Role
Helion is hiring a Senior Materials Engineer, Material Health Monitoring, to lead materials health monitoring for its fusion generators. Reporting to the Lead Materials Scientist, the engineer designs, qualifies and deploys diagnostics that detect and quantify degradation under combined thermomechanical stress, radiation, high electric fields and coolant environments.
Responsibilities: Develop in-situ and ex-situ diagnostics for fusion-relevant components such as the first wall, magnets, insulators, capacitors, high-voltage interfaces and seals, translating failure modes into measurable signals. Design coupled-stimuli experiments and post-irradiation examinations (PIE) to validate methods, and build test matrices linking microstructural change to sensor output and component performance. Own the materials diagnostics and sensing roadmap, converting risk assessments into requirements for what to measure, where, how often and how accurately. Embed diagnostics in hardware with design engineers, feed results into predictive models and maintenance strategies, and productize reliable methods.
Requirements: A BS with 10 or more years, or an MS or PhD with five or more years, in materials science, materials engineering, applied physics, nuclear engineering or a related field. Experience must cover at least one of materials diagnostics, non-destructive evaluation or structural health monitoring (for example strain, acoustic, optical, electromagnetic or fibre-optic methods), or data analysis and feature extraction for degradation detection, with Python preferred. Experience designing coupled-stimuli experiments and embedding sensors in ceramics, composites, polymers or metals is also required.
Preferred experience: Work in fusion, fission, accelerator or other high-radiation environments; radiation effects and PIE; and high-voltage or safety-critical experimental settings.
Working arrangements: The role is onsite at Helion's Everett, Washington office. The application asks about U.S. work eligibility, sponsorship needs and U.S.-person status, noting that Helion may need to determine whether export authorization is required.
Snapshot
| Employer | Helion |
| Workplace | Everett, Washington, US |
| Onsite | Onsite |
| Employment type | Full-time |
| Salary | $164,000–$236,000 a year |
| Date posted | 2026-09-15 |
| Expires | — |
| Verified | 2026-10-06 |
Sources & verification
The original publication date is exactly as posted on the employer ATS — no substitutions. The links below are the same ATS pages we used to verify this listing; the dates come from when we last checked them.
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