Lead R&D Engineer (Fusion)

Location: Munich, Germany; on-site, full-time

Company

hirify.global is a European fusion company and spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics developing hardware and infrastructure for commercial stellarator fusion power plants, including the Alpha and Stellaris machines.

What you will do

• Own tritium-breeding blanket design from initial requirements through conceptual design, prototype manufacture, commissioning, and testing, with accountability for budget, schedule, and technical outcomes.
• Develop the integrated remote-maintenance architecture, including segmentation, access, handling, service connections, inspection, replacement, and recovery from failed operations.
• Lead compliance analysis across neutronics, thermal hydraulics, structural integrity, materials, tritium, decommissioning, safety, and remote maintenance.
• Select, design, procure, manufacture, instrument, commission, and test rapid fail-fast prototypes.
• Translate test results into updated models, requirements, risk assessments, and design decisions.
• Build and lead a multidisciplinary technical design team while coordinating external institutes, industrial partners, and specialist suppliers.

Requirements

• Master’s degree or higher in mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, materials science, chemical engineering, physics, or equivalent experience.
• Experience leading complex nuclear, thermal, chemical, or energy technology development from conceptual design through hardware and testing under budget and time constraints.
• Ability to lead multidisciplinary trade studies without prematurely converging on a preferred solution.
• Strong knowledge in several relevant areas, including thermal hydraulics, structural mechanics, neutronics, nuclear materials, tritium systems, high-temperature coolants, corrosion, manufacturing, or remote handling.
• Ability to distinguish analysis that enables a decision from analysis that only adds detail.
• Ability to structure and manage technical work with external institutes, industrial partners, and specialist suppliers.
• Willingness to test critical assumptions early, learn from failure, and stop weak development paths.
• Ability to make clear and defensible engineering decisions under uncertainty.

Nice to have

• Experience with fusion blankets, fission-reactor components, breeder materials, tritium systems, or remotely maintained nuclear equipment; explicitly not required.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on complex technology intended to enable abundant, safe, clean fusion energy.
• Collaborate with an international team across Munich, Zurich, and Oxford.
• Work in a fast-moving, pragmatic environment focused on practical engineering solutions and rapid execution.
• Contribute to a diverse team that values different perspectives, challenges assumptions, and builds with purpose.

Hiring process

• Recruiter interview lasting 30–60 minutes.
• Technical screening lasting 30 minutes.
• Technical panel consisting of three 60-minute interviews.