Head of Physics

The role

The Head of Physics leads the team carrying work in plasma physics, quantum sensing, RF physics, and remote sensing from model to measurement. This person owns the people, the portfolio, and the hiring while closing the loop between simulation and hardware.

What you will do

• Lead the Physics team and own the people, portfolio, and hiring
• Choose and run programs by selecting work and staffing it
• Close the loop between simulation and hardware
• Own technical rigor including calibration, uncertainty, and reproducibility
• Lead technical work with government, national laboratory, university, and industry partners
• Review designs, models, and data

Required qualifications

• Twelve or more years of applied physics R&D
• At least five years of direct people management leading technical teams at a DoD, DOE or IC laboratory, an FFRDC or UARC, a government program office, a defense or aerospace company, or a corporate R&
• Experience maturing technology from concept to prototype and transitioning it to a sponsor or product team
• Deep expertise in at least one of the following: plasma physics, quantum sensing and AMO physics, RF physics and electromagnetics, or remote sensing and signal processing
• Ability to review work outside your own field
• PhD in physics, applied physics, electrical engineering or a related field
• Authorized to work in the United States

Nice to have

• An active or recent U.S. security clearance
• PI, chief scientist or program manager on federally sponsored research programs
• Experience building or running a laboratory or test facility
• Experience with export-controlled research
• Hands-on work with physics-informed machine learning or AI-guided experiment design
• Commercial experience, including taking a technology into a product or license

Benefits

• Salary
• Benefits
• Meaningful early-stage equity

Before you apply

• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States
• PSI is not able to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas for this role, now or in the future
• PSI may require that the person in this role be a U.S. person to comply with U.S. export control laws

About the company

Physical Superintelligence is a startup building AI systems to discover new physics at scale. The company aims to discover and commercialize transformative physics breakthroughs using artificial superintelligence.