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 seeking a Director - Electrical Engineering Systems to lead electrical system design and execution for the Company’s upcoming Eos integrated stellarator. This leader will manage and grow three tightly coupled engineering groups:

Electrical Distribution (facility and plant electrical architecture and integration)
Power Electronics (development of high-power converters and HTS magnet power supplies)
Electronics Systems Engineering (embedded control and instrumentation electronics, including custom PCBAs)

This role will own the end-to-end delivery of electrical systems from architecture and requirements through detailed design, prototyping, vendor engagement, test, installation support, and commissioning readiness. The Director will serve as a key cross-functional partner to systems engineering, controls and software, mechanical engineering, safety, and program management, ensuring electrical designs are buildable, testable, safe, and integrated.

As part of a rapidly growing team, you’ll be part of the organizational build-up of a leading fusion energy company. This role will have a high degree of autonomy and must be able to move quickly. The Thea Energy team is comprised of self-motivated, creative, and fun individuals with an excitement for solving complex problems.

Key Responsibility Areas:

Lead and mentor a multi-disciplinary organization spanning power systems, power electronics, and embedded electronics, including hiring, performance management, career development, and team structure.
Establish engineering operating rhythm: planning, prioritization, technical reviews, staffing plans, and decision-making processes.
Set technical direction and ensure consistent engineering quality across requirements, architecture, implementation, verification, and documentation.
Own the plant-level electrical architecture, including utility interface, substation and distribution design, grounding and protection philosophy, and power quality and reliability strategy.
Guide system modeling and simulation efforts including load flow, short-circuit, and transient studies, and ensure models remain consistent with evolving load envelopes and operating modes.
Lead integration strategy for compensation and storage assets such as STATCOM for load shaping, ride-through capability, and power recovery as applicable.
Own the technical interface to external engineering, procurement, and construction partners and utilities, including technical specifications, design reviews, and factory and site acceptance participation.
Oversee development of high-power converters and magnet power supplies, including topology selection, protection concepts, thermal strategy, and integration with embedded controls.
Develop test strategy and execution: prototype bring-up, staged-load validation, failure mode exploration, parameter tuning, and readiness evidence for integration.
Own hardware architecture for embedded control and instrumentation electronics that interface power conversion hardware, diagnostics, and control firmware.
Lead electromagnetic compatibility and noise mitigation strategy across boards, cabinets, and system integration boundaries.
Partner with systems engineering to translate device requirements into electrical requirements, interface definitions, and verification plans.
Run evidence-based technical gates and design reviews, with clear entry and exit criteria and configuration control.
Own delivery artifacts such as requirements, interface definitions, design packages, test plans, and acceptance evidence to support procurement, installation, and commissioning.
Maintain a strong safety culture including electrical safety, hazard analysis inputs, and design choices that support safe installation and operations.
Provide hands-on leadership in lab and field environments, coordinating with technicians and test teams for build, wiring, installation support, and debug.

Ideal Experience & Skillsets:

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
10 or more years of relevant experience spanning two or more of the following: power systems, substation and distribution, power electronics, embedded electronics, controls hardware, industrial electrical infrastructure.
5 or more years of engineering management experience leading multi-team organizations, including hiring and performance leadership.
Demonstrated experience owning complex system development from architecture through prototype validation and integration.
Strong foundation in electrical safety, high voltage and high-power engineering practices, and engineering standards and documentation discipline.
Strong cross-functional communication skills and experience driving technical decisions across physics, mechanical, controls software, safety, and program teams.
Experience delivering electrical systems for fusion, accelerator facilities, advanced nuclear, large industrial plants, or other high power research facilities.
Experience with utility interconnection processes, protection coordination, and power quality mitigation.
Experience with battery energy storage systems, static compensators, and dynamic load environments.
Experience establishing verification and validation processes and configuration control for hardware programs.
Familiarity with electromagnetic compatibility practices for high power switching environments and mixed-signal instrumentation.
Power system analysis: ETAP, DIgSILENT PowerFactory, PSCAD, SKM, CYME.
Power electronics simulation and design: PLECS, LTspice, Simulink, Altium or OrCAD.
Electronics design and lab: Altium or OrCAD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers, electronic loads.

Requirements:

Ability to occasionally lift up to 50 lbs.
Ability to perform activities such as typing, standing, or sitting for extended periods of time.
Willingness to occasionally travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call.
Ability to work in a facility that contains industrial hazards including heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, high voltage, high current, pressure systems, and cryogenics.

#LI-RD1

Company Benefits:

Salary range $185,000-$280,000
Comprehensive health benefits (e.g. medical/dental/vision)
Employee equity stock options
20 days PTO

It’s not necessary to meet all of the skillsets outlined above. Please feel free to send us a note and tell us why you would still be a great fit for this role or Thea Energy.

Diversity and Inclusion:

Thea Energy is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating a company of diverse backgrounds. By creating a diverse environment, we will bring new ideas and approaches to solving some of the world’s hardest (and most important) problems. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, family or marital status, age, disability, veteran’s status, or other characteristic protected by applicable laws and regulations.

About the company

Thea Energy is developing nuclear fusion technology to provide grid-scale, zero-emission electricity for utilities and large industries. Its approach centers on reimagining the stellarator with flat, planar superconducting coils and software-controlled magnet systems, enabling continuous fusion operation and easier maintenance, while guiding the Eos neutron-source device and the Helios commercial power plant concept. This design differs from competitors by prioritizing manufacturability, lower capital costs, and agile software control over traditional twisted-magnet stellarators, supported by public-private DOE milestones. The company aims to commercialize fusion as a scalable baseload power source and secure long-term power offtake agreements to replace fossil-fuel generation.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Grant

Total Funding

$145.8M

Headquarters

Princeton, New Jersey

Founded

2022

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

Thea raised $100 million Series B on May 27, 2026, then extended it August 18.
ARPA-E awarded $20 million on July 27, 2026, funding domestic HTS magnet production.
May 13, 2026 full-scale coil operation validated 6T performance for Eos manufacturing.

What critics are saying

Eos still needs a 2026 site decision, and construction slips break the 2030 schedule.
Helios depends on unproven 324-coil control at scale, despite 2026 magnet tests.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion are chasing grid power first, starving Thea of capital.

What makes Thea Energy unique

Thea Energy replaces twisted stellarator coils with mass-manufacturable planar superconducting coils.
DOE certified Helios preconceptual design on January 13, 2026, first Milestone Program awardee.
Thea is building AI-controlled digital twins with NVIDIA, Synopsys, Argonne, and PPPL.

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Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Stock Options
Paid Vacation

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-5%

1 year growth

-4%

2 year growth

-2%

The Mirror Democrat and Savanna Times-Journal

Jul 27th, 2026

Thea Energy secures $20M from US DOE to scale domestic HTS magnet production for fusion power

Thea Energy has received a $20 million award from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through its SCALEUP programme. The New Jersey-based fusion technology company will use the funding to establish the first domestic production line for modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. The company plans to use approximately 300 planar shaping coils in its first large-scale integrated stellarator system, called Eos. Over the past two years, Thea Energy has iterated its coil designs more than 100 times and validated their performance. The SCALEUP programme supports previous ARPA-E awardees in scaling technologies toward market adoption. The award follows Thea Energy's $100 million Series B funding round.

Yahoo Finance

Jun 8th, 2026

Thea Energy builds first fusion power plant digital twin with NVIDIA, Synopsys, and US labs to deliver fusion power by 2035

Thea Energy has announced collaborations with NVIDIA, Synopsys, Argonne National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to develop a digital twin of its Helios stellarator fusion power plant. The initiative supports the US Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, which aims to accelerate fusion power development using artificial intelligence. The digital twin will integrate AI and computational tools to analyse vast datasets, rapidly evolve plant designs and test system operations more efficiently than traditional methods. NVIDIA will build the platform using Omniverse libraries, whilst Synopsys will provide multiphysics simulation expertise for the breeding blanket system. Thea Energy's planar coil stellarator architecture uses AI for software controls to continuously optimise the system. The company aims to deliver fusion power by 2035, using the digital twin to shorten development cycles and reduce capital requirements.

Business Insider

May 27th, 2026

Thea Energy raises $100M Series B to accelerate commercial stellarator fusion power plants

Thea Energy, a fusion power startup advancing stellarator technology, has raised $100 million in an oversubscribed Series B round led by US Innovative Technology Fund. General Innovation Capital Partners and Linse Capital participated, alongside existing investors including Lowercarbon Capital and Prelude Ventures. The Kearny, New Jersey-based company will use the funding to expand magnet manufacturing capacity, including adding a second facility, and construct "Eos", a large-scale integrated stellarator system. Thea Energy plans to select a site for Eos this year whilst doubling its team size. Founded in 2022 as a Princeton University spin-out, Thea Energy recently became the first company to receive US Department of Energy certification for its Helios power plant preconceptual design milestone. The company aims to begin construction of its first commercial power plant before 2030.

OODA LLC

Oct 7th, 2025

Thea Energy advances with $30M funding

Thea Energy, a Kearny-based company, is advancing its fusion power goals with significant backing, including a recent fellowship from Amazon Web Services and the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence. A spinout from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University, Thea Energy focuses on commercializing stellarator fusion energy. Since its 2022 founding, the company has raised $30 million in investor funding and received additional non-dilutive funding from the U.S.

TechCrunch

Feb 8th, 2024

Thea Energy Raises $20M Series A For Pixel-Inspired Fusion Power Plants

To build a fusion power plant, engineers are forced to make some difficult choices. Do they go with the simpler design and then, while in operation, force the plasma to behave so it doesn’t snuff itself out? Or do they opt for a complex design that’s challenging to build but leads to happier plasma?Or what if there was a way to do both?Thea Energy is hoping that “both” is the right answer. The startup is betting that software can supplant manufacturing precision in its quest to deliver reliable, inexpensive fusion power. It has recently raised a $20 million Series A, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Prelude Ventures led the round with participation from 11.2 Capital, Anglo American, Hitachi Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Mercator Partners, Orion Industrial Ventures and Starlight Ventures.There are two main approaches to fusion power: inertial confinement and magnetic confinement. The former made headlines at the end of 2022 for proving that net-positive fusion power isn’t just science fiction by using massive lasers to vaporize a fusion fuel pellet.Many startups, though, are using some variation of the former

Thea Energy

Director Electrical Engineering Systems

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