R&D Lead – Control Systems

The role

You will lead the Control Systems team within the R&D department to deliver reliable control and data acquisition systems. You will focus on strengthening and standardizing control system architectures, hardware, software, and development practices.

What you will do

• Lead the Controls Engineering team in the timely delivery of reliable control and data acquisition systems supporting R&D operations
• Set technical direction and improve development practices across architecture, coding, testing, deployment, configuration management, and documentation
• Advance scalable, maintainable blended architectures and use AI-assisted tools to accelerate code development, unit testing, and workflow automation
• Partner closely with scientists, engineers, machine operators, production teams, and other stakeholders to translate operational needs into effective controls solutions
• Lead, coach, and mentor engineers, including any direct reports, through clear expectations, actionable feedback, and technical rigor
• Anticipate technical and staffing constraints and demonstrate potential to take on broader strategic and organizational leadership

Required qualifications

• Demonstrated technical leadership experience and potential, including coaching or mentoring engineers
• Strong proficiency with LabVIEW and NI hardware in control system applications, including PXI, cRIO, real-time systems, and FPGA
• Ability to set technical direction, improve code development processes, prioritize competing needs, and lead a team through ambiguous or rapidly changing requirements
• Experience developing control and data acquisition systems for large-scale, complex hardware
• Strong cross-functional communication and collaboration skills
• Experience designing or integrating blended control systems that connect LabVIEW and NI layers with Python, C/C++, MATLAB, or other text-based code through well-defined APIs
• Experience using AI-assisted coding tools to accelerate code development, unit testing, or workflow automation

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision plans for employees and their families
• 31 Days of PTO (21 vacation days and 10 sick days)
• 10 Paid holidays, plus company-wide winter break
• Up to 5% employer 401(k) match
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Paid parental leave and support (up to 16 weeks)
• Annual wellness stipend

About the company

Helion is a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant. Since 2013, they have raised $1.5 billion from investors to propel their work toward clean, reliable, and affordable energy.