Senior Plasma Data Scientist — Fusion ML

U.S. Fusion Energy; Energy (IL); On-site; USD 210,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision

PTO 31 days

Paid holidays

401(k) match

Disability & Life Insurance

Parental leave

Wellness stipend

Job summary

Helion in Everett, WA seeks a Senior Applied Plasma Data Scientist specializing in synthetic diagnostics to improve how we measure, interpret, and model FRC plasma behavior. You will develop and validate synthetic diagnostic models that connect experimental signals with simulation outputs, supporting faster, more reliable analysis.

In your first year, you will integrate these models with data pipelines and collaborate with plasma-physics and transient-magnetics experts to advance fusion

Qualifications

• PhD in Physics, Engineering, Applied Math or related field with emphasis on physics-grounded modeling.
• 3+ years of experience applying machine learning in experimental, simulation-driven, or scientific R&D environments.
• Expertise with physics-informed or physics-constrained ML methods (e.g., differentiable physics, PINNs, surrogate modeling).
• Experience integrating ML models with scientific-computing workflows, simulation tools, or experimental diagnostics.
• Proficiency scripting for data parsing, model analysis, and visualization (MATLAB, Python; Fortran or HPC exposure valuable).

Responsibilities

• Develop and validate ML frameworks for FRC plasma-dynamics.
• Integrate ML models with simulation tools and diagnostic pipelines.
• Reproduce experimental plasma conditions within ML workflows for interpretation.
• Generate analysis scripts and visualize correlations between ML predictions and results.
• Collaborate with plasma-physics, pulsed-power, and transient-magnetics experts.
• Communicate results with rigor through reports and visualizations.

Skills

PhD required

ML in R&D

Physics-informed ML

Data integration

Scripting MATLAB/Python

Education

PhD in Physics/Engineering

Tools

MATLAB

Python

Fortran

HPC

Job description

Helion in Everett, WA seeks a Senior Applied Plasma Data Scientist specializing in synthetic diagnostics to improve how we measure, interpret, and model FRC plasma behavior. You will develop and validate synthetic diagnostic models that connect experimental signals with simulation outputs, supporting faster, more reliable analysis.

In your first year, you will integrate these models with data pipelines and collaborate with plasma-physics and transient-magnetics experts to advance fusion