Senior Materials Engineer, Ceramic Fabrication

Responsibilities

• You Will:
• Lead high‑impact, multi‑disciplinary projects focused on ceramic processing, forming, densification, and scale‑up for materials operating under fusion generator conditions, including high neutron radiation.
• Drive the translation of ceramic materials from laboratory formulations to prototype parts and full‑scale components, ensuring repeatability, performance, and manufacturability at each stage.
• Contribute to the delivery of Helion's inorganic hardware needs, including plasma containment vessels, electrical insulators, resistive components, and structural ceramics, with hands‑on ownership of fabrication methods.
• Serve as the internal ceramics fabrication owner, acting as the "go‑to" person for scalable ceramic processing routes, scale‑up risks, vendor capabilities, and production readiness across the company.
• Navigate an environment with technical obstacles and evolving requirements, balancing fabrication risk, schedule, and performance without compromising delivery.
• Partner with internal Helion teams, external vendors, national laboratories, and universities to develop scalable ceramic fabrication capabilities, qualify processes and suppliers, and close technical gaps.
• Represent Helion in technical discussions, supplier reviews, and conferences related to ceramic processing, prototyping, and scale‑up.
• Required Skills:
• Demonstrated achievement performing bulk and CMCs ceramic process development and fabrication for a material or component used in a commercial product or integral to a large, single‑unit system (e.g., engines, turbines, reactors, or large pressure vessels).
• 8+ years of industry experience in ceramics or materials engineering, including delivering projects from lab development through prototype fabrication to full‑scale components, including design reviews.
• Proven experience planning and executing ceramic component development efforts guided by milestone schedules, with accountability for hardware delivery.
• Hands‑on experience with ceramic powder processing, forming, firing, post‑processing, testing, and characterization.
• Experience using ceramic processes to produce large ceramic components and implementation of strategies to reduce scale-up risks.
• Desired but not required: experience with radiation‑exposed ceramics or extreme environment testing.
• A strong bias for action, with the ability to learn through rapid prototyping, hands‑on fabrication, and iterative scale‑up, executing with urgency in high‑uncertainty environments.
• #LI-Onsite #LI-TM1

Benefits

Additional Information

About Helion 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 over $1 billion from long-time investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group as well as new investors SoftBank and Lightspeed to propel us forward. Our last prototype, Trenta, completed 10,000 high-power pulses and reached plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (9 keV). We are now operating Polaris, our next prototype on the path to the world's first fusion power plant. 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.

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at helion? Share your experience