Senior Engineering Program Manager
About the role
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.
Thea Energy is seeking a highly structured, collaborative, and proactive Senior Engineering Program Manager to drive the execution of our cutting-edge hardware development programs. In this role, you will define and drive program planning across multidisciplinary hardware design, test, supply chain, and manufacturing teams, owning critical-path delivery for complex hardware components. You will partner closely with technical leads to establish requirements, manage engineering BOM strategies, and orchestrate design-build-test cycles, ensuring seamless integration across physics and engineering boundaries while proactively mitigating technical and schedule risks. The ideal candidate has a deep technical background in large-scale hardware engineering (such as climate tech, aerospace, or nuclear), excels at translating complex progress and risks into clear strategic decisions for leadership, and thrives in a fast-moving, high-ownership startup environment. Thea Energy’s dynamic team is made up of self-motivated individuals with an excitement for solving complex problems.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive program planning and execution across hardware design, test, supply chain, and manufacturing teams, with a clear plan of record and critical-path ownership
- Drive the design, build, and test cycles for complex hardware components
- Partner with technical leads to define product requirements, validation strategies, and decision gates, ensuring design tradeoffs are explicitly documented and understood across teams
- Own engineering BOM strategy and NPI readiness, working closely with engineers and supply chain to balance performance, cost, availability, and manufacturability
- Provide regular, detailed program updates to leadership and stakeholders, highlighting progress, technical challenges, and proposed solutions
- Proactively identify and manage technical, schedule, budget, and quality risks. develop effective mitigation strategies and contingency plans
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field
- 5+ years leading complex, multidisciplinary engineering programs ideally involving large scale hardware development in climate tech, aerospace, nuclear, or related industries
- Demonstrated ability to work deeply with technical teams (physics, mechanical engineering, magnet engineering, manufacturing engineering) and solve first of a kind problems
- Strong grasp of DFM principles and the realities of design, build, test cycles
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence across engineering, operations, and leadership teams
- Proven ability to distill complex technical programs into clear risks, decisions, and priorities for leadership audiences
- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment, with high ownership and ambiguity
- Nice to have: product and technology roadmap development experience
Benefits
- Comprehensive health benefits (e.g. medical/dental/vision)
- Employee equity stock options
- 20 days PTO
Pay
Salary range $130,000-$180,000