership strength: this role succeeds through tactical and strategic partnership with research, science, controls, and manufacturing
• Experience scaling engineering teams and processes through a prototype-to-production transition

Benefits

Our total compensation package includes benefits, including but not limited to:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision plans for employees and their families
• 31 Days of PTO (21 vacation days and 10 sick days)
• 10 Paid holidays, plus company-wide winter break
• Up to 5% employer 401(k) match
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Paid parental leave and support (up to 16 weeks)
• Annual wellness stipend

Helion is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the interview process, please let us know.

Compensation Range: $272K - $320K