The Role
Lead strategy, design, deployment, and operation of plasma diagnostics for a planar-coil stellarator. Build and manage a multidisciplinary diagnostics team, define measurement roadmaps, integrate diagnostics with real-time controls and AI digital twins, and coordinate partnerships with national labs to validate physics models and enable machine protection.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Thea Energy:
Thea Energy is leveraging recent breakthroughs in stellarator physics and engineering to create a faster and simpler approach to commercializing fusion energy. The company is reinventing the stellarator using computer-controlled arrays of planar coils thereby replacing the intricate, complex modular magnets required in all other stellarator architectures. Thea Energy is on a mission to create a limitless source of zero emission energy for a sustainable future.
Position Overview:
As Director - Diagnostics, you will lead the strategy, design, implementation, and operation of the plasma diagnostic suite for Thea Energy’s flagship fusion systems. In our planar coil stellarator architecture, real-time data is at the core of our dynamic control systems and AI digital twins. You will build and lead a world-class team of physicists and engineers tasked with measuring critical plasma parameters (temperature, density, confinement, magnetic topology, and impurities) to validate our physics models and feed our automated control loops.
This is a high-impact, leadership-level role requiring deep technical expertise in magnetic confinement fusion instrumentation, excellent team-building capabilities, and a collaborative mindset to interface with our magnet, materials, and AI software teams.
Key Responsibility Areas:
- Strategic Leadership: Define the comprehensive diagnostics roadmap for the Eos device and future power plants, ensuring measurement capabilities align with core physics validation and real-time machine protection requirements.
- Team & Lab Management: Recruit, mentor, and lead a multidisciplinary team of diagnostic physicists, optical engineers, and electrical engineers. Manage the diagnostics budget, vendor relations, and procurement of highly specialized hardware.
- System Design & Integration: Oversee the conceptual, preliminary, and final engineering designs of a diverse suite of diagnostics (e.g. interferometry / reflectometry, Thomson scattering, magnetics, spectroscopy, neutron / X-ray diagnostics). Ensure these systems integrate seamlessly into the spatial constraints of our planar coil stellarator.
- Dynamic Controls & AI Collaboration: Partner closely with the software engineering and AI simulation teams to bridge the gap between physical sensor measurements and real-time machine optimization, enabling the Helios digital twin to process high-fidelity real-time data.
- Collaborative Research: Serve as the primary point of contact for diagnostics partnerships with national laboratories (such as PPPL, ANL, ORNL, and DIII-D) and academic institutions, leveraging public-private partnerships (e.g. the DOE Milestone Program) to accelerate deployment.
Ideal Experience & Skillsets:
- Education: Ph.D. in Plasma Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Optical Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
- Experience: 8+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and operating advanced plasma diagnostics on magnetic confinement fusion devices (stellarators or tokamaks).
- Leadership Track Record: Proven experience managing engineering or scientific teams, complex technical budgets, and project schedules in a high-growth startup, aerospace, nuclear, or national laboratory environment.
- Technical Breadth: Deep expertise in multiple diagnostic modalities, including electromagnetic sensors (magnetic probes, flux loops), optical systems (lasers, spectrometers), and high-vacuum/high-radiation environment design realities.
- Culture Fit: Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, high-autonomy startup environment where prioritizing first-of-a-kind problem solving is the norm.
Company Benefits:
- Salary range $160,000-$240,000
- Comprehensive health benefits (e.g. medical/dental/vision)
- Employee equity stock options
- 20 days PTO
It’s not necessary to meet all of the skillsets outlined above. Please feel free to send us a note and tell us why you would still be a great fit for this role or Thea Energy.
Diversity and Inclusion:
Thea Energy is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating a company of diverse backgrounds. By creating a diverse environment, we will bring new ideas and approaches to solving some of the world’s hardest (and most important) problems. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, family or marital status, age, disability, veteran’s status, or other characteristic protected by applicable laws and regulations.
Skills Required
- Ph.D. in Plasma Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Optical Engineering, or closely related field.
- 8+ years designing, building, and operating advanced plasma diagnostics on magnetic confinement fusion devices (stellarators or tokamaks).
- Proven experience managing engineering or scientific teams, complex technical budgets, and project schedules in startups, aerospace, nuclear, or national laboratory environments.
- Deep expertise in diagnostic modalities: interferometry/reflectometry, Thomson scattering, magnetics (magnetic probes, flux loops), spectroscopy, neutron and X-ray diagnostics, lasers, and spectrometers.
- Experience designing systems for high-vacuum and high-radiation environments and integrating diagnostics into constrained device geometries.
- Experience partnering with software/AI teams to integrate sensor data with real-time control systems and digital twins.
- Ability to recruit, mentor, and lead multidisciplinary teams; manage vendor relations and procurement of specialized hardware.
- Comfort operating in a fast-moving, high-autonomy startup environment.
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The Company
What We Do
Thea Energy is a fusion energy company dedicated to creating a limitless source of zero-emission energy for a sustainable future. By reinventing the stellarator using arrays of mass-manufacturable magnets and dynamic software controls, they aim to commercialize scalable and economical fusion power systems, transitioning from scientific research to practical, commercial operations.
