Pulsed power

Founding Engineer — Pulsed Power & High Voltage

Own the pulsed-power and high-voltage systems that would drive Laurelin’s first integrated experimental machine.

Planned full-timeSan Francisco, CA · On-site

The role

Build the first machine with us.

Laurelin is developing a compact, pulsed fusion architecture designed around direct electromagnetic energy conversion. This founding engineering role would take primary ownership of the capacitor bank, switching, protection, pulse delivery, and high-voltage safety systems behind the first funded test program.

You would work directly with founder Joe Finberg, translating machine requirements into a testable power architecture and building the evidence needed to advance from subsystem checkout to integrated coil shots. The work is hands-on: architecture, component selection, fabrication oversight, commissioning, fault investigation, and disciplined iteration at the bench.

What you would own

Define the capacitor-bank, switching, transmission, protection, dump, and crowbar architecture for staged experiments.
Own high-voltage safety, grounding, interlocks, stored-energy procedures, and commissioning plans.
Build a measured path from low-voltage checkout through banked-energy testing and first integrated coil shots.
Diagnose switching, insulation, electromagnetic-interference, and energy-recovery failures using shot data.
Specify components and work with fabricators and vendors while keeping critical interfaces under tight configuration control.
Document acceptance criteria, hazards, test results, and design changes clearly enough for rapid review and repetition.

What we are looking for

Direct experience designing, commissioning, or operating high-energy pulsed-power or high-voltage systems.
Strong working knowledge of switching, pulse-forming networks, protection, insulation coordination, grounding, and fault-energy management.
Evidence of taking hardware from first architecture through safe bring-up, failure analysis, and verified correction.
Ability to reason from first principles while making practical decisions under schedule and hardware constraints.
Clear technical writing and a rigorous approach to laboratory safety.

Especially useful

Experience with pulsed magnets, capacitor banks, high-current buswork, or plasma-physics experiments.
Familiarity with electromagnetic simulation, high-bandwidth current and voltage measurement, and high-EMI environments.
Experience establishing a new laboratory or early-stage hardware program.

Application

Apply for Founding Engineer — Pulsed Power & High Voltage

Tell us what you have built and how you think about the work. Applications will be reviewed directly by founder Joe Finberg.

First nameLast nameEmailPhone (optional)Current locationLinkedIn, portfolio, or résumé link (optional)

Role questions

Please answer using only public or non-confidential experience. Do not submit proprietary information belonging to a current or former employer.

01 · Describe the highest-energy pulsed-power system you have designed or commissioned.Include stored energy, voltage or current, topology, protection approach, one bring-up failure, and the evidence that proved the fix.02 · How would you stage safety and acceptance gates from low-voltage checkout to a first banked-energy coil shot?Be specific about what you would measure, what would stop the test, and what evidence would permit the next step.03 · Which bank, protection, or recovery decision would you de-risk first, and what result would change your mind?We are looking for a concrete experiment and a falsifiable decision rule.

I understand that work in this role may be subject to U.S. export-control and deemed-export review, evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

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