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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 backed by $1.5B in funding from investors including Sam Altman, Mithril, Capricorn, Thrive Capital, LightSpeed, and SoftBank, Helion has achieved record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius with its Polaris prototype and is advancing toward its Orion fusion power plant.
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Plant Control team, you will design, build, and scale the software systems that operate Helion's fusion generators and the Orion power plant. This is a generalist role requiring comfort moving between architecture and implementation, prototypes and production systems, and high-level plant design to hands-on machine operation. You will own software that interfaces with real hardware, supports rapid engineering iteration, and helps transform experimental fusion systems into reliable power plant infrastructure.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design, build, and maintain software for plant control, diagnostics, automation, and operator workflows
- Own interfaces connecting distributed sensors, actuators, controllers, databases, and visualization tools
- Design and build reliable tools for monitoring machine health, system performance, test execution, and plant operations
- Create and improve graphical user interfaces for engineers, operators, and scientists
- Architect and implement software supporting real-time control, data acquisition, and system coordination
- Collaborate with Electrical Engineering, Firmware, Mechanical Engineering, IT, Operations, and Science teams to integrate software with complex hardware systems
- Improve reliability, usability, and scalability of Helion's internal control and diagnostic platforms
- Investigate and introduce new tools, frameworks, and infrastructure to accelerate engineering development
- Apply first-principles thinking to ambiguous technical problems
You will work onsite at the Everett, WA office, staying close to hardware, operators, and users of the systems you build.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related technical field (or equivalent practical experience)
- 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of complex software projects
- Strong programming ability in systems programming languages (C++, Rust, or similar)
- Experience with Python or another high-level orchestration language
- Experience building software that interfaces with hardware, sensors, instruments, control systems, or real-world systems
- Comfortable working in Linux environments
- Experience designing maintainable software systems (testing, version control, debugging, deployment)
- Ability to work across full software lifecycle (requirements gathering, prototyping, production support)
- Strong systems-level problem-solving and cross-layer debugging skills
- Ability to collaborate with engineers and scientists from multiple disciplines
- Willingness to work onsite and stay close to hardware and users
DESIRED SKILLS:
- Experience with distributed control systems, industrial automation, SCADA, PLCs, or machine control
- Experience with V-model development (requirements, verification, validation, traceability)
- Experience with precision timing, synchronization, PTP, or deterministic systems
- Experience with embedded Linux, real-time systems, or low-level systems programming
- Experience with time-series databases, data pipelines, and visualization (InfluxDB, Grafana, etc.)
- Experience building operator interfaces, internal tools, dashboards, or data-rich GUIs
- Experience with Docker, CI/CD, configuration management, or deployment automation
- Experience in high-energy systems, aerospace, robotics, manufacturing, power systems, scientific instrumentation, or complex hardware environments
