Techno-Economic Analyst

Join the power movement as a Techno-Economic Analyst

For fusion power plants to be successful they must be economically competitive with other power generation technologies. The techno-economic analyst is responsible for developing models critical to evaluating fusion power plants' financial viability and commercial desirability. The candidate will work closely with internal CFS team members to create and evolve economic models, run sensitivity analysis, identify opportunities for improvement and provide input to design, engineering, and R&D on impacts. This role will serve an important function within the business development team supporting communicating the benefits of fusion energy to customers and key stakeholders.

What you'll do:

Deliver:

• Continue the development of techno-economic modeling at CFS to characterize the future costs and benefits of CFS products including ARC, the world’s first commercial fusion power plant
• Incorporate expectations for learning and experience benefits as the company develops additional power plants
• Establish and maintain company best practices and lessons learned related to analytical methods and models. Systematically work to improve models and analysis over time
• Track and maintain current assessment of ARC competitiveness compared to other energy solutions
• Work closely with the Scientific Software team to maintain the modeling tools and their underlying assumptions over time
• Collaborate closely with Research and Development (R&D), Engineering, Manufacturing, Scientific Software, System Engineers, Finance, Business Development, and external stakeholders to collect primary data, populate techno-economic models, productionalize the model, and validate model fidelity
• Provide support for other functions and other duties as assigned.Prepare briefing materials, write and publish research results in internal technical reports and public facing presentations, including collaborations with key external partners
• Present and defend analysis and underlying assumptions to a wide range of audiences
• Support Investor Relations, Business Development, Corporate Finance, and Engineering teams as needed, and on-demand with queries and reports

Problem Solve:

• Support potential customers, sponsors, partners, and investors in diligence processes
• Support management in developing scope, budget, and schedule for new projects based on matching expertise and capabilities to research needs and project opportunities
• Apply quantitative and qualitative research, case studies, literature reviews, and learnings from internal and external subject matter experts to identify key variables and sensitivities important to determining the costs and value of ARC
• Support the evaluation of new R&D opportunities, Open Innovation pathways, technology advancement, and market opportunities
• Support potential customers, sponsors, partners, and investors in diligence processes
• Support management in developing scope, budget, and schedule for new projects based on matching expertise and capabilities to research needs and project opportunities

Strategize:

• Identify key areas of risk, uncertainty, and variability within models and develop mitigation strategies with the business to alleviate where possible
• Serve as a feedback loop to the R&D and engineering organizations to understand the key levers to continuously drive down product costs and LCOE
• Synthesize quantitative results to provide insight into potential future technology research and development opportunities and design decisions
• Work closely with procurement to refine estimates for costs for the CFS products and associated systems

What we're looking for:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Engineering Technologies, Business, Finance, Economics, Math, Physics or a related field
• 5+ years of relevant industry experience
• Exposure to or professional knowledge of energy systems
• Experience working on quantitative analysis with probabilistic models
• Experience working in cross-functional teams and facilitating collaboration across domains
• Experience managing stakeholder relationships, including prioritizing and executing disparate sets of deliverables on tight timelines with clear communication
• MS Excel - Mastery
• MS Power Point - Proficiency
• Probabilistic modeling and forecasting
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment as well as autonomously to close gaps.
• Capable of executing on mid to long-term assignments that are loosely defined
• Understand the calculation, derivation, and drivers of variability of key industry metrics including, but not limited to, levelized cost of energy, overnight capital costs, internal rate of return, and utility return on equity
• Professional knowledge and understanding of thermodynamics and engineering fundamentals, with ability to solve analytical problems related to energy usage and plant optimization from first principles
• Generates work plans, defines milestones for own tasks, and helps define processes that impact direct work. Contributes to process improvement
• Strong organizational abilities to manage many various cases and scenarios
• Ability to map out and understand complex interconnected systems
• Exquisite attention to detail applied across a multitude of systems, ensuring comprehensive analysis and identification of gaps in quality or detail
• Reliable and persistent work ethic, seeing tasks through to completion. Stays determined in the face of uncertainty and setbacks
• Ability to identify the right level of detail for a given task and flexibility to adapt to modeling both rough, quick estimates for establishing development priorities and detailed, reliable models for finalizing project specifications
• Adaptability to a start-up environment, capability to take initiative, develop own tasks and timelines, and solve broad, ambiguous problems
• Operates with general guidance from management and increasingly takes independent ownership of developing execution approaches to assigned work
• Proven writing and communication ability, and consistent quality of work appropriate for preparing material for a broad external audience

Bonus points for:

• Experience with detailed process modeling of emerging technologies and techno-economic models of new technologies and systems
• Cross-functional experience in energy system engineering, business development, and financial modeling
• Experience developing probabilistic models with a focus on energy system modeling and optimization
• Comfort with mathematical modeling and tool development in python

Must-have requirements:

• Perform activities such as typing, standing, and sitting, for extended periods of time
• Willingness to occasionally travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call
• Work in a facility that contains industrial hazards including heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, high current, pressure systems, and cryogenics