Engineering Manager – Heating & Drive

Engineering Manager – Heating & Current Drive Overview of Responsibilities

Fusion energy offers the potential for significant quantities of low-carbon, inherently safe, abundantly fuelled, baseload energy, supporting sustainable climate action and energy independence. While the technical challenge remains high, confidence is increasing, and the rewards of realising fusion are almost incalculable. Anticipated to come online for commercial purposes in the middle of this century, fusion offers a viable means to sustainable net zero in the UK and globally, as well as to increased energy security.

The UK is currently a world leader in fusion research and development and in the drive to realise commercially viable energy from fusion, a sector with an estimated value of £tns per year.

STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) is the UK’s flagship national programme to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and a path to commercial viability of fusion. STEP is deliberately bold and ambitious and seeks people who want to be part of a world‑changing endeavour and who have credible and relevant experiencing in delivery.

STEP is currently led by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which has breadth and depth of expertise in fusion science, engineering and operations built over decades. Over the next year, leadership will transition to a new Company, UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd. (UKIFS) to focus on the delivery of the prototype and, in so doing, the development of a fusion supply chain.

From the next government investment gate, UKIFS will lead a collaborative team of industrial Whole Plant Partners who bring expertise in engineering and construction, plus UKAEA who will remain as strategic Partner providing fusion expertise.

Pioneering Fusion Energy Technologies: A Leadership Opportunity in Plasma Fusion Heating and Current Drive

UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS) is spearheading the global scientific and technological advancements critical to realising clean, abundant, and inherently safe fusion energy. Our flagship STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme takes us beyond the purely scientific challenges – it demands unprecedented breakthroughs in a range of technologies including, critically, plasma heating and current drive systems.

We are seeking an Engineering Manager for Heating and Current Drive (HCD) to help lead a newly formed, strategically significant research and design division. Reporting directly to the Head of Heating & Current Drive, you will work across UKIFS’s design activity, in close collaboration with UKAEA and other partners, driving sustainable growth. You will be instrumental in providing an optimised design for the STEP heating and current drive system, primarily based on advanced microwave technologies, and in driving the commercial exploitation of associated R&D.

You will assist in leading and integrating a critical, multidisciplinary team from across UKIFS, UKAEA (our Fusion Partner), and future Engineering Partner, fostering a “single‑team” culture. Your core responsibility will be to help define and deliver the microwave systems for UKIFS heating and current drive technology requirements, including:

Lead HCD System Design:

• Manage interfaces with wider SPP sub‑systems and the fusion plasma.
• Conceptual and preliminary design lead for the STEP heating and current drive system.
• Day to day management and leadership of the design and the design team.
• Support effective governance and decision making. Provide timely and accurate reporting and engage in mechanisms that hold you, as Engineering Manager, to account for delivery.
• Organise assurance processes such as stage gate reviews, as required.

Manage R&D for Optimised HCD:

• Direct the R&D to advance STEP HCD sub‑systems towards high efficiency, reliability, and cost minimisation.
• Develop and justify annual budgets and ensure milestone targets are met through high‑level technical oversight of external contracts.

Manage Economic Benefit & Innovation:

• Ensure appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place and monitor longer term delivery of benefits against the…