Senior RF Plasma Heating Scientist

Commonwealth Fusion Systems; Harvard (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation with equity

13 Company-wide Holidays

Flexible vacation days

10 sick days

Generous parental leave policy

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with employer matching

Professional growth opportunities

Team-building activities

Job summary

Commonwealth Fusion Systems seeks a Principal Scientist - Radio Frequency Plasma Heating to advance the SPARC ICRH system and study RF physics in high‑performance plasmas. You will simulate RF networks, contribute to testing and component development, and help implement RF control interfaces and commissioning plans.

Collaborating across universities and national labs, you will advance RF plasma heating, contribute to design inputs for ARC, and help operate plasmas in SPARC and beyond.

Qualifications

• PhD in plasma physics or closely related discipline.
• 7+ years post-degree experience with RF heating or related plasma systems.
• Experience running experiments on tokamaks, stellarators, or similar devices.
• Experience developing hardware for plasma physics experiments.
• Proficiency with finite element tools (COMSOL, ANSYS HFSS, CST).

Responsibilities

• Simulate the SPARC ICRH antennas and RF network system to inform commissioning and operation.
• Contribute to testing of ICRH/ICDC components.
• Inform the implementation of the RF control system and operator interfaces.
• Contribute to the development of commissioning and operation plans and procedures for the ICRH/ICDC system.
• Commission the SPARC ICRH/ICDC system into early plasmas.
• Operate the SPARC ICRH system during Q>1 and high power DT plasmas.
• Study the physics of radio frequency waves in SPARC.
• Provide input to ARC design through simulation and modeling efforts.
• Work with multi-institutional team of collaborators from universities and national labs.

Skills

RF heating

Tokamak experiments

Hardware development

Python

Education

PhD in plasma physics

Tools

COMSOL

ANSYS HFSS

CST

Job description

Commonwealth Fusion Systems seeks a Principal Scientist - Radio Frequency Plasma Heating to advance the SPARC ICRH system and study RF physics in high‑performance plasmas. You will simulate RF networks, contribute to testing and component development, and help implement RF control interfaces and commissioning plans.

Collaborating across universities and national labs, you will advance RF plasma heating, contribute to design inputs for ARC, and help operate plasmas in SPARC and beyond.