---
title: 'Program Schedule Manager at Proxima Fusion'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/program-schedule-manager-proxima-fusion-munich-7rmr8868x4cd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Program Schedule Manager at Proxima Fusion

- **Company:** Proxima Fusion
- **Location:** Munich, Germany
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/proxima-fusion/5eda2616-0aa2-448c-9413-87a77d6266f1

## 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

- You will get to work on some of the most complex tech challenges to bring abundant, safe, clean energy to the world.
- You'll get to join and learn from an exceptional selection of accomplished and driven individuals.
- Do your life’s best work and enjoy the journey.
- Get to show that big things are possible in Europe when you assemble the best talent.

## YOUR IMPACT

- Own and build the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) for Alpha, Proxima Fusion’s first fusion demonstrator.
- Define the scheduling architecture, coding structure, baseline conventions, and reporting standards from the ground up.
- Integrate sub-schedules across infrastructure, plant suppliers, manufacturing, and machine engineering into one coherent programme view.
- Establish credible milestones, programme gates, dependencies, and schedule interfaces across all workstreams.
- Identify, validate, and maintain the programme’s critical and near-critical paths.
- Provide early warning of schedule risk, emerging delays, and downstream impacts.
- Run schedule analysis to support recovery planning, mitigation actions, and informed trade-off decisions.
- Maintain the IMS as a live, accurate, and trusted programme-management tool.
- Support PMO governance, release-gate decisions, and executive programme reviews.
- Provide clear schedule insights and recommendations to programme leadership as Alpha scales.
- Drive schedule discipline and alignment across internal teams, suppliers, and delivery partners.
- Ensure the programme has a defensible plan against which progress, performance, and readiness can be measured.

## WHAT YOU WILL DO

- Build / advance the Alpha IMS architecture: WBS structure, activity coding, baseline conventions, and schedule governance rules that work across infrastructure, manufacturing, and machine disciplines
- Consolidate sub-schedules from all workstreams - including facility and plant construction, specialist equipment suppliers, and machine engineering - into one integrated baseline; enforce scheduling standards with internal project owners and external delivery partners
- Maintain a lean 6-week rolling lookahead as a live, actionable planning tool for the PMO and construction governance stream
- Identify and continuously update the critical path; model schedule impacts from scope changes, design evolution, or supplier delays before they reach senior leadership as surprises
- Own the schedule input to release gate decisions: prepare schedule status packs, flag float consumption, and present risk-adjusted scenarios to the management.
- Define and enforce scheduling standards - including building and plant construction partners, and other specialist disciplines who provide delivery schedules as inputs to the IMS
- Work in lockstep with the Cost Controller so that schedule baseline and cost forecast always reflect the same program assumptions; support integrated change impact assessments
- Support the development of the PMO's broader project controls framework as the team builds out

## WHO YOU ARE

- Experienced in integrated schedule management on major capital programs - energy, industrial, research infrastructure, or similarly complex multi-discipline projects; experience spanning both building construction and equipment/plant supply chains is strongly preferred
- Capable of building an IMS architecture from scratch, not just maintaining an inherited baseline - you know what a good schedule looks like before it exists and can get there from incomplete inputs
- Technically proficient in scheduling tools for large-scale complex projects; comfortable working with federated schedule inputs from parties using different tools and conventions
- Able to hold the line on schedule discipline with internal engineers and external partners who have their own priorities - you combine analytical rigour with the communication skills to make schedule governance stick
- Comfortable operating with high autonomy in an environment where program structure is still being built; define the working framework without waiting to be told how
- Fluent in English; German is a strong advantage given the contractor and regulatory landscape
- Familiar with AI tools and digital working methods; you adapt fast and are comfortable in a lean, high-pace environment

## INTERVIEW PROCESS

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

*This role sits at "L3" 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)

## Other roles at Proxima Fusion

- [People Operations Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/people-operations-coordinator-proxima-fusion-munich-5tjanbasztfe) — Munich, Germany
- [Microwave Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/microwave-design-engineer-proxima-fusion-munich-22mh7hj1vksv) — Munich, Germany
- [Manufacturing Engineer – Magnet Industrialisation](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-magnet-industrialisation-proxima-fusion-munich-w7r62tbhrktm) — Munich, Germany
- [Automation Engineer – Magnet Industrialisation](https://feeny.ai/job/automation-engineer-magnet-industrialisation-proxima-fusion-munich-4kt5ea8hjjgk) — Munich, Germany
- [Procurement Manager, Construction and Infrastructure (EPC/EPCM)](https://feeny.ai/job/procurement-manager-construction-and-infrastructure-epc-epcm-proxima-fusion-023n1qx4xfys) — Munich, Germany
- [Multiphysics Simulation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/multiphysics-simulation-engineer-proxima-fusion-munich-v56fna4jp79v) — Munich, Germany
- [Workplace Experience & Team Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/workplace-experience-team-assistant-proxima-fusion-munich-pevpsbcekyzy) — Munich, Germany
- [Industrial Controls Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/industrial-controls-engineer-proxima-fusion-munich-w8c2s04q6dzq) — Munich, Germany
- [Production Planner](https://feeny.ai/job/production-planner-proxima-fusion-munich-x5jqgwjpjbpz) — Munich, Germany
- [Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-proxima-fusion-munich-9wcsrf5r2wjt) — Munich, Germany