---
title: 'Director - Site Development at Thea Energy'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-site-development-thea-energy-kearny-tk3n6pgnmg0g'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Director - Site Development at Thea Energy

- **Company:** Thea Energy
- **Location:** Kearny, NJ
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy/40e538ab-6d55-4f74-9ca4-1f09298af603

## 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 an experienced, strategic, and highly motivated Director - Site Development to architect and lead the site selection, incentives, and development strategy for our first-of-a-kind fusion energy projects. In this role, you will define the technical and resource-based criteria for our future sites, lead negotiations for state and local incentive packages, and navigate complex regulatory and permitting frameworks. You will serve as the primary liaison to government bodies and local communities, building the foundational relationships and stakeholder trust required to bring commercial fusion online. The ideal candidate has a proven track record in capital-intensive infrastructure or deep-tech project development, excels in high-stakes negotiations, and thrives in a fast-paced, highly autonomous environment. Thea Energy’s dynamic team is made up of self-motivated individuals with an excitement for solving complex problems.

Key Responsibility Areas:

- Define and manage technical and resource-based site selection criteria.
- Identify, evaluate, and lead negotiations for state and local incentive packages, tax credits, and infrastructure grants.
- Serve as the primary liaison with state and local governments to navigate regulatory frameworks and permitting processes.
- Lead local stakeholder outreach to build community relationships and secure the local stakeholder trust required for a first-of-a-kind fusion energy project.
- Proactively identify and manage risks related to land use, zoning, and environmental impact assessments.
- Align the siting process with technical requirements and company stakeholders to ensure site readiness and compatibility.
- Establish and maintain schedule and cost baselines for siting, incentives, land acquisition, and construction phases.

Ideal Experience & Skillsets:

- 10+ years of relevant work experience driving site selection, first of a kind construction project development, or government affairs within deep tech, energy, hardware, or aerospace.
- Proven track record of successfully negotiating and securing complex state and local incentive packages or non-dilutive government funding.
- Comfort interfacing with legal and regulatory frameworks; able to effectively partner with counsel to navigate zoning ordinances, term sheets, and incentive contracts.
- Experience with complex and capital intensive infrastructure development cycles.
- Highly structured and process-driven, with a speed and execution mindset and the ability to manage competing priorities across internal teams and external stakeholders.
- Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills, particularly in public-facing or sensitive negotiation settings.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment.
- Bachelor's degree or greater in a relevant technical, legal, or policy field.

## #LI-CB1

Company Benefits:

- Salary range $125,000-$230,000
- 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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