Director of Engineering

Join us in our mission to commercialize fusion energy About Type One Energy

Type One Energy Group is mission-driven to provide sustainable, affordable fusion power to the world. Established in 2019 and venture-backed in 2023, the company is led by a team of globally recognized fusion scientists with a strong track record of building state-of-the-art stellarator fusion machines, together with veteran business leaders experienced in scaling companies and commercializing energy technologies.

If you are searching for the best new ideas and share our vision, join us as a Director of Engineering . This is what you need to know:

Location:

Knoxville, TN

Salary:
Highly Competitive Plus Benefits

Contract:

Permanent, full time

Reporting to:
Senior VP of Engineering

The Director of Engineering is responsible for building, developing, and sustaining a high-performing multidisciplinary engineering organization consisting of more than 100 engineers across Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Systems, CAD/Design, Test, and other technical disciplines.

Reporting directly to the SVP of Engineering, this role serves as the senior leader responsible for organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, leadership development, succession readiness, employee engagement, and engineering capability growth. The Director works closely with engineering functional leaders, technical authorities, and program leadership to ensure the engineering organization is staffed, developed, and structured to meet both current and future business needs.

This position is intentionally focused on organizational leadership rather than technical direction or program execution. Technical priorities, engineering decisions, and project execution are owned by the matrixed engineering functional leadership and program management organizations.

The successful candidate is a strategic organizational leader who combines business acumen, workforce planning expertise, and a passion for developing people. They are comfortable operating in ambiguity, skilled at building alignment across diverse stakeholders, and committed to fostering an inclusive, high-performing engineering culture where individuals can thrive and grow.

• Partner with the SVP of Engineering to develop and implement the long-term organizational strategy for Engineering.
• Design and continuously improve the organizational structure to support company growth and evolving business needs.
• Drive organizational effectiveness initiatives that improve collaboration, communication, and employee engagement.
• Establish and promote a positive, inclusive, and high-performance engineering culture.
• Lead organizational change initiatives and promote adoption of new business and workforce strategies.
• Serve as a key member of the Engineering Leadership Team.
• Anticipate future workforce and organizational needs in response to changing business priorities and technologies
• Influence outcomes across multiple stakeholders without direct authority through strong relationships, credibility, and communication.

• Develop long-range engineering workforce strategies aligned with business growth objectives.
• Partner with Human Resources and engineering leadership to forecast staffing requirements.
• Support headcount planning and organizational capacity assessments.
• Partner with recruiting teams and engineering leaders to support the attraction and retention of highly qualified engineering talent.
• Evaluate workforce demographics, skills gaps, and future capability needs.
• Develop strategies to support organizational scalability.

• Develop and coach engineering managers and emerging leaders.
• Partner with Learning & Development on the implementation of leadership development programs for current and future engineering leaders.
• Support the development of high-potential employees and future engineering leaders.
• Partner with engineering leadership on talent reviews and succession planning activities.
• Ensure continuity planning exists for key leadership and technical positions.
• Promote management excellence and consistency across engineering organizations.

• Promote accountability, coaching, and development across engineering organizations.
• Support leaders in conducting effective performance and development discussions.
• Monitor organizational performance trends and leadership effectiveness.
• Partner with leaders to address organizational and team…