---
title: 'Director - Electrical Engineering Systems at Thea Energy'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-electrical-engineering-systems-thea-energy-kearny-mf686v79gtd2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Director - Electrical Engineering Systems at Thea Energy

- **Company:** Thea Energy
- **Location:** Kearny, NJ
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-03-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy/5efcc044-c074-4273-a6a1-0465a6bff824

## Job description

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 Thea Energy

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Thea Energy is developing a simplified, economical stellarator fusion energy system using arrays of mass-manufacturable planar magnets and dynamic software controls.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Startup; founded in 2022)
- **Headquarters**: Kearny, New Jersey, USA
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Founded with technology developed at Princeton University (specific founder names not publicly listed on main site).

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Fusion Energy / Clean Energy / Climate Tech
- **Target customers**: Utilities, grid operators, industrial energy users, and governments seeking baseload, zero-emission power generation.
- **Mission**: "To create a limitless source of zero emission energy for the future of humanity." [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)

## Products & Services
- **Eos (Neutron Source Stellarator)**: A near-term commercial neutron source designed to achieve world-leading fusion performance and de-risk their first fusion power plant. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)
- **Helios (Fusion Power Plant)**: The company’s first planned full-scale fusion power plant, intended for commercial electricity generation. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)
- **Software-Defined Magnetics Platform**: The core technology differentiator—replacing complex, expensive 3D magnet coils with arrays of simpler, mass-manufacturable planar magnets controlled by a sophisticated software stack. This transfers hardware complexity into the digital realm. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Total Funding**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Private startup; notable for its technological breakthrough rather than public revenue. The company has active job postings (41 roles listed on Indeed) and is in a high-growth hiring phase. [indeed.com](https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Thea-Energy/about)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Announced a collaboration with **NVIDIA**, **Synopsys Inc**, **Argonne National Laboratory**, and **Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)** to build the first digital twin of a stellarator fusion power plant using AI physics and engineering. [indeed.com](https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Thea-Energy/about)
- **Growth Signals**: Rapidly growing team; active hiring across engineering, supply chain, finance, and marketing roles; partnership with major tech and national lab players; progression from a science project (Eos) toward a commercial power plant (Helios).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Planar Magnet Arrays**: Replaces the prohibitively complex and expensive 3D coils of traditional stellarators with simple, mass-manufacturable planar magnets. This radically reduces cost and manufacturing complexity. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)
- **Software-First Approach**: Transfers the geometric complexity from hardware to a dynamic software control system, leveraging decades of progress in computing and controls to simplify the physical build. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)
- **Stellarator Advantage**: The stellarator is the only magnetic confinement system that creates all required fields with superconducting coils, enabling steady-state operation (no plasma disruptions), which is a key advantage over tokamaks. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)

## Strategic Focus
- **Commercialization of Eos**: Achieving near-term fusion performance and commercial operation with their neutron source stellarator.
- **De-risking Helios**: Using Eos as a stepping stone to validate technology and reduce risk for their first full-scale fusion power plant.
- **Digital Twin Development**: Leveraging AI and simulation (with NVIDIA, Synopsys, Argonne, PPPL) to accelerate design, operation, and optimization of their fusion systems.
- **Scaling the Organization**: Building out a multi-disciplinary team spanning fusion science, engineering, supply chain, and business functions.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Work**: Opportunity to work on one of the biggest challenges facing humanity—creating limitless, zero-emission energy. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/careers/)
- **Culture**: Described as dynamic, flexible, and adaptive, balancing strong individual autonomy with a collective team spirit. Employees are empowered to take ownership of their career growth. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/careers/)
- **Diversity & Inclusion**: Explicitly committed to building a diverse workplace and encourages applications even if candidates don't meet every listed requirement. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/careers/)
- **Work Model**: Roles are listed as **On-site** in Kearny, NJ (for most technical and corporate roles) and some internships. [jobs.lever.co/thea.energy](https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy)
- **Benefits**: Competitive salaries, health benefits (medical/dental/vision), employee equity, 20 days PTO, paid holidays and sick time, paid parental leave, 401k, life and disability insurance, and office perks. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/careers/)

## Sources
1. [thea.energy](https://thea.energy/)
2. [thea.energy/about-us](https://thea.energy/about-us/)
3. [thea.energy/careers](https://thea.energy/careers/)
4. [jobs.lever.co/thea.energy](https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy)
5. [indeed.com](https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Thea-Energy/about)

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