Senior Systems Engineer

U.S. Fusion Energy; Energy (IL); On-site; USD 200,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision plans

PTO and holidays

401(k) plan with match

Parental leave

Wellness stipend

Job summary

Helion seeks a Sr Systems Engineer in Everett, WA, on-site, to own the plant-wide system architecture and top-level requirements. You will decompose objectives across subsystems, drive trade studies, and define interfaces with ICDs to integrate electrical, mechanical, controls, and data streams.

You will lead design reviews, manage risks, and ensure traceability from plant objectives to hardware implementation, collaborating across disciplines to maintain alignment and deliver a production-ready

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering with ownership of requirements, architecture, or interface definition on complex plant or hardware systems.
• Proven experience decomposing high-level plant or mission requirements into traceable, verifiable subsystem requirements.
• Proven experience authoring and owning ICDs across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience developing and executing verification and validation plans against system-level requirements.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills with ability to influence design decisions across disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical consensus across cross-functional engineering teams.
• Ability to operate across electrical, mechanical, controls, science, business, and software domains.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain Helion's top-level plant requirements with traceable decomposition to subsystems.
• Lead trade studies informing major plant architecture decisions and present rationale to leadership.
• Develop and own Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for electrical, mechanical, controls, and data interfaces.
• Lead and facilitate design reviews (PDR/CDR) at the plant level to surface and disposition risks.
• Identify, assess, and track plant-level integration risks and drive mitigation strategies.
• Drive configuration management and change control for plant-level requirements and baselines.
• Partner with multiple teams to keep subsystem designs aligned with plant-level intent as designs mature.
• Drive technical consensus on plant-level decisions in program reviews.
• Scale systems engineering processes to support moves from prototype to production.

Skills

Systems Engineering

Requirements Management

ICDs

Complex Plant Systems

Technical Writing

Cross-functional Collaboration

Verifications & Validation Plans

Leadership without Authority

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Systems Engineering

Tools

Jama

DOORS

Teamcenter

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

• $200K – $240K

Overview

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

As a Sr Systems Engineer, you will own the system architecture and top-level requirements that hold Helion's fusion power plant together as a coherent whole — spanning the fusion machine, balance of plant, and the systems that connect them. You will work across electrical, mechanical, controls, plant, science, and business teams to decompose plant-level mission objectives into traceable subsystem requirements, drive the trade studies that shape major plant architecture decisions, and define the interfaces between subsystems and suppliers through rigorous ICDs. You will lead technical reviews, own verification planning against top-level plant requirements, and maintain clear traceability from plant-level objectives down through the requirements hierarchy to implemented hardware. You will drive technical consensus across functional teams and represent the plant's technical position in leadership and program-level reviews. This role is architecture- and requirements-focused, serving as the technical integration point across subsystem, science, and business teams at the plant level.

You Will

• Own and maintain Helion's top-level plant requirements, ensuring clear, traceable decomposition from plant-level mission objectives down to subsystem and component requirements.
• Lead trade studies that inform major plant architecture decisions, presenting clear technical rationale to engineering leadership.
• Develop and own Interface Control Documents (ICDs) that define the electrical, mechanical, controls, and data interfaces between plant subsystems and with suppliers.
• Lead and facilitate design reviews (PDR/CDR-style and informal) at the plant level, ensuring requirements, interfaces, and risks are surfaced and dispositioned early.
• Identify, assess, and track plant-level integration risks, and drive mitigation strategies and resolution across functional teams.
• Drive configuration management and change control for plant-level requirements and baselines, evaluating the cross-system impact of proposed design changes and recommending disposition.
• Partner with electrical, mechanical, controls, test, science, and business teams to ensure subsystem designs remain aligned with plant-level intent as designs mature.
• Drive technical consensus across functional teams on plant-level decisions, and represent the plant's technical position in program and leadership reviews.
• Scale Helion's systems engineering processes — requirements management, ICD control, and design review cadence — to meet the needs of an organization moving from prototype to production power plants.

Required Skills

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, with demonstrated ownership of requirements, architecture, or interface definition on complex plant or hardware systems.
• Proven experience decomposing high-level plant or mission requirements into traceable, verifiable subsystem requirements.
• Proven experience authoring and owning ICDs across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience developing and executing verification and validation plans against system-level requirements.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills, with the ability to influence design decisions across disciplines without direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to drive technical consensus and decisions across cross-functional engineering teams.
• Comfort working across electrical, mechanical, controls, science, business, and software domains without being deeply expert in all of them.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in fast-paced development environments requiring both engineering rigor and speed.

Desired Skills

• Experience in aerospace, nuclear, energy systems, or other complex, safety-critical, first-of-kind hardware or plant programs.
• Experience with requirements management and PLM tooling (Jama, DOORS, Teamcenter, or similar).
• Experience with risk identification, tracking, and mitigation on complex engineering programs.
• Experience applying system safety and reliability methods, including FMEA, FMECA, or fault tree analysis.
• Track record of mentoring engineers toward stronger systems engineering practice.

Benefits

• 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: $200K - $240K