Plasma Physicist

Nord Space () is a Canadian startup with the mission to advance life on Earth, from space. Nord Space is committed to extremely rapid innovation and development of the most ambitious aerospace projects with the most ambitious team. With divisions spanning everything fromspace robotics to satellites torockets,Nord Space is driven to bring space closer to Earth and inspire generations of space explorers.

As a Plasma Physicist on the Electric Propulsion team, you will own the physics of Nord Space’s in-space electric propulsion systems, from discharge design and plasma modelling through to thruster qualification on the test stand. You will lead the plasma-physics case for our Hall effect thruster line, setting magnetic field topology, channel geometry, and cathode and neutralizer design, and grounding those choices in simulation and measurement rather than heritage scaling alone.

You will build and run the plasma diagnostics capability that turns vacuum-chamber test campaigns into physical understanding, and translate that understanding into thruster performance, lifetime, and spacecraft-integration guidance. This is a hands-on senior technical role for someone who wants to see their models fly.

• Own the plasma-physics design of Hall effect thrusters and related electric propulsion concepts, including discharge channel geometry, magnetic field topology, anode and propellant injection design, and cathode and neutralizer selection.
• Develop and apply plasma models (fluid, hybrid PIC-DSMC, and fully kinetic PIC as appropriate) to predict discharge behaviour, ionization and acceleration efficiency, plume structure, and erosion-driven lifetime.
• Define and defend the performance envelope of each thruster (thrust, specific impulse, total efficiency, throttling range, throughput) and trace it to physical mechanisms rather than empirical scaling alone.
• Lead trade studies across thruster class and propellant options (xenon, krypton, and alternatives), quantifying the impact on performance, PPU requirements, tankage, and mission-level delta-v budgets.
• Translate plasma-physics findings into requirements and interface specifications for the power processing unit, propellant feed system, thermal design, and spacecraft accommodation.
• Design and lead vacuum-chamber test campaigns, defining test objectives, operating matrices, facility-effect mitigations, and pass/fail criteria for development, qualification, and life testing.
• Specify, build, and operate plasma diagnostics, including Langmuir and emissive probes, Faraday and Wien filter probes, retarding potential analyzers, thrust stands, optical emission spectroscopy, laser-induced fluorescence, and high-speed discharge current measurement.
• Characterize discharge oscillations and instabilities (breathing mode, azimuthal spoke, rotating structures) and their coupling to the PPU, and recommend mitigations at the thruster and controller level.
• Reduce and interpret test data, validate and calibrate models against it, and quantify uncertainty so that model-based predictions can be used with confidence in design decisions.
• Assess and document plume divergence, contamination, sputtering, and EMI/spacecraft-charging effects, and support the resulting spacecraft integration and compatibility analyses.
• This role is based on-site and involves regular work in a high-voltage, high-vacuum laboratory environment, with occasional travel to external test facilities and launch campaigns.

• Act as the technical authority on plasma physics for the propulsion group, providing direction and review to junior engineers, technicians, and interns without a formal reporting line.
• Own the physics content of design reviews, verification and validation plans, and qualification test reports, and support anomaly investigations and root-cause analysis with Quality Assurance.
• Maintain configuration control and traceability of models, analysis cases, and test data, and keep requirements and issue records current in tools such as Jira within an Agile/Scrum workflow.
• Track the state of the art in electric propulsion, evaluate external…