Senior Materials Engineer, Material Health Monitoring

About Helion

Helion Energy is a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world’s first fusion power plant and deliver unlimited clean electricity. The company has raised $5 billion from investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, Capricorn Investment Group, Thrive Capital, LightSpeed Venture Capital, SoftBank, and others. Helion’s current prototype, Polaris, has achieved plasma temperatures of 150 million °C (13 keV) and the team is advancing toward the world’s first fusion power plant, Orion.

Role Details

This is a full‑time, on‑site senior position in R&D/Research for the energy industry. The role requires a Bachelor’s degree (or higher) and at least five years of relevant experience working with ceramics, composites, polymers, or metals.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of in‑situ and ex‑situ materials‑health‑monitoring diagnostics for Helion’s fusion generators.
• Design, qualify, and deploy diagnostics that detect and quantify material degradation under combined thermomechanical stress, radiation, high electric fields, and coolant environments.
• Work cross‑functionally with Materials, Research, and Engineering teams to translate failure modes into measurable signals.
• Integrate diagnostics into hardware and predictive models.
• Report to the Lead Materials Scientist.
• Perform data analysis and feature extraction for degradation detection (Python preferred).
• Embed or integrate sensors into structural materials such as ceramics, composites, polymers, or metals.

Requirements

• Education: BS + 10 years experience, MS + 5 years experience, or PhD + 5 years experience.
• Minimum of 5 years relevant experience in materials engineering.
• Hands‑on experience with ceramics, composites, polymers, and metals.
• Proficiency with nondestructive evaluation (NDE), structural health monitoring, coupled‑stimuli experiments, post‑irradiation examination, and sensor integration.
• Familiarity with data analysis and feature extraction for degradation detection, preferably using Python.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in fusion, fission, accelerator, or other high‑radiation environments.
• Experience with radiation effects and post‑irradiation examination (PIE).
• Familiarity with high‑voltage systems or safety‑critical experimental environments.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plans for employees and their families.
• 31 days of PTO (21 vacation days, 10 sick days) plus 10 paid holidays and a company‑wide winter break.
• Up to 5 % employer match on 401(k) contributions.
• Short‑term disability, long‑term disability, and life insurance.
• Paid parental leave and support for up to 16 weeks.
• Annual wellness stipend.