Senior Engineer - Industrial Control Systems Technical Lead

About the role

Type One Energy Group is mission-driven to provide sustainable, affordable fusion power to the world. Established in 2019 and venture-backed in 2023, the company is led by a team of globally recognized fusion scientists with a strong track record of building state-of-the-art stellarator fusion machines, together with veteran business leaders experienced in scaling companies and commercializing energy technologies. The Senior Engineer - Industrial Control Systems Technical Lead will serve as the technical authority for the development and delivery of Project Infinity control systems, defining the overall control system architecture and guiding multidisciplinary teams in delivering integrated, secure, reliable, and operationally ready solutions aligned with program objectives, system architecture, and the product breakdown structure.

Location: Knoxville, TN | Contract: Permanent, full time | Reports to: Director of Electrical and Software Engineering | Salary: Highly Competitive Plus Benefits

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority and overall technical lead for Project Infinity control systems, ensuring capabilities align with program objectives, system architecture, and the product breakdown structure.
• Define, maintain, and communicate the industrial control system architecture, including control systems, data acquisition, industrial networking, historian and storage solutions, SCADA platforms, integration frameworks, and supporting infrastructure.
• Collaborate with technical leads, systems engineers, physicists, and plant stakeholders to elicit, document, and manage requirements for control, monitoring, data acquisition, alarm management, and communications across plant systems and subsystems.
• Lead the development and review of control narratives, process flow diagrams (PFDs), piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), interface definitions, and related engineering documentation.
• Translate operational requirements and control narratives into detailed system designs, hardware and software architectures, PLC implementations, HMI designs, SCADA configurations, and communications interfaces.
• Establish technical standards, design principles, and engineering best practices for Project Infinity control systems.
• Lead technical trade studies and recommend automation platforms, PLC hardware, SCADA software, industrial networking technologies, data storage architectures, simulation environments, and third-party solutions.
• Provide technical leadership, guidance, mentorship, and design oversight to assigned engineers.
• Coordinate with Engineering and PMO management to develop work breakdown structures, resource estimates, assignments, schedules, budgets, technical risks, and delivery milestones.
• Track execution against milestones and deliverables; identify technical risks, dependencies, and mitigation strategies.
• Evaluate, select, and oversee vendors, suppliers, and technology partners providing control-system hardware, software, infrastructure, and engineering services.
• Ensure integration with plant control equipment, instrumentation, interlock systems, data acquisition hardware, facility infrastructure, and other systems.
• Lead verification, validation, integration testing, factory acceptance testing (FAT), site acceptance testing (SAT), commissioning, and operational-readiness activities.
• Ensure designs comply with applicable regulatory requirements, industry standards, cybersecurity requirements, and company engineering processes.
• Ensure consistency across all control-systems work products.
• Contribute to industrial control networks, control-room systems, server infrastructure, data archiving, time synchronization, and cybersecurity controls needed for safe and reliable operation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Physics, or a related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in industrial automation, control systems engineering, SCADA, distributed control systems (DCS), industrial software systems, or related disciplines.
• 5+ years of technical leadership experience directing the architecture, design, and implementation of complex, multidisciplinary control systems.
• Significant experience leading industrial automation, control systems, SCADA, or large-scale operational technology (OT) projects.
• Experience developing and deploying PLC-based control solutions and supervisory control systems in complex industrial, energy, process-control, manufacturing, utility, aerospace, nuclear, or fusion-energy environments.
• Strong background in industrial networking, data acquisition systems, instrumentation integration, control-room operations, and high-availability system architectures.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams through requirements development, architecture definition, design reviews, implementation, integration, testing, and commissioning.
• Experience with vendor evaluation, technical procurement, and management of external suppliers and system integrators.
• Familiarity with systems engineering processes, requirements management, interface management, configuration management, and technical risk management.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to coordinate across engineering, operations, project management, and executive stakeholders.

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Controls Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• Advanced coursework or specialization in industrial automation, control systems, real-time systems, distributed systems, industrial networking, cybersecurity, or systems engineering.
• Hands-on experience with Rockwell Automation PLC and control platforms, including Allen-Bradley ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FactoryTalk, and related technologies.
• Hands-on experience with Ignition for HMI/SCADA design and implementation.

Benefits

• Hybrid work policy
• Stock options
• Relocation allowance
• Insurance plans
• Retirement options
• Yearly bonus
• Additional voluntary benefits