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Helion is a fusion power company on a mission to build the world's first commercial fusion power plant. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Everett, WA, the company has raised $1.5 billion from leading investors including Sam Altman, SoftBank, and Thrive Capital. Helion's prototype, Polaris, has achieved record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius, and the company is advancing toward Orion, its first fusion power plant.
You will lead Helion's Control Systems team within the R&D department, responsible for delivering reliable control and data acquisition systems that enable rapid experimentation while building a scalable foundation for increasingly complex machines. The team supports high-voltage electrical test bays, plasma-technology test bays, production and manufacturing end-of-line testing, and large field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma machines.
Your near-term focus will be strengthening and standardizing control system architectures, hardware, software, and development practices across these applications. Over time, the team's scope may expand to include contributions to the control system for Orion. You will report to the R&D Manager and work onsite at the Everett office.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading the Controls Engineering team in timely delivery of reliable control and data acquisition systems supporting R&D operations
- Setting technical direction, priorities, ownership, and engineering standards across controls development, testing, deployment, configuration management, and documentation
- Balancing rapid delivery for near-term experimental needs with building scalable, maintainable control systems for future growth
- Partnering closely with scientists, engineers, machine operators, production teams, and other stakeholders to translate operational needs into effective controls solutions
- Developing a high-performing engineering team through coaching, feedback, and technical rigor
- Anticipating and addressing technical, organizational, and staffing constraints, including scaling and growing the team as needed
Requirements:
- Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and mentor engineers, including setting clear expectations, providing actionable feedback, and building accountability
- Technical proficiency with LabVIEW and NI hardware in control system applications, including PXI, cRIO, real-time systems, and FPGA
- Ability to set technical direction, prioritize competing needs, and lead a team through ambiguous or rapidly changing requirements
- Experience developing control and data acquisition systems for large-scale, complex hardware
- Strong cross-functional communication and collaboration skills
- Experience integrating PLCs with LabVIEW- and NI-based control systems
- Experience integrating text-based code, such as C or MATLAB, with LabVIEW- and NI-based control systems
