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Thea Energy is commercializing fusion energy using breakthroughs in stellarator physics and computer-controlled planar coil arrays. This role leads the day-to-day development, integration, commissioning, and maintenance of control systems for technology development programs, prototype equipment, experimental test stands, and superconducting-magnet test facilities.
You will directly supervise a multidisciplinary team including instrumentation engineers, embedded systems engineers, LabVIEW developers, software engineers, data management engineers, industrial controls engineers, and technicians. The role combines people leadership, detailed delivery planning, systems engineering, and hands-on laboratory and field work.
Key responsibilities include:
- Direct team leadership: manage and mentor controls engineers, handle work allocation, technical coaching, performance management, and hiring as the team grows
- Program execution: own detailed controls plans and delivery for assigned programs and test facilities; maintain schedules, milestones, risks, dependencies, and status; provide resource estimates and escalate conflicts
- System design: develop customized designs for supervisory control, industrial automation, real-time control, data acquisition, timing, embedded systems, data management, and operator interfaces within approved architecture
- Requirements and interface: translate experimental and facility needs into control system requirements, interface definitions, acceptance criteria, and verification plans; coordinate with magnet, power, cryogenic, vacuum, mechanical, electrical, safety, and test teams
- Instrumentation engineering: guide sensor selection, signal conditioning, isolation, grounding, shielding, calibration, and signal segregation for noisy, high-power test environments
- Controls software and data: oversee LabVIEW, PLC, embedded, middleware, and data system development using approved source control, configuration management, testing, release, and documentation practices
- Integration and commissioning: lead design reviews, bench testing, factory and site acceptance testing, installation support, commissioning, troubleshooting, and operational readiness
- Reliability and maintenance: establish calibration, preventive maintenance, backup and recovery, spare parts, obsolescence, and change control; resolve recurring failures
- Vendor management: manage technical execution of work packages including submittal review, interface coordination, test witnessing, and acceptance evidence
- Engineering evidence: maintain requirements, architecture descriptions, interface control documents, I/O lists, electrical drawings, cable schedules, test and operating procedures, and acceptance records
- Field leadership: plan and coordinate controls work in laboratories and industrial spaces; model safe work practices around energized equipment, strong magnetic fields, cryogenic systems, and pressure systems
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree or higher in electrical engineering, controls engineering, computer science, physics, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- Six or more years of relevant engineering experience in integrated control systems, industrial automation, instrumentation, fast data acquisition, real-time systems, embedded systems, or test facility engineering
- Three or more years of direct experience supervising engineers or serving as an engineering team lead with responsibility for work assignment, coaching, performance feedback, and team delivery
- Demonstrated delivery of complex controls or test systems from requirements and design through implementation, validation, commissioning, and operational support
- Strong systems engineering practice including requirements management, interface definition, verification planning, design reviews, configuration control, and technical documentation
- Strong foundation in machine protection and high-reliability design, including interlocks, alarms, permissives, fail-safe behavior, fault recovery, and disciplined testing
- Working knowledge of instrumentation and electrical controls, including sensors, signal conditioning, grounding, shielding, isolation, calibration, and noise mitigation
- Experience managing schedules, risks, resources, approved supplier work, and competing priorities across several development efforts
- Ability to communicate technical decisions clearly across physics, mechanical, electrical, software, safety, operations, and program teams
- Willingness and ability to work directly with equipment in laboratory and field environments during integration, commissioning, and troubleshooting
PREFERRED TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE:
- Control frameworks: LabVIEW, SCADA, distributed control systems, and operator interface development
- Industrial controls: Beckhoff TwinCAT, Allen Bradley, CODESYS, IEC 61131-3 practices, safety PLCs, and industrial I/O
- Integration protocols: OPC UA, DDS, Modbus, EtherCAT, TCP/IP, message brokers, and documented application interfaces
- Data acquisition: PXI/PXIe systems, high-speed digitizers, FPGA-based acquisition, event frameworks, timestamping, and low-latency streaming
- Timing and synchronization: IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol, White Rabbit, hardware triggering, clock distribution, and deterministic networks
- Embedded and software: LabVIEW, C, C++, Python, real-time Linux or other real-time operating systems, hardware interfaces, test automation, and deployment tooling
- Data systems: time-series and scientific data stores, historians, metadata, data pipelines, visualization, retention, and access controls
- Relevant facilities: fusion devices, superconducting magnet test facilities, accelerators, advanced energy systems, aerospace test systems, or other complex scientific facilities
