---
title: 'Microwave Design Engineer at Proxima Fusion'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/microwave-design-engineer-proxima-fusion-munich-22mh7hj1vksv'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Microwave Design Engineer at Proxima Fusion

- **Company:** Proxima Fusion
- **Location:** Munich, Germany
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/proxima-fusion/3ee04b71-fc9c-494b-a855-bc08f2ef03ae

## Job description

## WHO WE ARE

Proxima Fusion is Europe’s fastest-growing fusion company and the continent’s best-funded fusion player, as well as the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). Backed by over €650M and powered by a growing team across Munich, Zurich, and Oxford, we are developing the hardware and infrastructure needed to deliver the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant. Our concept advances the most mature fusion technology out there, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, through two next-generation machines: Alpha and Stellaris. Our work combines stellarator optimization, advanced computation, machine learning, and high-temperature superconducting magnets to unlock higher-performance designs that were previously out of reach. Turning these designs into a functioning fusion power plant requires excellence and ownership across every discipline, from physics and engineering to software, manufacturing, law, and business functions.

## WHY JOIN PROXIMA FUSION

- Work on a civilisation-scale problem - Clean, baseload fusion energy is one of the few genuinely world-changing challenges, and every hire in Finance, People, or Legal directly accelerates the path to a working stellarator.
- Grow as fast as the company does - With headcount set to roughly 5x in a few years and major technical milestones ahead on the path to our demo machine and first power plant, your role grows under you; today's hire is tomorrow's function lead.
- Tackle problems that don't exist elsewhere - Fusion sits at a rare intersection of deep-tech R&D, industrial procurement, government relations, and venture financing, so non-tech functions face challenges no other workplace can offer.

## YOUR IMPACT

As a microwave design engineer, you will help build the basis for the millimeter wave hardware acting as the spark plug that initiates a fusion plasma and raises its temperature to greater than 100 million degrees. You’ll join the Alpha Heating System team ready to drive the integrated RF and thermo-mechanical design of high-power components, and help build and test these components in the lab before installing them at scale on our net scientific gain Alpha stellarator.

## WHAT YOU WILL DO

- Provide innovative solutions to complex RF engineering challenges by collaborating closely with physicists to ensure component designs meet the Alpha plasma physics and thermal-mechanical constraints.
- Develop designs and evaluate vendor designs to determine an optimal path to efficiently deliver our power to the stellarator - driving down the denominator of input power that will limit fusion power plant gain Q=Pout/Pin - and drive down costs.
- Draw from and contribute to our stellarator development process, interfacing your RF components with other stellarator systems.
- Contribute to mechanical and thermal analysis and sensitivity studies for component viability under the loads and stresses imposed by the combination of vacuum, magnetic fields, temperatures, and MW-scale RF loads.
- Interface with the Alpha project management teams to realize the delivery of RF components and meet the tight Proxima timelines.

## WHO YOU ARE

- A highly capable RF engineer with experience in millimeter waves and knowledge of the tools and best practices for design of these systems
- Demonstrated familiarly with RF modeling codes - SURF3D, CST, COMSOL, GdfidL, openEMS, even self-developed python codes or ones plasma physics community hasn’t heard of - capable of performing modeling at 200 GHz frequencies
- Experience validating first-of-a-kind designs with uncertain performance, working as part of a team on multi-scale and multi-physics simulations, testing, and prototyping.
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly and persuasively.
- Experience with gyrotrons and associated components - transmission systems, launcher antennas, rf loads; experience with plasma physics is a plus.

## INTERVIEW PROCESS

- Recruiter Interview (30-60 min)
- Technical Screening (30 min)
- Technical Panel (3x60 min)

*This role sits at "insert level" of our framework, please inquire during the recruitment process for further information. At Proxima Fusion, our mission is bold: making limitless clean energy a reality. To get there, we need a high-performing, diverse team that brings different perspectives, challenges assumptions, and builds together with purpose. We know that diversity of thought and experience leads to better ideas, stronger execution, and a more resilient team. We don’t look at how you identify, what you look like, who you choose to worship or what ethnicity you are. We care about what you can bring to the table.

## About Proxima Fusion

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: A European fusion energy company building quasi-isodynamic stellarator power plants to deliver clean, safe, and abundant energy.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A – €130M raised in June 2025 plus €15M extension in September 2025)
- **Headquarters**: Munich, Germany (additional offices in Zürich, Switzerland and Oxford, United Kingdom)
- **Founded**: April 2023
- **Founders**: Francesco Sciortino, Lucio Milanese, Jorrit Lion, Jonathan Schilling, Martin Kubie

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Fusion energy (energy production)
- **Target customers**: Energy companies, grid operators, and technology partners (B2B / Enterprise)
- **Mission**: “Enabling human ambitions in a future with fusion energy” – providing abundant, clean, and safe energy for all.

## Products & Services
- **Alpha Demonstration Stellarator**: A prototype stellarator designed to demonstrate net energy gain in steady-state, planned for first plasma around 2031.
- **Stellaris Fusion Power Plant Concept**: A peer-reviewed, first-of-its-kind design for a commercial stellarator fusion power plant, targeting grid deployment in the late 2030s.
- **Stellarator Model Coil (SMC)**: A demonstration high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet completed to validate coil technology for Alpha and Stellaris.
- **Core Technology**: Quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarator design combined with computational optimization, HTS magnets, and rapid prototyping – all leveraged from the record-breaking Wendelstein 7-X experiment.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding ~€200M (≈$230M) in public and private capital, including pre-seed (€7.5M), seed (€20M), Series A (€130M + €15M extension), and additional grants from the European Innovation Council and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Plural Platform, UVC Partners, redalpine, Bayern Kapital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Max Planck Foundation, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Visionaries Club, Wilbe. Strategic partners include the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).
- **Growth Signals**: Team grown from founding to 100+ world-class scientists, engineers, and operators; completion of the Stellarator Model Coil; publication of the Stellaris power plant concept; convening an Industrial Development Board to scale European fusion supply chains; appointment of CFO Sergei Galperin (June 2026); integration of AI-driven design methods.

## Competitive Advantages
- **QI Stellarator approach**: Toroidal currents cancel to zero, enabling inherently stable, continuous operation without the plasma disruptions that challenge tokamaks.
- **Direct lineage from W7-X**: As the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, the team builds on decades of stellarator research and the world’s most advanced stellarator experiment.
- **Simulation-first + rapid prototyping**: Combines cutting-edge computational design with HTS magnet technology to accelerate development timelines.
- **Top-tier talent pool**: Team members from Max Planck IPP, MIT, SpaceX, Tesla, McLaren, Google X, EPFL, Stanford, Cambridge, and other leading institutions.
- **Deep European ecosystem ties**: Close collaboration with public research institutes, industrial partners, and government funders.

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term (2026–2031)**: Complete the design and construction of the Alpha demonstration stellarator, demonstrate net energy in steady-state, and advance HTS magnet technology through continued R&D.
- **Mid-term (2030s)**: Scale from Alpha to the Stellaris fusion power plant, targeting first electricity to the grid in the late 2030s.
- **Long-term**: Establish a new clean energy infrastructure by industrializing stellarator power plants and securing supply chains across Europe.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission with impact**: Tackle one of humanity’s greatest challenges – unlimited, clean, and affordable energy.
- **High-performance culture**: Described as a “professional sports team” where success depends on placing the right person in the right role with real ownership from day one.
- **Collaborative environment**: Work alongside exceptional peers from top tech, science, and engineering organizations; take on meaningful responsibility early.
- **Locations**: Offices in Munich (HQ), Zürich (PSI campus), and Oxford (Culham Campus) – likely on-site given the hands-on nature of fusion R&D.
- **Diverse disciplines**: Opportunities for engineers, scientists, operators, and business roles in a fast-growing deep-tech startup.

## Sources
1. [proximafusion.com](https://www.proximafusion.com/)
2. [proximafusion.com/about](https://www.proximafusion.com/about)
3. [proximafusion.com/careers](https://www.proximafusion.com/careers)
4. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/proxima-fusion](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/proxima-fusion)
5. [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Fusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Fusion)

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