Laser Architect (f/m/d)

About the role

Focused Energy is a fusion energy startup with the goal of generating unlimited clean energy to responsibly meet future global demand. By commercializing laser-induced inertial fusion, the company is developing a clean and highly efficient power generation technology that can ensure a secure and scalable future energy supply. The Laser Architect role is central to this mission, serving as the system-level technical lead responsible for the conceptual design, modeling, and experimental validation of laser driver architectures for inertial fusion energy (IFE) at the research and pre-pilot stage. The position focuses on defining and evolving credible laser driver concepts that support fusion energy production, primarily at the R&D and demonstrator level, where physics-driven trade studies, performance exploration, and risk reduction dominate over industrial optimization. The Laser Architect ensures coherence between laser physics, system architecture, and fusion requirements, guiding the transition from laboratory concepts toward scalable driver solutions and shaping the technical foundations for future pilot plants and commercial systems.

What you'll do

• Define and refine laser driver concepts suitable for IFE, ensuring alignment with system-level performance, reliability, and scalability objectives.
• Explore alternative laser architectures and assess their feasibility through physics-based modeling, simulation, and experiments.
• Maintain ownership of the global architectural vision while allowing individual subsystems to evolve in parallel, preserving coherence across the laser driver design.
• Define the laser R&D roadmap, including critical component development and evaluation, integrated beamline demonstrators, and intermediate testbeds that de-risk scale-up.
• Work closely with experimental teams to ensure test results feed back into architectural decisions, enabling data-driven refinements.
• Support the design of diagnostics and test protocols aligned with future scaling needs, ensuring measurements inform both current and next-stage development.
• Conduct physics-based modeling and scaling analysis to evaluate performance boundaries and identify practical limits of laser concepts.
• Identify critical gaps in technology and coordinate component development activities to reduce technical risk.
• Facilitate cross-functional trade studies and present structured recommendations to scientists, engineers, and leadership.
• Integrate feedback from test campaigns to iterate and improve architectural concepts, ensuring continuous progress toward scalable solutions.
• Ensure documentation and rationale for design decisions support knowledge continuity and enable efficient handovers and collaboration.
• Partner with system engineers to translate high-level requirements into detailed laser specifications and performance targets.
• Evaluate emerging laser technologies for potential incorporation into future roadmaps, maintaining flexibility for innovation.
• Champion a culture of quantitative modeling, experimental validation, and iterative refinement across the laser development process.

Requirements

• PhD or equivalent experience in laser physics, optical engineering, or a related field, with a strong foundation in laser science and technology.
• Deep expertise in high-energy and/or high-average-power laser systems, including operational principles, limitations, and performance characteristics.
• Strong background in laser system modeling and scaling analysis, with the ability to translate physical understanding into quantitative predictions.
• Demonstrated experience in the conceptual design and experimental validation of complex laser systems, including lessons learned from testing and iteration.
• Ability to operate across physics, optics, and systems-level reasoning, integrating multidisciplinary insights into coherent architectures.
• Proven capacity to bridge theoretical modeling and experimental reality, ensuring designs are both innovative and implementable.
• Operates as a system thinker with strong physics intuition, understanding how individual components influence overall system behavior.
• Comfortable exploring multiple architectural paths in parallel, weighing trade-offs between performance, risk, cost, and schedule.
• Values quantitative modeling, experimental feedback, and iterative refinement as core principles in decision-making.
• Communicates technical trade-offs clearly to scientists, engineers, and leadership, enabling informed and aligned decisions.
• Willingness to engage in hands-on experimental work alongside design activities, contributing directly to test campaigns and diagnostics.
• Commitment to rigorous analysis and traceability from requirements to implementation, ensuring decisions are justified and reproducible.
• Alignment with the mission of clean, scalable, and secure energy through laser-induced fusion, with a long-term focus on responsible and efficient energy production.