Performance Engineer

Focused Energy is a fusion energy startup with the goal of generating unlimited clean energy to responsibly meet future global demand. With the use and commercialization of laser-induced inertial fusion, a clean and highly efficient power generation technology is coming within reach, suitable to ensure a secure and scalable future energy supply.

We are seeking a Performance Engineer to help elevate Systems Engineering by further and LDRS system performance here at Focused energy. This role focuses on the system level, combining customer and internal requirements into a highly functioning usable system. This individual will provide end‑to‑end ownership to define, maintain, and verify performance across the full product lifecycle.

• Define and maintain system level performance driven baselines (including neutron and x-ray output power, reproducibility, beam pointing and positioning, tolerances, stability, sensitivities).

• Collaborate closely with customers and suppliers to derive future product requirements and translate them into system specifications.

• Develop and apply system-level models to analyze sensitivities to mechanical tolerances, thermal effects, and environmental and seismic influences.

• Use Statistical methods (e.g. MonteCarlo) to quantify performance margins

• Feed derived constraints and tradeoffs back into performance, layout, and integration baselines.

• Maintain the necessary performance budgets on system level and break down requirements into component specifications.

• Translate performance-driven requirements into specifications for realizable, verifiable and serializable system architectures.

• Drive milestones and design reviews focused on performance maturity.

• Contribute to engineering frameworks, documentation standards, and cross-functional processes.

• Define performance verification and validation strategy.

• Establish traceability from system performance objectives through subsystem requirements to verification plans and test results.

• Provide integration leadership by ensuring alignment across disciplines (mechanical, layout, laser, vacuum, controls, safety, operations) and ensure consistency of empirical integration data with functional and physical baselines from a performance perspective.

• Support the transfer of experimental concepts into stable, reliable and scalable systems.

• Govern configuration control and evaluate change impacts on performance-related system aspects.

• Support the implementation of Systems Engineering and Performance methodologies across the organization.

• Drive clear and transparent decision-making.

• 5+ years developing large, integrated, complex interdisciplinary systems within complex environments (e.g., high-power lasers, semiconductor, accelerator, nuclear, medical devices, or advanced manufacturing).

• Advanced Degree in Physics or Mechanical Engineering, related or equivalent education and experience.

• Solid expertise in system level modeling & analysis (e.g. MATLAB, python), including tolerance, sensitivity and stability analysis using statistical methods (e.g. Monte-Carlo).

• Experience with CAD literacy, FEM-tools (e.g. ANSYS) and optical simulation (e.g. Zemax) is highly beneficial for interpreting layout-driven performance impacts.

• Experience with system performance integration and scalability of large engineering systems is highly beneficial.

• Fluency in English required; German proficiency is a strong plus.