Mechanical Engineering Director

About Thea Energy:   Thea Energy is leveraging recent breakthroughs in stellarator physics and engineering to create a faster and simpler approach to commercializing fusion energy. The company is reinventing the stellarator using computer-controlled arrays of planar coils thereby replacing the intricate, complex modular magnets required in all other stellarator architectures. Thea Energy is on a mission to create a limitless source of zero emission energy for a sustainable future.    Position Overview: Thea Energy is looking for an experienced, highly motivated Director - Mechanical Engineering to join its rapidly growing team. You will have ownership of the mechanical design and development of primary and secondary components and subsystems in the development of Thea Energy’s integrated stellarator fusion systems. You will be responsible for structural and thermomechanical design, manufacturability, development, and commissioning of these components.   You will drive requirements definition, design trades, and integration across disciplines. You will build and lead an integrated team drawing from disciplines including mechanical design, structural and stress analysis, thermal/fluids analysis, materials engineering, manufacturing and fabrication engineering, nuclear engineering, and vacuum systems engineering.   The Thea Energy team is comprised of driven, creative, and fun individuals passionate about solving complex problems.

Key Responsibility Areas:

• Own the technical baseline for primary and secondary mechanical fusion systems, including requirements, design, development, analysis, verification, though manufacturing, commissioning, and operation.
• Drive system-level trades across relevant performance domains (e.g. thermal, structural, electromagnetic, nuclear, vacuum, cryogenic).
• Maintain accountability for the key performance metrics that define system success.
• Define and enforce interface controls.
• Work with core system-level development teams to define requirements.
• Lead system design and development, addressing the complex 3D non-axisymmetric geometry unique to stellarators.
• Drive disciplined design trades balancing performance, manufacturability, and schedule.
• Own the analysis campaigns required to demonstrate system feasibility and adequate margin under all operating conditions (normal operation, off-normal events, transients).
• Partner with manufacturing and fabrication engineering to ensure all components can be built, inspected, and assembled within realistic tolerances.
• Address stellarator-specific fabrication challenges driven by non-axisymmetric geometry and tight tolerance requirements.
• Own the assembly sequence and integration plan for systems within the overall machine build.