IFE Program Director

Responsibilities:

Oversee and accountable for the design, planning, and execution strategy of a large-scale, billion-dollar class program, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.
Provide day-to-day leadership to matrixed engineering, science and operations teams, maintaining technical integrity and quality standards.
Lead IFE system architecture, from early-stage concept development through engineering design, technology maturation, construction readiness, commissioning, and operational demonstration.
Manage project budgets, resource allocation, and schedules, implementing proactive risk mitigation and reporting on performance metrics.
Collaborate with senior leadership and stakeholders, communicating program status, risks, critical path activities, key dependencies, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
Lead resolution of cross-disciplinary technical issues and trade-offs involving performance, cost, reliability, maintainability, safety, and schedule.
Ensure that design assumptions, technology development activities, and engineering analyses are consistent across the program.
Work with element leads and technical authorities to establish appropriate design maturity, validation requirements, and evidence-based readiness assessments.
Establish effective program governance, reporting, configuration management, change control, and decision-making processes.
Ensure that near-term technical and engineering decisions support the long-term commercial deployment strategy.

Qualifications:

Education: MS in physics, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering or related technical field.
Experience: 15+ years leading large, complex programs (billion-dollar scale preferred) within an engineering-intensive environment (semiconductor, laser, nuclear, space and defense, etc.).
Proven track record of guiding large-scale technical teams through all phases of technical program delivery.
Demonstrated success translating technical objectives into integrated program plans with measurable milestones, budgets, schedules, and accountable owners.
Experience coordinating multiple technical disciplines and managing complex system interfaces and dependencies.
Strong understanding of systems engineering, technology maturation, technical risk management, and engineering design reviews.
Experience managing program budgets, resource allocation, external contracts, and executive-level reporting.
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Desired:

Ph.D. in a relevant engineering field.
Experience in fusion energy development, nuclear technology, advanced energy systems, or another highly complex, capital-intensive technology program.
Experience with pilot plants, first-of-a-kind facilities, prototype systems, or integrated technology demonstrations.
Familiarity with fusion plant architectures, including major subsystems such as the laser driver, targets, chamber, and fusion fuel cycle.
Familiarity with regulatory and compliance frameworks for high-value engineering projects.