---
title: 'Project Manager at Inertia'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/project-manager-inertia-livermore-qwrhbaa67b5d'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Project Manager at Inertia

- **Company:** Inertia
- **Location:** Livermore
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-04-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/inertia/f80e9021-d4a5-464b-bb78-e82581580e51

## Job description

## Overview

Inertia is seeking a highly driven Project Manager to lead multiple concurrent, cross-functional technical programs from concept through execution. Working closely with technical leads, you will drive project planning, execution, and delivery by managing schedules, budgets, resources, risks, and stakeholder communication.

The ideal candidate combines strong project management expertise with a technical background in engineering, laser systems, or another hard science discipline. You are a proactive problem solver, an exceptional communicator, and a collaborative leader who can drive accountability and deliver results in a fast-paced, technically complex environment.

## What You'll Get to Do

Project Initiation

- Manage multiple concurrent projects from initiation through to execution.
- Coordinate end-to-end execution of projects with project lead, including gathering requirements and managing schedule, budget, and deliverables.
- Drive project progress by tracking tasks, managing timelines, and ensuring accountability across teams.
- Facilitate and lead cross-functional discussions, resolving conflicts and driving decisions forward.
- Develop project plans, charters, and reporting to communicate status, risks, and milestones clearly.
- Identify and mitigate risks, removing blockers to keep projects on track.
- Apply technical understanding to support decision-making and guide project direction.

Project Execution

- Proactively identify and resolve project challenges by coordinating resources and priorities.
- Monitor project performance and recommend corrective actions.
- Over see day-to-day project management of $100M+ projects.

## What You Bring to Inertia

- 5+ years of experience in project management within a technical or scientific environment (Laser experience preferred).
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, or related technical/science field.
- PMP, PRINCE2, or Agile/Scrum certifications.
- Proven ability to lead projects independently and drive outcomes without heavy oversight.
- Strong experience in project lifecycle.
- Demonstrated ability to work cross functionally and drive deliverables.
- Experience with project management tools (MS Project required; Jira a plus).
- Excellent communication skills, including the ability to summarize complex information clearly.
- Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution skills.

Salary & Benefits:

- The base salary range for this role is $120,000 - $150,000; The pay range provided is an estimated base range for this role. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and education.
- We offer market-competitive compensation and an excellent benefits program, including Medical, Dental, and Vision plans, company-paid holidays, matching 401k, and more!

About Inertia:

Inertia is taking the most direct, scientifically-proven path to commercializing fusion, leveraging the only successful achievement of fusion ignition, using a process that was pioneered at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). With groundbreaking innovation, transformative technology, and multi-year investment, Inertia is committed to commercializing fusion energy in the next decade.

This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls, security classification and/or designation as Controlled Unclassified Information. Employment in this position is conditioned on the candidate’s eligibility for, obtaining and maintaining appropriate government authorization to access technology or information, to the extent required, including without limitation a security clearance, export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items technology or information.

## About Inertia

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Inertia is a commercial fusion energy company developing laser-based inertial fusion power plants based on proven physics from the National Ignition Facility.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A – raised $450M in February 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Livermore, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Jeff Lawson (CEO), Mike Dunne (Co-Founder, CTO & SVP Fusion Power), Annie Kritcher (Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Renewable energy, fusion power generation
- **Target customers**: Utility-scale electricity providers and grid operators (B2B, enterprise)
- **Mission**: Create limitless clean energy by commercializing the only proven approach to fusion – laser-driven inertial fusion – and delivering gigawatt-scale, dispatchable power.

## Products & Services
- **Fusion Power Plant**: A grid-scale, 1.5GW baseload plant that uses a 10MJ laser firing ten times per second at mass-produced fuel targets, generating electricity via steam turbines. First plant expected in the 2030s.
- **Fusion Fuel Targets**: Peppercorn-sized capsules of fusion fuel mass-manufactured for less than $1 each, enabling continuous, low-cost operation.
- **Modular Laser System**: The world’s most powerful laser (by average power), built from thousands of modular, replaceable beamlines (shipping-container-sized), 20x more efficient than NIF and 1/10th the footprint.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Total Funding**: $450M (Series A, February 2026) from leading venture investors
- **Key Metric**: 23 employees as of mid-2026; 16 active job postings; monthly headcount growth of +46.4% [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/inertia-fusion)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by a group of leading visionaries and investors (names not disclosed in public materials). Public-private partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) signed April 2026 [inertia.com](https://inertia.com/press/)
- **Growth Signals**: Proven physics (first net-energy-gain fusion experiment at NIF in 2022); $450M Series A; partnership with LLNL to commercialize fusion; rapid hiring across engineering, laser science, and manufacturing roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proven physics basis**: Only company commercializing the laser-driven inertial fusion approach that has already achieved net-positive ignition (NIF 2022, repeated multiple times). Avoids scientific risk.
- **Modular laser architecture**: Thousands of identical, manufacturable laser units allow rapid scaling, redundancy, and cost reduction through mass production.
- **Low-cost fuel targets**: Mass-manufacturing targets for under $1 each eliminates the hand-crafted, expensive targets used in research labs.
- **Integrated power plant design**: Leverages existing turbine and grid infrastructure; breeds its own fuel and recycles components.

## Strategic Focus
- **Immediate priorities**: Build the world’s first assembly line for fusion fuel targets; construct the prototype modular laser beamline in Livermore; complete an integrated, fully consistent power plant design.
- **Next phase**: Scale both laser and target production into a gigawatt, utility-scale fusion power plant during the 2030s, demonstrating end-to-end energy generation.
- **Long-term**: Drive down cost for subsequent commercial facilities, targeting grid-scale, zero-emission baseload power.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: "Building big" to solve climate change with limitless clean energy. The team emphasizes engineering over scientific risk, using known physics to commercialize rapidly.
- **Early-stage impact**: Small team (~23 employees) means each hire can have outsized influence across laser physics, target manufacturing, plant design, and business operations.
- **Work environment**: On-site in Livermore, CA (facilities for laser and target prototyping). Roles span mechanical engineering, controls, laser science, manufacturing, and content/storytelling.
- **Notable perks/benefits**: Not explicitly detailed, but the company offers competitive compensation in a high-growth, venture-backed startup. Open positions include senior engineers, scientists, and a Head of Content & Storytelling [inertia.com](https://inertia.com/jobs/).
- **Leadership**: Founded by proven entrepreneurs (Jeff Lawson, former Twilio CEO) and world-class fusion scientists (Mike Dunne led the US government fusion power plant program; Annie Kritcher designed the first net-positive ignition experiment).

## Sources
1. [inertia.com – Homepage](https://www.inertia.com/)
2. [inertia.com – Founders Message](https://inertia.com/press/founders-message/)
3. [inertia.com – Press Releases](https://inertia.com/press/)
4. [linkedin.com – Inertia Fusion](https://www.linkedin.com/company/inertia-fusion)
5. [inertia.com – Jobs Page](https://inertia.com/jobs/)

## Other roles at Inertia

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- [VP, Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-finance-inertia-livermore-8kdtp92993xg) — Livermore
- [Desktop Support Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/desktop-support-technician-inertia-livermore-cdb8b5m1zm47) — Livermore
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