Group Leader Burning Plasma Physics

We are looking for an inspiring & talented Group Leader of Burning Plasma Physics to spearhead research and development efforts, optimizing plasma stability, fueling, heating, and material interactions essential for achieving breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology.

Our team is diverse, agile, international, and based in the exciting city of Grenoble, by the French Alps.

Responsibilities

The Group Leader manages the activities of the burning plasma physics group ensuring the understanding of the neoclassical and turbulent transport phenomena for the plasma configurations calculated by the group, designing predictive tools of transport phenomena, and solving fundamental challenges related to the behavior of burning plasmas within the stellarator geometry, including macro-instabilities of MHD nature, kinetic micro-instabilities, and turbulence.

*Transport modeling activities

• Oversee the development of models to understand and predict neoclassical and turbulent transport of charged particles and energy in fusion plasmas.
• Guide the studies on fusion-born alpha particles: finding their distribution function in the envisaged equilibriums, investigating their possible excitation of energetic particle modes (e.g., alpha-driven Alfven eigenmodes), their effects and coupling with other plasma phenomena (e.g., kinetic ballooning modes, sawtooth-like activities, etc.)
• Supervise the estimation of energy and particle confinement times by employing gyrokinetic modeling to improve the accuracy

*Plasma modeling activities

• Guide research to understand the behavior of burning plasmas and focusing on addressing the fundamental problems in the high-field regime of the stellarator.
• Oversee studies on helium ash handling, impurity loading, and the physics of the plasma-facing components.
• Direct efforts in plasma heating and fueling methods, POPCON analysis, real-time plasma control, and magnetohydrodynamic stability.

*Team management

• Plan and manage research projects, ensuring they are completed on time, within scope, and within budget
• Be the ambassador of Renaissance Fusion's vision within your team, and promote its culture, values (speed, simplicity, fantastic realism, constructive interference and unified force) and policies
• Encourage collaboration at all levels of the organization
• Ensure that your team is motivated to achieve its objectives: set targets and follow them up with encouragement, support, feedback and responsibility
• Ensure that employees are in the best position to achieve their objectives: listen to them, look after their well-being, make sure they have the appropriate tools and skills; fill the gap if necessary (recruitment, training, reorganization…)
• Take an active role in talent development: identify potential, determine areas and opportunities for development, encourage reflection on professional projects, propose training courses

*Scientific outcome

• Lead and coordinate scientific record keeping on paper. Guarantee that these records are up-to-date, detailed, well-organized and understandable to internal users and external patent officers, grant reviewers, peer-reviewers of journal manuscripts
• Coordinate the writing, review and approval of patents and scientific papers
• Prepare scientific reports (presentations, posters, etc.) and represent RF to scientific conferences and workshops

*Support for other teams

• Work in coordination with the other groups or divisions, with the assistance of their head, ensuring the appropriate level of information exchange between the groups

Requirements

*Education and professional experience

• PhD or Master’s degree + equivalent experience in physics, nuclear engineering or related field
• 8+ years of research experience in the physics of stellarators, tokamaks or other magnetic fusion configurations
• 3+ years of experience as a technical leader/coordinator and/or project management

*Languages

• Fluent in English (C1/C2)
• Knowledge (B1 or higher) of French is a plus

*Technical skills

• Familiarity with stellarators and solid understanding of plasma behavior, magnetohydrodynamics, and the interaction between plasma and magnetic fields
• Knowledge in computational modelling, numerical methods, and simulation tools, such as Finite Element software packages, MHD codes, etc.
• Experience in scientific programming languages such as Python, C++, or Fortran, and proficiency in using relevant computational packages and libraries.
• Modern coding practices (CI, git) and interfacing legacy codes.
• Experience with AI techniques, such as machine learning and neural networks, applied to scientific or engineering applications, preferably in the context of plasma physics or fusion research is considered a plus.

What we offer

Visit our career page to learn more about our work conditions and benefits: https://renfusion.eu/jobs

At Renaissance Fusion, we value diversity and are an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants equally for employment. We do not discriminate on the basis of origin; gender; morals, sexual orientation; sexual identity; age; marital status; pregnancy; genetic characteristics; actual or assumed membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, nation or race; political opinions; trade union or mutualist activities; religious beliefs; physical appearance; family name; place of residence; state of health; disability.