Full-Time
Divertor Plasma Physicist – Scientist/Senior Scientist/Manager
Thea Energy
51-200 employees
Develops fusion power via planar-coil stellarators
Compensation Overview
$120k - $195k/yr
Newark, NJ, USA
In Person
Master's, PhD
 Data & Analytics (1) |
|---|
Get referred to Thea Energy
See people who can refer or advise you
- PhD in Plasma Physics or a related field (with 2+ years of experience) or a master’s degree (with 5+ years of experience)
- Experience with the boundaries of fusion devices, particularly stellarators
- Proficiency in scientific programming languages (e.g., Python, Fortran, C++, or MATLAB)
- Familiarity with plasma physics simulation tools
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills
- Ability to work independently and manage complex projects
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to advancing fusion energy research
- Willingness to collaborate effectively with diverse internal and external teams of scientists and engineers
- Optimize divertor magnetic and mechanical geometry and target plates using state-of-the-art computational tools
- Analyze edge magnetic geometry and provide feedback to the stellarator optimization and divertor engineering teams
- Develop and implement algorithms to simulate fluid plasma within complex magnetic edge topologies
- Develop and optimize divertor operation scenarios for the Eos stellarator
- Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to design effective stellarator divertor systems
- Perform data analysis and model validation to provide insights into physical mechanisms governing plasma behavior
- Prepare technical reports, presentations, and publications based on simulation results and optimization findings
- Experience with edge plasma models such as BMW, FLARE, SOLPS, UEDGE, EMC3-EIRENE
- Experience on a plasma physics experimental device, ideally a large stellarator or tokamak experiment
- Solid understanding of plasma fluid and neutral particle models
- Familiarity with Plasma-Material Interactions
- Experience working in high-performance computing (HPC) environments
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
Get referred to Thea Energy
See people who can refer or advise you
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- May 27, 2026 Series B raised $100 million led by USIT.
- July 27, 2026 ARPA-E awarded $20 million for domestic modular HTS magnet production.
- Thea plans Eos site selection in 2026 and team doubling now.
What critics are saying
- Helios remains precommercial, and first commercial power plant construction is only targeted before 2030.
- Eos still requires mass-producing 300 planar coils; manufacturing defects destroy timelines.
- A failed Eos plasma campaign would kill Helios and collapse the stellarator thesis.
What makes Thea Energy unique
- January 13, 2026: DOE certified Thea's Helios pilot design, first Milestone Program awardee.
- Thea replaces custom stellarator magnets with planar HTS coils and software controls.
- September 11, 2025 INFUSE awards tied PPPL and Columbia directly into Eos engineering.
Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?
Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Stock Options
Paid Vacation
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -1%1 year growth
↓ -1%2 year growth
↑ 5%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.
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.
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.
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.
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