Intern, Global Partnership

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 US - Work on a civilisation-scale problem - Clean, baseload fusion energy is one of the few genuinely world-changing challenges, and every hire in Finance, People, or Legal directly accelerates the path to a working stellarator. - Grow as fast as the company does - With headcount set to roughly 5x in a few years and major technical milestones ahead on the path to our demo machine and first power plant, your role grows under you; today's hire is tomorrow's function lead. - Tackle problems that don't exist elsewhere - Fusion sits at a rare intersection of deep-tech R&D, industrial procurement, government relations, and venture financing, so non-tech functions face challenges no other workplace can offer. YOUR IMPACT You will join the Partnerships and Public Affairs team with one goal: multiply what the team can do. You will work on international and European development projects and join a wide range of initiatives - from growing our industrial partner network to preparing major grant applications. To get there, you will bring innovation into how we work and make decisions - notably by building AI-driven tools and workflows that sharpen how we manage partnerships, grants, and our supply chain, applied directly to live projects with Europe's leading industrial partners and public funding bodies. WHAT YOU WILL DO - Support public funding through grant applications: help draft and coordinate public funding proposals (IPCEI, Euratom, France 2030, German federal programs); German language skills are a strong asset here. - Work with technical teams: translate engineering inputs into compelling grant and partner documents, and keep both sides in sync. - Improve team processes with AI: design and deploy AI-powered workflows (meeting-notes pipelines, CRM enrichment, reporting automation, coding agents such as Cursor/Claude) to streamline how the Partnerships team operates. - Map the partner ecosystem: build and maintain an AI-assisted mapping of our industrial partners and prospects - capabilities, contracts, contacts, and funding relevance. - Prototype and ship: own small end-to-end projects that create leverage for the team, for example, helping build a trustful stream of communication with the other teams to ensure that the information cascades correctly. WHO YOU ARE - Background in energy, engineering / STEM / Mathematics, and/or business. - Hands-on experience with AI tools and a builder mindset. - Entrepreneurial track record welcome (side projects, start-up or founder experience). - Fluent English; German at C1 level is a very strong plus (grant work). INTERVIEW PROCESS - Recruiter Interview (30-60 min) - Technical Screening (30 min) - Technical Panel (3x60 min) *This role sits at "L1" 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.