Senior Plasma ML Scientist for Fusion Modeling

Fusion Energy Base; Everett (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

PTO 31 days

Paid holidays & winter break

401(k) match up to 5%

Disability & life insurance

Parental leave

Wellness stipend

Job summary

Helion in Everett, WA is seeking a Principal Applied Plasma Data Scientist to accelerate experimental FRC plasma modeling through physics-grounded machine learning. You will develop and validate ML frameworks (differentiable physics, PINNs, surrogate models) and integrate these tools with simulation and diagnostics pipelines for cross-disciplinary fusion research.

You will collaborate with plasma-physics, pulsed-power, and transient-magnetics experts to expand the fidelity of ML-enabled modeling

Qualifications

• PhD in Physics, Engineering, Applied Math, Computational Science, Machine Learning, or related field with emphasis on physics-grounded modeling.
• 10+ years of industry or research-lab experience applying machine learning in experimental, simulation-driven, or scientific R&D environments.
• Expertise with physics-informed or physics-constrained ML methods, such as differentiable physics, PINNs, scientific ML, surrogate modeling, or reduced-order models for complex physical systems.
• Experience integrating ML models with scientific-computing workflows, simulation tools, or experimental diagnostics.
• Proficiency scripting for data parsing, model analysis, and visualization (MATLAB, Python, or similar; Fortran or HPC exposure valuable).
• Familiarity with magnetic diffusion, circuit coupling, or plasma-dynamics modeling in pulsed-power or electromagnetics systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and validate machine-learning frameworks for FRC plasma-dynamics, leveraging physics-grounded ML approaches (e.g., differentiable physics, PINNs, surrogate modeling, or hybrid physics+ML systems).
• Integrate ML models with existing simulation tools and experimental-diagnostic pipelines to enable hybrid physics + data-driven validation workflows.
• Reproduce experimental plasma conditions within ML modeling workflows to support interpretation of magnetic diffusion, circuit response, and diagnostic measurements.
• Generate analysis scripts for post-processing, parsing model outputs, and visualizing correlations between ML-based predictions and experimental results.
• Collaborate with plasma-physics, pulsed-power, and transient-magnetics experts to expand the fidelity and fusion-relevance of ML-enabled modeling frameworks.
• Communicate results with rigor and clarity through reports, presentations, and technical visualizations for research stakeholders.

Skills

Physics-informed ML

PINNs

Scientific ML

Data visualization

MATLAB/Python

Education

PhD in Physics or related field

Tools

MATLAB

Python

Fortran

HPC

Job description

Helion in Everett, WA is seeking a Principal Applied Plasma Data Scientist to accelerate experimental FRC plasma modeling through physics-grounded machine learning. You will develop and validate ML frameworks (differentiable physics, PINNs, surrogate models) and integrate these tools with simulation and diagnostics pipelines for cross-disciplinary fusion research.

You will collaborate with plasma-physics, pulsed-power, and transient-magnetics experts to expand the fidelity of ML-enabled modeling