Director of Materials

We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world’s first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone.

Since Helion’s founding in 2013, we have raised over $600 million from investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group to propel us forward. Our last prototype, Trenta, completed 10,000 high-power pulses and reached plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (9 keV).

Now we are working toward Polaris, which will be the first machine to demonstrate electricity from fusion, making this a great time to join Helion! Bring your skills, experiences, and determination to make a difference in the world. Together, we can make a future with unlimited clean electricity from fusion a reality.

What You Will Be Doing:

We are looking for a Director of Materials to lead the integrated effort to develop and qualify materials for Helion’s fusion generators. The scope of your work will involve definition and coordination of materials selection, materials testing, irradiation studies, development of material property correlations and models, working with supply chain development, and coordinating with licensing teams. You will report to the leader of the Radiation Safety and Nuclear Science (RaSNS) team at our Everett, WA office.

You Will:

• Create and maintain a world-class materials team with regard to technical thoughtfulness and speed of execution in thrust areas to include material R&D, radiation effects, and material testing
• Lead the development and deployment of important materials for a commercial fusion system
• Work with Helion’s leadership to establish goals and balance risks for the Materials team that align with our strategy and take full ownership of accomplishing these goals
• Establish partnerships and processes with the Engineering team and other RaSNS teams to improve the Materials team’s success (bill of material tracking, material testing, material design and R&D) and identify directions with the highest return on investment
• Manage managers on the Materials team on milestones planning, resource planning, and performance management.
• Advise the management of strategic material testing capabilities to promote rapid testing/design iterations, balance in-house and external capabilities, near-term milestone execution, and long-term capability expansion
• Improve Helion’s plan for generator mass-production, including incorporating changes based on new generator data, refining factory models, and communicating updates to the leadership team
• Build materials programs designed to develop an understanding of complex mechanical properties and materials degradation phenomena (e.g., creep, fatigue, stress, corrosion, erosion, neutron irradiation effects, hydrogen embrittlement); take into consideration cost estimation and scheduling to meet program needs and constraints
• Learn about radiation effects on materials (neutron damage and activation), and incorporate radiological considerations into decisions based on the advisement of nuclear engineers on your team, nuclear engineers on parallel RaSNS teams, and the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO)

Required Skills:

• 10 years of materials-related industry experience, including 5 years of experience managing technical teams that deliver materials science/engineering projects cradle-to-grave to a commercial product. Growing a talent-dense team of at least five subject matter experts, and overseeing the schedule for multiple planning facets of company milestones
• Successful and autonomous mentorship and leadership of employees with many expertise, experience, and backgrounds
• Hands-on experience with material testing and characterization
• Experience managing material research and development, resulting in materials used in a commercial product or necessary product to a large, singe-unit project

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Compensation and Benefits

At Helion, we are committed to fostering a fair and equitable environment in every aspect of our operations, including compensation. We ensure all our roles are competitively benchmarked and our total compensation package includes a base salary, comprehensive benefits, and equity grants, giving you a true stake in Helion’s success. Final compensation is determined through a holistic evaluation of your experience, qualifications, and our commitment to maintaining internal equity, ensuring fairness and transparency across our teams.

This is an exempt salaried role.

Annual Base Pay

$193,000-$256,000 USD

Benefits

Our total compensation package includes benefits, including but not limited to:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision plans for employees and their families
• 31 Days of PTO (21 vacation days and 10 sick days)
• 13 Paid holidays, plus company-wide winter break
• Up to 5% employer 401(k) match
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Paid parental leave and support (up to 16 weeks)
• Annual wellness stipend

NOTE: Underrepresented people are less likely to apply unless they meet 100% of the job’s requirements. We believe in hiring people, not checklists, and encourage you to apply even if you do not check all of the boxes. If this job isn’t the one, we have many other openings that may be a fit.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information. If we reach out to you to begin an interview process, we will also ask if you require any reasonable accommodation at that time.