Director of Engineering, Modules

About the role

You will own the end-to-end architecture, qualification, and production ramp of Orion's capacitor bank modules, defining how they integrate with the machine core and controls. You will lead a cross-functional team that designs, qualifies, and manufactures pulsed power circuit modules at the rate required for commercial fusion energy. You will drive design for manufacturability, ensuring prototypes transition rapidly into production modules that survive million-pulse campaigns. You will set the technical trade space, cost targets, and reliability standards while maintaining rigorous accountability against schedule and performance. You will work hand-in-day with Research, Science, and Controls to ensure module designs stay ahead of experimental learnings and operational needs. You will build and mentor a high-leverage engineering organization that delivers hard truths and executes with urgency and precision. In your first year, you will baseline the Orion bank architecture, stand up the qualification program for the first production modules, and have production-intent hardware under test.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own the architecture of Orion's capacitor bank and its interdependencies with the machine core, including requirements, decomposition, and the interfaces that let the bank, core, and controls behave as one machine.
• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of electrical and mechanical engineers designing and qualifying pulsed power circuit modules for each section of the machine with ownership spanning pulsed power electrical design, mechanical and thermal solutions, and high precision low voltage control interfaces.
• Drive manufacturable design by partnering day-to-day with manufacturing engineering to move modules from prototype test to production at rate, against a capacitor line building megajoules of pulsed power energy capacity per week.
• Own cost, schedule, and reliability for the module portfolio, making architecture and design trades and setting the qualification bar for hardware that must survive million-pulse campaigns while hitting objectives on a schedule you influenced.
• Work day-to-day with Research, Science, and Controls to keep module designs ahead of what the physics and operations teams learn from running machines.
• Build the team by hiring, developing, and setting design-review and engineering standards that let the organization move from prototype to production without losing rigor.
• In your first year, baseline the Orion bank architecture, stand up the qualification program for the first production modules, and have production-intent hardware under test.
• Define and maintain rigorous qualification and test methodologies that prove module durability, performance, and safety across the full operational envelope.
• Collaborate with supply chain and manufacturing to select components, processes, and materials that support high-volume production and long-term reliability.
• Translate high-level system requirements into detailed module specifications, ensuring alignment with cost, mass, volume, and thermal constraints.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, documentation practices, and design reviews that enable scalable, repeatable production.
• Partner with operations to integrate module performance data into controls strategies and inform future machine upgrades.
• Track and resolve cross-functional risks, escalating when necessary to keep the portfolio on plan and on pace.
• Communicate progress, assumptions, and tradeoffs clearly and frequently to both technical and executive stakeholders.
• Contribute to the broader technology roadmap by evaluating emerging components, materials, and production techniques for adoption in future modules.

Requirements

• Hold a Bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Bring 10+ years of experience developing complex electromechanical hardware, including 4+ years leading multidisciplinary engineering teams across Electrical, Mechanical, Firmware, and Thermal disciplines.
• Demonstrate a track record of taking hardware from prototype through qualification into production, with strong design-for-manufacture judgment that accelerates transition to high-volume builds.
• Show technical depth in at least one of power electronics or pulsed energy systems, high-reliability electromechanical design, or high-volume hardware production, with fluency across the related domains.
• Prove ownership of cost, schedule, and reliability at program scale, including making and defending hard trades to meet demanding objectives.
• Exhibit cross-functional leadership strength, succeeding through tactical and strategic partnership with Research, Science, Controls, and Manufacturing.
• Have experience scaling engineering teams and processes through a prototype-to-production transition in a high-velocity, mission-critical environment.
• Work effectively in a fast-paced setting where urgency, rigor, and factual candor drive decisions and technical direction.

Nice to have

• Experience with fusion, aerospace, or other high-energy, high-reliability electromechanical systems.
• Background in production-scale pulsed power or capacitor systems.

Practical notes

This role is full-time and based in Everett, Washington. Helion is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity; no discrimination is permitted based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you require an accommodation during the interview process, please notify us as early as possible.