Senior Control Systems Engineer

Xcimer Energy Corporation is looking for a control systems engineer to help us build state-of-the-art UV laser systems for nuclear fusion. We are a small, dynamic, and highly motivated team focused on the most plausible path to bringing fusion to the grid. You will have the opportunity to apply broad electrical engineering skills and technical leadership to complex problems, and directly contribute to the design of active beam control systems for high energy lasers.

Responsibilities
Your role will be concentrated on designing an overall control systems architecture to control deep UV high energy laser beam alignment, pointing and wavefront to target. You will work closely with the optical engineering, mechanical, and software teams to facilitate operation, beam control, and diagnostics using numerous electro-optical subsystems and component-level devices. You will be responsible for innovative approaches and implementation architecture for pointing control subsystems (slow/fast steering mirrors and tracking sensors), adaptive optics subsystems (deformable mirrors and wavefront sensors), and diagnostic subsystems (alignment recovery hardware, power meters, beam characterization sensors, laser trackers, etc).

Qualifications

- B.S. degree (M.S. or PhD preferred) in electrical engineering, or related field
- 6+ years of direct electro-optical controls systems engineering experience
- Fluent in controls systems-based software (Matlab-Simulink preferred)
- Experience with closed loop systems using fast steering mirrors, tracking sensors, and tracking algorithms/filters to maintain precision level pointing accuracy in the presence of multiple external jitter sources
- Experience with developing and maintaining an overall controls system architecture comprised of multiple electro-optical subsystems
- Experience with adaptive optics systems including deformable mirrors and wavefront sensors
- Experience with precision level timing sequence development and automation of electro-optical components
- Experience with sensor and sensor control integration
- Experience in high energy optical systems working in the deep UV
Xcimer Energy is a startup pursuing baseload energy production from inertial fusion. We are using the same fundamental physics recently proven by the NIF (National Ignition Facility), made economically viable by Xcimer’s novel, low-cost laser architecture. Xcimer was founded in 2021 by a team of experts in high-energy laser systems, nuclear physics, and fusion engineering, and is backed by leading clean energy and deep-tech investors. Xcimer’s comprehensive, integrated design for a power plant has been analyzed and reviewed by independent experts and offers the most assured path to put fusion energy on the grid within 10 years. Xcimer is currently finalizing plans for construction of a prototype, multi-kJ laser facility to demonstrate critical aspects of the Xcimer laser architecture.