Full-Time
Computational Plasma Physicist
Transport Modeling
Thea Energy
51-200 employees
Develops fusion power via planar-coil stellarators
Compensation Overview
$100k - $140k/yr
Newark, NJ, USA
In Person
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- PhD in Plasma Physics, Computational Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field; candidates with a Master’s degree and 3+ years of direct experience in transport/turbulence modeling will be considered
- Perform/analyze integrated modeling simulations to predict performance and develop scenarios for Thea Energy’s Eos and Helios stellarators.
- Utilize gyrokinetic, fluid, and/or reduced transport solvers to provide projections of confinement, heat, particle, and momentum transport.
- Maintain and extend existing gyrokinetic and transport frameworks.
- Build reproducible simulation pipelines and data analysis tools to streamline the design-to-validation loop.
- Use insights from turbulence and transport analysis to guide equilibrium and coil optimization.
- Collaborate with the physics and engineering team to develop scenarios and interpret results from current hardware.
- Direct experience running core (e.g. GENE, stella, CGYRO, GX) and/or edge (GENE-X, XGC, Gkeyll) gyrokinetic codes.
- Experience with stellarator-specific equilibrium and stability codes such as VMEC, STELLOPT, DESC, and/or TERPSICHORE.
- Familiarity with advanced numerical methods, GPU programming, and/or developing surrogate/reduced models.
- A track record of peer-reviewed publications and the ability to present complex physics to multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
- Ability to manage complex projects from theory to implementation with minimal supervision.
- A passion for fusion energy and a desire to work in a fast-paced, collaborative startup environment.
- Rigorous approach to code verification and physics validation.
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
Series B
Total Funding
$125.8M
Headquarters
Princeton, New Jersey
Founded
2022
Your Connections
People at Thea Energy who can refer or advise you
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- DOE milestone certification strengthens credibility with utilities and co-developers.
- Second magnet facility expansion supports faster Eos and Helios execution.
- NVIDIA and Synopsys digital-twin work should compress design iteration cycles.
What critics are saying
- Eos delays directly push back Helios and the 2035 power target.
- Plasma instability would undermine the planar-coil cost-reduction thesis.
- Pre-revenue dependence on venture capital exposes Thea to funding gaps.
What makes Thea Energy unique
- Planar coils replace stellarator's complex 3D magnets, lowering manufacturing difficulty.
- Eos serves as a neutron source bridge to Helios commercialization.
- Software-defined controls shift fusion complexity from hardware to computation.
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Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 0%1 year growth
↑ 1%2 year growth
↑ 4%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
Eight U.S. companies developing nuclear fusion energy will receive $46 million in taxpayer funding to pursue pilot plants attempting to generate power from the process that fuels the sun and stars, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday.