Head of Monitoring and Control

Job description

**WHO WE ARE** Proxima Fusion is Europe’s fastest-growing fusion company and the continent’s best-funded fusion player, as well as the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). Backed by over €650M and powered by a growing team across Munich, Zurich, and Oxford, we are developing the hardware and infrastructure needed to deliver the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant. Our concept advances the most mature fusion technology out there, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, through two next-generation machines: Alpha and Stellaris. Our work combines stellarator optimization, advanced computation, machine learning, and high-temperature superconducting magnets to unlock higher-performance designs that were previously out of reach. Turning these designs into a functioning fusion power plant requires excellence and ownership across every discipline, from physics and engineering to software, manufacturing, law, and business functions. **WHY JOIN PROXIMA FUSION** - You will get to work on some of the most complex tech challenges to bring abundant, safe, clean energy to the world. - You'll get to join and learn from an exceptional selection of accomplished and driven individuals. - Do your life’s best work and enjoy the journey. - Get to show that big things are possible in Europe when you assemble the best talent. **YOUR IMPACT** Build and lead the team owning the architecture, design, and integration of the facility-wide monitoring and control systems for Alpha, Proxima’s net energy gain stellarator. We are moving away from legacy industrial control paradigms towards a fully integrated control and observability platform. We are looking for a leader inspired by the cutting edge of robotics, autonomous vehicles, and modern aerospace avionics to lead this development. Pushing forwards the cutting edge of control, data, and monitoring capabilities for energy infrastructure, your role will span physical infrastructure, systems programming, real-time operations and scalable facility compute. **WHAT YOU WILL DO** - **Specify mission control & supervisory software:** Own the overarching supervisory control, telemetry pipelines, and live monitoring stack across Alpha and future Proxima facilities. - **Build the facility data center & data platform:** Design, deploy, and scale the facility compute hardware and software data platform responsible for high-speed ingestion, streaming telemetry, storage, and live visualization. - **Drive functional safety strategy:** Define the device-wide technical strategy for functional safety, collaborating directly with internal engineers and external regulatory stakeholders. - **Lead physical facility & environmental integration:** Partner with facility teams to ensure physical services, cabling, and infrastructure support the I&C architecture under harsh radiation and magnetic field constraints. - **Drive hardware R&D:** Identify R&D opportunities for control and automation hardware. Act as an expert customer to specify and co-design with external vendors. - **Standardize clean interface boundaries:** Establish hardware and software interface standards across subsystems. Collaborate closely with system teams that own edge-level hardware and software. **WHO YOU ARE** - **Exceptional execution & delivery leadership:** Proven experience as a delivery or execution lead, selecting outstanding talent and building highly collaborative teams in a fast-moving environment. You excel at translating complex R&D into operational reality. - **A vision for modern control and data systems:** Strong background working with safety and mission-critical software, combined with a vision to incorporate the best of modern software and AI into operational infrastructure. - **Lessons learnt in high-consequence engineering:** Proven experience in high-performance sectors operating under strict performance and reliability constraints. Demonstrated track record in critical external customer, vendor, and stakeholder management. - **Operational and physical integration experience:** You bring hands-on operational skills in mission control and real-time data analysis, combined with experience integrating software with physical hardware. **INTERVIEW PROCESS** - Recruiter Interview (30-60 min) - Technical Screening (30 min) - Technical Panel (3x60 min) - CEO call (30 min) \*This role sits at "L4" of our framework, please inquire during the recruitment process for further information. *At Proxima Fusion, our mission is bold: making limitless clean energy a reality. To get there, we need a high-performing, diverse team that brings different perspectives, challenges assumptions, and builds together with purpose. We know that diversity of thought and experience leads to better ideas, stronger execution, and a more resilient team. We don’t look at how you identify, what you look like, who you choose to worship or what ethnicity you are. We care about what you can bring to the table.*