Site Development Program Manager

Proxima Fusion
Munich, Germany
On-site

Who this role is best for

Geared toward program managers with experience in energy or industrial site development, comfortable with managing multiple projects and building program structures from scratch in a heavily regulated environment.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with a background in energy or industrial site development, particularly nuclear or regulated environments
    — “Extensive experience leading greenfield or brownfield energy or industrial site development programs through to final investment decision, ideally on former or adjacent nuclear sites or other heavily regulated sites”
  • Candidates with strong diplomatic and stakeholder management skills, especially in formal, process-driven cultures
    — “Skilled at building productive relationships with incumbent site owners and utilities, and comfortable working within formal, process-driven stakeholder cultures”

Things to consider

  • Fluency in both German and English is a mandatory requirement for stakeholder engagement
    — “Fluent in German and English, which the regulatory and stakeholder landscape requires”
  • The role demands managing complex regulatory and permitting landscapes across multiple sites
    — “Own the permitting landscape across the portfolio, including radiation protection law, environmental permitting, building permits and other approvals where relevant”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in structuring and managing first-of-a-kind or high-regulation projects
    — “Comfortable building program structure from scratch in a fast-scaling, first-of-a-kind environment”
  • Emphasize your ability to coordinate multiple projects under a single strategic framework
    — “Working closely with the project managers who lead each project, you'll make sure feasibility, key partner relationships and permitting strategy are handled coherently across the portfolio”
  • Demonstrate success in aligning technical and regulatory requirements across teams
    — “Able to pull together detailed technical requirements from engineers and specialists without needing a deep engineering background yourself”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • lead site development program
  • align project schedules
  • define decision-gate structure
Typical background
experience in managing complex projectsunderstanding of fusion technology

Skills & requirements

Required

Site DevelopmentProject ManagementFeasibility AnalysisPermitting Strategy

Preferred

Fusion TechnologyHigh-temperature Superconducting Magnets

Stack & domain

Site DevelopmentProject ManagementFeasibilityKey Partner RelationshipsPermitting StrategyProgram RoadmapDecision-gate StructureSite OwnersUtility PartnersRegulatory HistoryRadiation Protection LawEnvironmental PermittingBuilding PermitsLeadershipCollaborationCommunicationDiplomacyProblem-solvingStrategic PlanningFusion TechnologyStellaratorAdvanced Manufacturing

About the role

Original posting from Proxima Fusion via Ashby

WHO WE ARE

Proxima Fusion is Europe’s fastest-growing fusion company and the continent’s best-funded fusion player, as well as the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). Backed by over €650M and powered by a growing team across Munich, Zurich, and Oxford, we are developing the hardware and infrastructure needed to deliver the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant.

Our concept advances the most mature fusion technology out there, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, through two next-generation machines: Alpha and Stellaris. Our work combines stellarator optimization, advanced computation, machine learning, and high-temperature superconducting magnets to unlock higher-performance designs that were previously out of reach.

Turning these designs into a functioning fusion power plant requires excellence and ownership across every discipline, from physics and engineering to software, manufacturing, law, and business functions.

BY JOINING OUR TEAM YOU’LL GET TO

  • Build the machine that builds the machine. Join TechOps at the forefront of advanced manufacturing, we’re building the production system that will enable commercial fusion. The Production lines, tooling, and processes are being developed from the ground up; you'll create the ways of working, not inherit them.
  • Work at the frontier of manufacturing technology. Bring your creativity to evaluate, qualify, and deploy processes with no industry playbook, every component you build and every process you shape goes directly into the core of the stellarator magnet technology.
  • Do work that matters, and see it grow. The hardware you build is the product and your career grows with it, from prototyping and process development through quality and industrialization, alongside exceptional colleagues from around the world.
  • Make an impact you can point to. In a small, fast-moving team, your calls on equipment, quality, and process directly shape how a world-class deep-tech company produces superconducting magnets with results visible on the shop floor, not buried in a slidedeck.

YOUR IMPACT

You'll hold Proxima Fusion's site development portfolio together as one program, spanning projects such as Stellaris, our manufacturing and testing infrastructure, and other site development work. Working closely with the project managers who lead each project, you'll make sure feasibility, key partner relationships and permitting strategy are handled coherently across the portfolio. Without this role, projects risk optimizing for themselves while the issues that cut across them fall through the gaps.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

  • Lead Proxima Fusion's site development program across multiple parallel projects, owning feasibility, key partner and stakeholder relationships, and permitting strategy
  • Work closely with the project managers leading each site, aligning their schedules, budgets and deliverables to a single program roadmap
  • Define and run the program's decision-gate structure, from initial project approval through to final investment decision, including deliverables, readiness levels, and cost and schedule tracking
  • Represent Proxima Fusion to site owners, utility partners and other key stakeholders, building constructive, diplomatic partnerships across sites with different contexts and regulatory histories
  • Own the permitting landscape across the portfolio, including radiation protection law, environmental permitting, building permits and other approvals where relevant, and sequence parallel approval processes into one coherent strategy
  • Build organizational and infrastructure scaling plans that look beyond near-term needs, from initial capacity towards multi-GW scale
  • Report program status, risks and key decisions to senior leadership

WHO YOU ARE

  • Extensive experience leading greenfield or brownfield energy or industrial site development programs through to final investment decision, ideally on former or adjacent nuclear sites or other heavily regulated sites
  • A track record of managing multiple projects in parallel at different stages of maturity, using a structured, gate-based approach
  • Skilled at building productive relationships with incumbent site owners and utilities, and comfortable working within formal, process-driven stakeholder cultures
  • Able to pull together detailed technical requirements from engineers and specialists without needing a deep engineering background yourself
  • Fluent in German and English, which the regulatory and stakeholder landscape requires
  • Comfortable building program structure from scratch in a fast-scaling, first-of-a-kind environment

INTERVIEW PROCESS

  • Recruiter Interview (30-60 min)
  • Technical Screening (30 min)
  • Technical Panel (3x60 min)

At Proxima Fusion, our mission is bold: making limitless clean energy a reality. To get there, we need a high-performing, diverse team that brings different perspectives, challenges assumptions, and builds together with purpose. We know that diversity of thought and experience leads to better ideas, stronger execution, and a more resilient team. We don’t look at how you identify, what you look like, who you choose to worship or what ethnicity you are. We care about what you can bring to the table.

Source: Proxima Fusion careers (Ashby)

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