--- title: 'Heating Systems Lead at Thea Energy' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/heating-systems-lead-thea-energy-kearny-0de2yf325ke5' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-09' --- # Heating Systems Lead at Thea Energy - **Company:** Thea Energy - **Location:** Kearny, NJ - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-07-13 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy/771b059f-4795-4d38-a39b-a1e34889f1c7 ## 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: As Heating Systems Lead, you will oversee the design, development, implementation, and operation of plasma heating systems for Thea Energy’s flagship fusion systems. This is a high-impact, senior-level role requiring deep technical expertise in magnetic confinement fusion heating, excellent team-building capabilities, and a collaborative mindset to interface with our core fusion physics, systems, and engineering teams. Key Responsibility Areas: - Lead and mentor a team of engineers, scientists, and technicians in the design, construction, testing, and operation of plasma heating systems. Manage the budget, vendor relations, and procurement of highly specialized hardware. - Oversee multiple plasma heating system projects ensuring technical excellence and timely delivery. - Serve as a technical advisor for plasma heating programs, providing guidance on system architecture, diagnostics, fusion absorption, and operation. - Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. - Ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices in heating system design and safety. - Define a comprehensive system roadmap for the Eos device and future power plants, ensuring heating system capabilities align with core physics, engineering, and power plant requirements. - Own the conceptual, preliminary, and final engineering designs of heating systems. Ensure these systems integrate seamlessly into the spatial constraints of our planar coil stellarator. - Serve as the primary point of contact for diagnostics partnerships with national laboratories, academic institutions, and vendors to accelerate deployment. Ideal Experience & Skillsets: - Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related field. - 10+ years of experience in RF, microwave, or related technologies, with a focus on high-power systems. - Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing complex projects. - Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, high-autonomy startup environment where prioritizing first-of-a-kind problem solving is the norm. ## #LI-RD1 Company Benefits: - Salary range $150,000-$240,000 - 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) ## Other roles at Thea Energy - [Manager, Strategic Sourcing & Technical Subcontracts](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-strategic-sourcing-technical-subcontracts-thea-energy-kearny-06g92h82d76h) — Kearny, NJ - [Communications Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/communications-associate-thea-energy-kearny-12p9kmfws884) — Kearny, NJ - [Buyer/Planner](https://feeny.ai/job/buyer-planner-thea-energy-kearny-jk2zmr1vzg4c) — Kearny, NJ - [Physics Intern - Fall 2026](https://feeny.ai/job/physics-intern-fall-2026-thea-energy-kearny-dhryh9hjn1bm) — Kearny, NJ - [Plasma-Material Interaction (PMI) Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/plasma-material-interaction-pmi-manager-thea-energy-kearny-f483kg4r7q71) — Kearny, NJ - [Manufacturing Engineering Intern - Fall 2026](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineering-intern-fall-2026-thea-energy-kearny-mmxhg3t29fpx) — Kearny, NJ - [Contract - Senior VFX Network Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/contract-senior-vfx-network-engineer-thea-energy-remote-08ee6kf1ceg5) - [Director - Site Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-site-development-thea-energy-kearny-tk3n6pgnmg0g) — Kearny, NJ - [Computational Nuclear Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-nuclear-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-g9b7nhmpksyx) — Kearny, NJ - [FP&A Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/fp-a-manager-thea-energy-kearny-nmnsk5kxe19g) — Kearny, NJ