Special Ops.
Job description
About the role
The role designs and executes talent operations to scale engineering for pulsed-power and extreme-hardware programs. It removes sourcing friction so builders can focus on building and the organization can scale. Candidates blend radiation science and metal systems, and the role amplifies the reach of specialized recruiting. This position operates at the intersection of nuclear engineering and talent acquisition, translating complex technical requirements into precise hiring strategies. The hire owns the full lifecycle of specialized recruitment for hardware teams, ensuring that sourcing, screening, and selection align with the rigorous demands of fusion technology. You will architect outreach systems that connect rare technical talent with mission-critical engineering challenges. The position demands a high level of ownership over candidate experience and process integrity. Ultimately, this role ensures that Fuse can deploy elite technical capacity precisely when mission needs dictate.
Key facts
What you'll do
Design and deploy targeted outreach campaigns with precise briefs, target lists, and timelines, executing across email, direct messages, phone, and in-person events to fill high-velocity roles critical to hardware delivery.
Establish enduring candidate pipelines by cultivating relationships with universities, technical clubs, student organizations, professional societies, career fairs, and event partners to systematically reduce time-to-fill.
Perform technical sourcing by constructing advanced boolean and facet queries, navigating code repositories, analyzing publications, reviewing patents, and exploring niche technical forums to map hard-to-find hardware engineering talent.
Instrument sourcing funnels with A/B tests and straightforward dashboards to measure outreach performance and decision quality, providing transparent, actionable insights to leadership for continuous improvement.
Conduct travel to laboratories, university campuses, industry conferences, specialized meetups, and test sites on short notice, including nights and weekends, to respond to urgent mission-driven hiring requirements.
Manage candidate expectations, salary bands, and timelines with explicit clarity, enabling founders and engineering leaders to execute fast and decisive hiring loops without ambiguity.
Protect the Fuse brand in every interaction by demonstrating the organization's pace, operational discipline, and low-ego culture, ensuring professionalism across all touchpoints with professionals and stakeholders.
Evaluate technical resumes beyond surface-level buzzwords by performing deep dives into project scope, tooling, and outcomes to assess true technical fit for complex hardware roles.
Coordinate closely with founders and engineering leads to interpret evolving role requirements, adjust sourcing strategies, and validate that hired candidates meet extreme-hardware program needs.
Champion data hygiene and instrumentation within applicant tracking systems, ensuring reliable performance measurement, accurate sourcing attribution, and informed decisions for talent strategy.
Maintain strict confidentiality and ethical judgment when handling sensitive information about candidates, technology programs, and internal processes to preserve trust and organizational integrity.
Adapt sourcing methodologies based on channel performance, feedback loops, and evolving market conditions to optimize hiring velocity and quality for specialized recruiting efforts.
Serve as the primary point of contact for university relations and professional communities, representing Fuse at career stages from undergraduate recruitment to postdoctoral and industry transitions.
Leverage feedback from hiring managers to refine interview processes, policy questions, and behavioral assessments, aligning talent operations with the needs of technical teams.
Support structured onboarding and early-stage employee experience initiatives to ensure new hires integrate smoothly into high-stakes engineering environments.
Requirements
A Bachelor's degree is required for the role to ensure baseline educational preparation for the position in a technically complex environment.
US work eligibility is required due to the nature of the programs and facilities access that involve sensitive work within controlled environments.
A minimum of 2+ years of technical sourcing or recruiting experience in startups or hard-tech environments is required to demonstrate relevant context and familiarity with specialized hiring challenges.
The ability to rapidly qualify candidates against must-have criteria and communicate offers to leaders is required for timely decision-making and uninterrupted program execution.
The capability to read technical resumes beyond buzzwords and to ask clarifying follow-ups is required to assess true technical fit for advanced hardware and engineering roles.
The willingness to travel frequently on short notice, including evenings and weekends, is required to respond to mission-driven hiring needs across labs and test facilities.
Strong written and verbal communication skills are required to articulate role expectations, company values, and compensation details to diverse candidates and stakeholders.
Proficiency with applicant tracking systems and basic data analysis is required to maintain sourcing funnels, conduct A/B testing, and report on hiring metrics.
An understanding of technical domains such as electrical engineering, physics, or nuclear engineering is preferred to effectively interpret resumes and gauge project experience.
Ethical judgment and discretion are required when handling sensitive candidate information and proprietary technology programs.
The capacity to work independently and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment is required to support urgent hiring needs.
Commitment to fairness and structured decision-making is required to ensure consistent evaluation of candidates and alignment with company values.
Flexibility to adapt to changing priorities, feedback from hiring managers, and evolving organizational needs is required in a mission-focused operational role.
Nice to have
General familiarity with technical domains helps interpret resumes and gauge project experience without needing hands-on design capability.
Clear communication and structured feedback loops support consistent hiring velocity and candidate quality across specialized recruiting channels.
Practical notes
Typical interview steps
People team interviews usually include a case scenario, a policy question, and behavioral rounds. Candidates may be asked to design an interview process or handle a sensitive employee situation. Confidentiality and judgment are tested throughout. Structured answers with empathy land best. Interviewers often test how you handle sensitive information and disagreement. Framing answers around policy, fairness, and company values works well.
Good to know
Roles in talent operations for hardware and deep-tech teams often use specialized sourcing tools and data-driven outreach methods. General familiarity with technical domains helps interpret resumes and gauge project experience without needing hands-on design capability. Clear communication and structured feedback loops support consistent hiring velocity and candidate quality. Ethical judgment and discretion protect candidate trust and employer branding across professional communities. Maintaining data hygiene and instrumentation in applicant tracking systems enables reliable performance measurement and informed decisions.
Career growth
People careers grow from coordinator to generalist, manager, and director levels. Recruiters can move into talent leadership. HR partners can move into people operations leadership. Business acumen becomes more important at each level. People careers reward breadth across recruitment, development, and operations. Experience with tools such as HRIS and ATS systems helps at every level.
About the company
Fuse is on a mission to accelerate the world's transition to fusion energy. Our core product is TITAN: an Impedance Matched Marx Generator (IMG). TITAN is the most efficient and powerful (TW) machine of its kind.