Process Engineering Summer Intern

About the role

We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone. Since Helion's founding in 2013, we have raised $1.5 billion from long-time investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group as well as new investors including Thrive Capital, LightSpeed Venture Capital, SoftBank, and others to propel us forward. Our current prototype, Polaris, has reached record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius (13 keV). Helion is continuing to iterate and on the path to the world's first fusion power plant, Orion. This is a pivotal time to join Helion. You will tackle real-world challenges with a team that prizes urgency, rigor, ownership, and a commitment to delivering hard truths – values essential to achieving what no one has before. Together, we will change the future of energy, because the world can't wait.

Responsibilities

• Work on separation systems: recycling gas from the machine’s vacuum system and separating unspent fuel from fusion byproducts
• Learn the technology and related systems (vacuum, cryogenics, etc.)
• Optimize system parameters
• Design experiments
• Collect and analyze data
• Modify the test setup
• Present findings and recommendations at the end of the internship
• Learn and operate a separation technology used in Helion’s fuel cycle while understanding the system on a conceptual level
• Adhere to safety protocols and gain hands‑on experience with system operation
• Optimize specific system parameters and present a report detailing your process and results
• Explore and/or implement system improvements and conduct independent experiments to further enhance the technology

Qualifications

• Ability to work full time, onsite in Everett, WA for a minimum of 12 consecutive weeks during summer 2027
• Currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Nuclear Engineering
• GPA of 3.0 or above
• Strong understanding of engineering principles like thermodynamics, fluids, mass transfer, heat transfer, and mechanics
• Proficiency in data analysis and familiarity with software tools (MATLAB, Python, Excel)
• Ability to learn how a system operates and run it independently
• Basic understanding of chemistry and steady‑state systems (undergraduate level)

Pay

Compensation Range: $48

Schedule

12‑week onsite internship at our Everett, WA office.