---
title: 'Senior Manufacturing Engineer at Thea Energy'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-ehqt3p3hffke'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Senior Manufacturing Engineer at Thea Energy

- **Company:** Thea Energy
- **Location:** Kearny, NJ
- **Compensation:** $130k–$155k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/thea.energy/0226e955-9343-466e-a6be-5347cd923cb3

## 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: Thea Energy is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer to serve as a technical leader and strategic driver within our operations group. In this role, you will be responsible for defining the long-term manufacturing roadmap, capital equipment strategy, and operational scale-up for our high-temperature superconducting ("HTS") magnet production. Beyond driving complex manufacturing engineering challenges, you will mentor engineering and production staff, develop organizational process workflows, and interface directly with executive leadership. This role is vital to transforming cutting-edge fusion physics into scalable, commercial-grade hardware.

Key Responsibility Areas:

- Establish the manufacturing architecture, factory layout, and process methodologies for HTS magnet production and facility commissioning.
- Partner with design and physics leaders to guarantee design for manufacturability and cost-optimization from initial concepts through prototyping and beyond.
- Direct the design, acquisition, installation, and qualification of high-value capital equipment, custom tooling, and automated manufacturing systems.
- Architect foundational Process Engineering frameworks, root-cause corrective action protocols, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Lead key technical relationships with major suppliers and contract manufacturers to secure critical hardware and resolve complex supply chain bottlenecks.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Manufacturing Engineers and technical personnel; assist leadership in team scaling and organizational design.
- Own program delivery schedules, risk mitigations, and capital expenditure tracking, regularly communicating updates to key internal and external stakeholders.

Ideal Experience & Skillsets:

- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering with 10+ years of progressive manufacturing engineering experience in high-tech, regulated, or precision hardware environments.
- Proven track record of taking complex, first-of-a-kind electro-mechanical systems from concept through factory floor commissioning and volume ramp.
- Expert knowledge of precision mechanical assembly, thermal processing, coil winding, and metal fusion methodologies (soldering, brazing, specialized welding).
- In-depth experience managing large-scale custom capital tooling projects and integrating automated assembly workflows.
- Deep expertise in GD&T, statistical process control (SPC), PFMEA, and modern enterprise software systems (PLM, MRP, ERP).
- Background in aerospace, magnetic confinement fusion, nuclear systems, medical devices, or high-complexity technology hardware.
- Outstanding leadership, project management, and inter-personal communication skills with a history of driving alignment across cross-functional groups.
- Ability to occasionally lift objects up to 50 lbs.

## #LI-RD1

Company Benefits:

- Salary Range $130,000- $155,000
- 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
- [Senior FEA Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-fea-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-xcmsm1bk4pw5) — 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
- [Principal HTS Magnet Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-hts-magnet-engineer-thea-energy-kearny-ev47n4kqr6s4) — Kearny, NJ