Control Systems Manager

Thea Energy•Kearny, NJ

23h

About The Position

The Control Systems Manager leads the day-to-day development, realization, integration, commissioning, and maintenance of control systems for Thea Energy’s technology development programs. The scope includes prototype equipment, experimental test stands, and superconducting-magnet test facilities. The manager translates approved program and test requirements into safe, reliable, and maintainable control and data systems, and directly supervises a multidisciplinary team of engineers, developers, technicians, and other specialists. The role combines people leadership, delivery planning, systems engineering, and hands-on work in laboratory and field environments. Thea Energy is developing a commercial fusion-energy approach based on computer-controlled arrays of planar coils, intended to simplify stellarator design. The company’s mission is to create a zero-emission energy source for a sustainable future.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or higher in electrical engineering, controls engineering, computer science, physics, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Six or more years of relevant engineering experience in integrated control systems, industrial automation, instrumentation, fast data acquisition, real-time systems, embedded systems, or test-facility engineering.
Three or more years directly supervising engineers or serving as an engineering team lead, with responsibility for work assignment, coaching, performance feedback, and team delivery.
Demonstrated delivery of complex control or test systems from requirements and design through implementation, validation, commissioning, and operational support.
Strong systems-engineering practice, including requirements management, interface definition, verification planning, design reviews, configuration control, and technical documentation.
Strong foundation in machine protection and high-reliability design, including interlocks, alarms, permissives, fail-safe behavior, fault recovery, and disciplined testing.
Working knowledge of instrumentation and electrical controls, including sensors, signal conditioning, grounding, shielding, isolation, calibration, and noise mitigation.
Experience managing schedules, risks, resources, approved supplier work, and competing priorities across several development efforts.
Ability to communicate technical decisions clearly across physics, mechanical, electrical, software, safety, operations, and program teams.
Willingness and ability to work directly with equipment in laboratory and field environments during integration, commissioning, and troubleshooting.

Nice To Haves

Experience with LabVIEW, SCADA, distributed control systems, and operator-interface development.
Experience with Beckhoff TwinCAT, Allen-Bradley, CODESYS, IEC 61131-3 practices, safety PLCs, and industrial I/O.
Experience with OPC UA, DDS, Modbus, EtherCAT, TCP/IP, message brokers, and documented application interfaces.
Experience with PXI/PXIe systems, high-speed digitizers, FPGA-based acquisition, event frameworks, timestamping, and low-latency streaming.
Experience with IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol, White Rabbit, hardware triggering, clock distribution, and deterministic networks.
Experience with LabVIEW, C, C++, Python, real-time Linux or other real-time operating systems, hardware interfaces, test automation, and deployment tooling.
Experience with time-series and scientific data stores, historians, metadata, data pipelines, visualization, retention, and access controls.
Experience at fusion devices, superconducting-magnet test facilities, accelerators, advanced energy systems, aerospace test systems, or other complex scientific facilities.

Responsibilities

Manage and mentor controls engineers, including work allocation, technical coaching, performance management, and hiring as the team grows.
Own detailed controls plans and delivery for assigned technology development programs and test facilities; manage schedules, milestones, risks, dependencies, status, and resource estimates, and escalate conflicts requiring portfolio or staffing changes.
Develop customized control-system designs within approved architecture, covering supervisory control, industrial automation, real-time control, data acquisition, timing, embedded systems, data management, and operator interfaces; submit architectural patterns, platform changes, and exceptions to the Director for approval.
Translate experimental, equipment, and facility needs into control-system requirements, interface definitions, acceptance criteria, and verification plans; coordinate interfaces with magnet, power, cryogenic, vacuum, mechanical, electrical, safety, and test teams.
Guide instrumentation design, including sensor selection, signal conditioning, isolation, grounding, shielding, channel protection, calibration, and signal segregation for noisy, high-power test environments.
Oversee LabVIEW, PLC, embedded, middleware, and data-system development using approved source-control, configuration-management, testing, release, and documentation practices.
Lead design reviews, bench testing, factory and site acceptance testing, installation support, commissioning, troubleshooting, and operational-readiness activities; coordinate hands-on debugging with engineers, technicians, test operators, and equipment owners.
Establish calibration, preventive maintenance, backup and recovery, spare-parts, obsolescence, and change-control practices for assigned systems; resolve recurring failures and improve availability and maintainability.
Manage day-to-day technical execution of vendor and collaborator work packages, including submittal review, interface coordination, test witnessing, and acceptance evidence.
Maintain requirements, architecture descriptions, interface-control documents, I/O lists, electrical drawings, cable schedules, test and operating procedures, source and configuration baselines, and acceptance records.
Plan and coordinate controls work in laboratories and industrial spaces, and model safe practices around energized equipment, strong magnetic fields, cryogenic systems, pressure systems, and other facility hazards.