Plasma Physicist

Maritime Fusion; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Maritime Fusion is seeking a Plasma Physicist ready to contribute to revolutionary fusion technology. In this early-stage startup, you'll design and run simulations for marine deployable tokamaks, collaborating with labs to solve complex problems. This hands-on role offers the chance for rapid professional growth in an exciting field.

Qualifications

• Experience modeling tokamaks or similar fusion devices.
• Willingness to engage in startup-related tasks.

Responsibilities

• Running simulations across plasma and machine stack.
• Developing models and workflows connecting simulations to design constraints.
• Fostering collaboration with labs to optimize tokamak designs.

Skills

Modeling tokamaks

Strong coding fundamentals

Engineering fundamentals

Education

Ph.D/M.S. in Plasma Physics, Nuclear Engineering, or Applied Physics

Tools

POPCON

TokaMaker

COMSOL

ANSYS

Job description

Every startup claims a “fast pace and dynamic environment” but at Maritime Fusion we truly operate in controlled chaos mode. The gravitas of the mission calls for a unique company structure, rewarding high performance and dynamically allocating resources. We’re a small company (for now) with plans to grow a world class fusion workforce. This is an opportunity to join at the very early stage, the stage where all employees wear all hats. We can’t guarantee success, but we can guarantee excitement, worthwhile projects, extreme ownership, and good (great?) vibes. Iron man 1 movie sound track plays on loop in the lab.

We’re looking for a Plasma Physicist who’s not just into theory—but wants to design, simulate, and help build marine deployable tokamaks. You’ll spend your time running transport and MHD codes, exploring divertor concepts and operational scenarios, and conducting system level tradeoff studies.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Running simulations across the full plasma + machine stack: plasma equilibrium and magnetic system optimization, stability & confinement, transport, edge physics, burning plasma physics, diagnostic system design, disruption mitigation.
• Using tools like POPCON, TokaMaker, ASTRA, TGLF, Fuse, CGYRO, BALOO, UEDGE, Bluemira, COMSOL, ANSYS, FEA, and OpenMC to analyze and optimize the full system.
• Developing models and workflows to connect simulations with real-world design constraints.
• Form relationships and foster collaboration with academic & government labs to further optimize and explore the tokamak design space.
• Solving hard problems.

What You Bring:

• Ph.D/M.S. in Plasma Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Applied Physics, or similar (or equivalent experience).
• Experience modeling tokamaks or similar fusion devices— from grad school, postdoc, or industry.
• Strong coding and engineering fundamentals.
• Willingness to do the dirty work involved with early stage startups; assemble the office furniture, setup software licenses, form strong external industry relationships.