Computational Physicist

About the role

You will design, implement, and validate state-of-the-art numerical models that characterize the behavior of fusion plasmas in a deeply hands-on technical capacity. This role centers on owning the full lifecycle of simulation tools and numerical methods, from initial design through to validated deployment for research questions at the frontier of plasma physics. You will spend the majority of your time building, improving, and validating these tools, rather than primarily running existing codes and workflows. In this capacity, you will leverage modern software engineering practices, including the effective use of large language models (LLMs) as development aids, to accelerate code development, refactoring, testing, and documentation. You will retain full ownership of scientific correctness and numerical integrity, ensuring that the production-quality simulation tools you create directly inform critical design and physics decisions for future fusion power plants.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design, implement and extend workflows that characterise plasma performance across the simulation pipeline.
• Write high performance scientific code covering both lightweight integrated models and high fidelity HPC simulations for demanding physics scenarios.
• Apply modern development tools and workflows, including LLM-based assistants, to improve development velocity, code readability, and testing coverage systematically.
• Communicate your results clearly and collaborate with integrated modellers and engineers to ensure stellarator designs correctly meet the requirements for effective plasma confinement and control.
• Validate and benchmark models rigorously against established theory and experimental data where such comparisons are feasible and relevant.
• Build production-quality simulation tools that are maintainable, scalable, and aligned with the practical needs of a growing fusion engineering organization.
• Operate with ownership across the entire technical stack, translating scientific objectives into robust numerical implementations that support real hardware decisions.

Requirements

• Hold a PhD or Masters in physics, mathematics, or computational physics as a non-negotiable academic foundation for this role.
• Demonstrate proven experience building numerical tools from first principles, taking problems from governing equations through numerical formulation, implementation, and validated simulation results end to end.
• Show proficiency in one or more of the following languages: Python, Julia, C++, Fortran, as required by the simulation workloads.
• Exhibit comfort using LLM-based development tools as part of a modern scientific software workflow, with a clear understanding of their limitations and failure modes in technical contexts.
• Maintain proficiency in modern software development workflows and high-performance computing (HPC) environments to ensure efficient and reliable code delivery.
• Act as a proactive problem-framer, proposing and interrogating solutions independently while working within multidisciplinary constraints.
• Cultivate effective collaboration within a diverse team of physicists, numerical modellers, and engineers across different time zones and technical backgrounds.
• Adhere strictly to the standards of scientific correctness and numerical integrity that underpin credible simulation outcomes for mission-critical design work.

Nice to have

None specified in the source material; no additional preferred items are listed beyond the core requirements and technical competencies described in the role.

Practical notes

The position is based in Munich and is offered as a full-time engagement. No specific working hours, travel expectations, visa requirements, or application deadlines are detailed in the source material, and therefore no such information is included here.

The role is positioned at the intersection of advanced computation and engineering pragmatism, requiring a candidate who can translate complex plasma physics requirements into reliable simulation tools that scale from model development to production use. You will work alongside an international team, applying both deep technical expertise and strong communication skills to ensure that simulation workflows remain tightly coupled with hardware design and manufacturing constraints. Success in this position depends on your ability to write high-quality code, validate models against theoretical and experimental benchmarks, and contribute to a fast-moving, multidisciplinary environment where decisions directly impact the path toward commercial fusion energy. By emphasizing modern development practices and clear scientific ownership, Proxima Fusion aims to accelerate innovation while maintaining the rigor necessary for building the world's first commercial stellarator fusion power plant.