Staff Open Innovation Engineer

Commonwealth Fusion Systems•Devens, MA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is seeking an Open Innovation Engineer to join their mission of delivering the urgent transition to fusion energy. This role operates at the intersection of deep technical fluency and strategic relationship-building, aiming to build CFS' external innovation ecosystem. The engineer will identify, recruit, and activate researchers, institutions, and programs to accelerate CFS' roadmap and mitigate risks. Responsibilities include representing CFS to National Laboratories, universities, government agencies, international fusion programs, and private partners, and transforming these relationships into funded, milestone-driven technical collaborations. The role involves direct collaboration with CFS and partner technical and business leads to drive programs, shape strategy, and influence key external decisions. This is a high-impact role for individuals with technical depth, relationship instincts, and entrepreneurial drive, contributing to a civilization-defining mission.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering or a related technical field
10+ years experience owning, developing or managing a technical project, program or product, with value exceeding $1M/year.
10+ years experience managing one or more technical or business partnerships comprising multiple stakeholders across diverse groups or institutions
Experience building executive consensus and driving organizational alignment
Perform extended activities such as typing, standing, sitting for extended periods of time
Willingness to travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call occasionally
Work in a facility that contains industrial hazards including heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, high current, pressure systems, and cryogenics
May need to walk around lab, R&D, and manufacturing environments, and abide by all safety protocols for potential hazards including high magnetic fields, cryogenic liquids, large equipment, high power electronics, etc.
Must have compliance with U.S. laws concerning the export of controlled or protected technologies or information (collectively, “Export Control Laws")

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in the field of Engineering, Business, a field with a scientific component or another related field
Experience negotiating project and program contracts, including IP terms, and including with public and private partners
Experience with energy technologies, systems or markets – fusion energy a plus
Familiarity with enterprise management systems such as Confluence/Jira or an equivalent

Responsibilities

Create a vision for technical partnerships: Identify, recruit and build new collaborators, programs and relationships with the capabilities required to retire risk and accelerate roadmaps. Partners may include large and small companies, universities, National Labs, non-profit organizations, and foreign research organizations.
Own partner success stories: Take ownership of existing relationships with key international public and private fusion programs and technical teams. Understand how our goals align and where they differ. Drive decision, projects and programs forward.
Execute and evolve business processes, guided by technical and relationship insight, to accelerate the CFS commercial pathway.
Connect the dots: Integrate with internal R&D, engineering, procurement and policy teams to understand the equities involved in a relationship, and how technical and business opportunities and risks can be pursued in the context they create.
Imagine and create: Pitch, catalyze and deliver new programs and collaborations to CFS technical and business unit leads, and some of the best technical talent in the world, including at the world’s best-known companies. Support innovation processes across company divisions – unite and lead.
Create opportunities: Devise and execute funding strategies for your program basket, including but not limited to government grants, in-kind private collaborations, philanthropies, and other internal and external funding. You will have the ownership to make it happen.
Write the CFS story: Write proposals, white papers, government grant applications, pitches, and relationship briefs that make clear opportunities and risks, with a bias to execution and speed.
Tackle organizational complexity: Become the expert on your partners, programs, and projects, through insight and execution experience. Support the entire collaborative program life-cycle, including launch, execution, and conclusion. This includes executing contracts, setting and tracking milestones and deliverables, and memorializing outputs.
Technically capable business operator: You can read a technical paper and call a National Lab scientist to discuss it; then take a call with an internal commercial lead and external contracts agent or program owner to discuss terms and roadmaps. You are comfortable at the intersection of technical and business environments.
Strategic thinker: You are able to parse, negotiate and plan your way through a field of intersecting, conflicting or incompletely known organizational roadmaps, finding and creating value where others don’t see it. You can plan the next chess move to advance one or more strategic partnerships, advocate for it, and catalyze internal and external teams to pursue it.
Self-starting dynamo: You have relentless energy and drive, and are driven to problem solve and take informed risks in a dynamic, quickly evolving business environment, while recognizing constraints and the needs of colleagues and external partners.
Life-long learner: You have an endless curiosity and have demonstrated ability to rapidly learn new, complex technical fields, to the extent that you can converse, plan and execute with experts in those fields.
Exceptional communicator and negotiator: You have finely honed oral, written and extemporaneous communication skills, proven out in complex technical, programmatic and business environments. You are the person in the room who can crystallize, summarize, motivate and deliver insight. You are persuasive and are able to find win-win solutions with partners.
Problem solver: You direct your curiosity and energy into solving real problems on the ground, including technical, organizational, financial, and contractual. You can navigate complexity and act as a forcing function to real solutions.
Mastery of details: You will be the person on your team that spots an inconsistency, missing requirement, gap, or alignment that turns into an opportunity or retires a risk. You can absorb, process, rank, and organize large quantities of information of different categories at high velocity.