--- title: 'Senior FEA Engineer at Thea Energy' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-fea-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-xcmsm1bk4pw5' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-14' --- # Senior FEA Engineer at Thea Energy - **Company:** Thea Energy - **Location:** Kearny, NJ - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-10-14 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy/ec018bdb-8448-4853-889f-7caf93906f49 ## 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: Key Responsibility Areas: - Sets strategic FEA methodology and architecture across primary stellarator systems, leads first-of-its-kind problem-solving initiatives, mentors team members, and serves as the primary authority on high-risk engineering decisions. - Develop and Analyze Complex FE Models: Create and oversee system-level architectural models and highly coupled multi-physics simulations to support the design of major stellarator systems and prototyping activities. - Perform Multi-Domain Simulations: Be responsible for multi-domain models, including thermal, mechanical, vibration, and magnetic loads. Ideal Experience & Skillsets: - Extensive FEA Experience: 8+ years of experience performing Finite Element Analysis with commercial software. Experience in scripting and building tools around commercial FEA tools - Complex Problem Solving: Demonstrated ability to solve complex engineering problems and identify root causes through meticulous analysis. - First-of-its-Kind Development: Proven experience developing first-of-its-kind components or systems. - Provides technical guidance and peer-review for junior analysts (Eng I/II/III) to ensure model accuracy and best practices. - Conduct In-Depth Performance Evaluation: Execute steady-state and transient analyses with accurate material models to evaluate designs for stress/strain, fatigue, and creep during start-up, steady-state operation, shutdown, and off-nominal operating conditions. - Optimize Structural Designs: Utilize various techniques to optimize structures for optimal performance under all loading conditions, minimizing weight, and maximizing maintainability. - Drive Design Improvements: Actively participate in the design process, identifying opportunities for improvements that lead to higher-performing, lower-cost, and more maintainable systems. - Material Modeling: Develop material models and identify required property development to ensure accurate analysis. Specialized Materials Knowledge: Serves as the internal Subject Matter Expert (SME) on complex weld evaluations and cryogenic material behavior. - Adaptability & Drive: Comfortable working to ambitious timelines with an exceptional work ethic, adaptability, and a continuous improvement mindset. - Collaboration & Communication: A strong team player with excellent communication and collaboration skills. Continuous Improvement Mindset: An innate desire to learn, innovate, and critically evaluate ideas, including your own. Company Benefits - Salary range $130,000 - $160,000 - 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 - [FEA Engineer III](https://feeny.ai/job/fea-engineer-iii-thea-energy-kearny-bmctb2x060zd) — Kearny, NJ - [Mechanical Engineer III](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-iii-thea-energy-kearny-paan6y8jt8vg) — Kearny, NJ - [Senior Tooling Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-tooling-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-qjg46020hba3) — Kearny, NJ - [Senior Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mechanical-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-eew4ecp169fb) — Kearny, NJ - [Director - Commercial Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-commercial-development-thea-energy-kearny-prhd7yaxgbhz) — Kearny, NJ - [Office Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/office-manager-thea-energy-kearny-2p7hmrqgy3vs) — Kearny, NJ - [Senior Machinist](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-machinist-thea-energy-kearny-f779yd7bkrk5) — Kearny, NJ - [Manufacturing Engineer III](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-iii-thea-energy-kearny-0me7sfh4k2y0) — Kearny, NJ - [Senior Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-ehqt3p3hffke) — Kearny, NJ - [Principal HTS Magnet Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-hts-magnet-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-ev47n4kqr6s4) — Kearny, NJ