Director, Integrated Target Design

Responsibilities

• As a technical expert, you will provide day-to-day guidance to your team and participate in cross-function discussions across ICF disciplines.
• Build, grow, and lead the Integrated Target Design group, including recruiting, hiring, onboarding, managing, mentoring, and the professional development of staff.
• Convert program priorities into detailed work scopes, schedules, and task assignments for the team.
• Evaluate near-term capability and resource needs and communicate them to program leadership to support effective staffing and toolchain development.
• Uphold and enforce Xcimer’s cultural values of humble ambition, accountable trust, respectful critique, and rigorous urgency.
• Ensure the high‑quality execution of all work by removing obstacles and maintaining clear priorities for the team.
• Work with the Theory and Computation group to ensure modeling capabilities align with design needs.
• Collaborate with the Diagnostic Physics Division (Imaging and Spectroscopy) to ensure researchers have the diagnostic support, interfaces, and coordination needed for high-quality execution of experiments.
• Participate as a technical authority in cross‑functional discussions with laser engineering, target fabrication, chamber engineering, diagnostics, etc.
• Provide day-to-day technical guidance to team members in implosion physics, LPI, symmetry control, and energy coupling strategies.
• Review and validate team outputs for technical quality and consistency Contribute to technical collaborations with national labs, universities, external vendors, and testing facilities.
• Establish department-wide practices, documentation standards, review processes, and quality control appropriate for industrial fusion systems.

Success Measures

• High-quality outputs delivered on schedule and aligned with program goals.
• Strong integration of target physics and implosion design work into experimental platforms that drive system, element, and program level decisions.
• Effective recruiting, mentoring, and development of internal capabilities.
• Consistent delivery of work scopes tied to physics risks and their resolution.

Requirements

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to convey complex arguments to diverse staff in a matrixed organization.
• Ability to manage execution in a fast-moving, interdisciplinary environment, with evolving priorities.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted as a refugee or granted asylum.

Preferred

• Deep expertise in inertial confinement fusion, capsule and hohlraum design, laser-plasma instabilities, hydrodynamics, or a related field.
• Familiarity with radiation‑hydrodynamic modeling workflows, methods in physics validation, and developing or supporting experimental platforms at HED facilities (NIF, OMEGA, Z, or similar).

Responsibilities

An Integrated Design team with high measures of performance, strong collaborations, and very clear priorities.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Physics or Engineering, or a related technical field, with knowledge of ICF.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop scientific or technical teams.

Desired

Experience in multi‑institutional experimental collaborations.

Familiarity with topics of interest to IFE including target fabrication, DT filling, cryogenic handling, and/or target injection and delivery.

Candidates may be considered for other positions at Xcimer Energy, and our actual base salary will be determined on an individual basis and may vary based on job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. The range is published in accordance with Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and California Equal Pay Act.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Xcimer Energy is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified, diverse, and dedicated work force. Xcimer Energy hires and promotes people on the basis of their qualifications, performance, and abilities. We support the establishment and maintenance of a workplace that fosters trust, equality, and teamwork, in which all employees recognize and appreciate the diversity of individual team members. We provide all qualified applicants for employment and employees with equal opportunities for hire, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin/ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, and/or local law. Xcimer Energy will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Benefits

Xcimer offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employee health, well-being, and long-term success. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage; basic and supplemental life insurance; short- and long-term disability; paid parental leave for employees at the time of birth or adoption; and a 401(k) with a company match of up to 6%. Eligible employees also receive equity, allowing them to share in the company’s long-term success.

Xcimer operates under a flexible Paid Time Off (ATO) approach. Rather than a fixed number of vacation days, employees are trusted to take the time they need to rest and recharge while meeting the expectations of their role and team. In addition, employees receive paid sick time, 13 company-paid holidays, and an annual paid company shutdown. Benefits are available to regular employees, including part-time and fixed-term roles, as well as interns, with eligibility varying by benefit.