Principal Compensation Partner

Helion•Seattle, WA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

About Helion We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone. Since Helion's founding in 2013, we have raised $1.5 billion from long-time investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group as well as new investors including Thrive Capital, LightSpeed Venture Capital, SoftBank, and others to propel us forward. Our current prototype, Polaris, has reached record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius (13 keV). Helion is continuing to iterate and on the path to the world's first fusion power plant, Orion. This is a pivotal time to join Helion. You will tackle real-world challenges with a team that prizes urgency, rigor, ownership, and a commitment to delivering hard truths – values essential to achieving what no one has before. Together, we will change the future of energy, because the world can't wait. What You Will Be Doing: You will lead Helion's compensation strategy, with a focus on evolving our equity programs and building scalable compensation structures across our technical, corporate, and manufacturing teams. You will partner directly with executive leadership to shape how we attract, reward, and retain employees as we grow, combining company-wide strategic ownership with hands-on program design and execution. This is an individual contributor role with full end-to-end ownership of comp strategy across the company. This onsite role is based in our Seattle, WA office and reports to our Senior Director of Talent and People Operations.

Requirements

10+ years of compensation experience, including building and scaling compensation programs in startup or high-growth environments
Deep expertise in pre-IPO equity and stock-based compensation
Experience designing compensation structures and incentives for a large hourly workforce
Strong analytical and financial modeling skills, including market benchmarking, equity forecasting, and scenario analysis
Hands-on experience with best-in-class compensation systems and platforms, with the judgment to build internal tools and processes where off-the-shelf solutions fall short
Comfort leveraging data and AI-powered tools to scale analysis and improve decision speed
Proven ability to advise executives, challenge assumptions, and communicate complex compensation recommendations clearly
Demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous compensation needs into practical programs, balancing long-term strategy with hands-on execution

Responsibilities

Build competitive salary, hourly pay, and incentive structures that reward performance and scale with the business
Own and evolve Helion's equity strategy, including plan design, grant guidelines, and evaluation of future award structures
Design and own compensation structures specifically for our large hourly manufacturing workforce, including pay equity, overtime/FLSA considerations, and multi-tier pay progression
Advise executive leadership on compensation strategies and trade-offs, supporting Board-level discussions as needed
Lead compensation cycles, promotions, equity grants, and offer reviews with Talent and People Business Partners
Partner with Finance on compensation budgets, equity forecasting, and governance
Develop clear compensation and equity education that helps employees understand their compensation and equips leaders to communicate effectively