Founding LPA Engineer (m/f/d)

Summary

MuRay Tech is a deeptech spinout from DESY, Hamburg. We're hiring a Founding LPA Engineer to build the laser-plasma accelerator at the center of our muon source, and the team around it. You'll take the LPA from working point to product: a density-tailored plasma source that survives a 100 Hz, 100 TW focus, the vacuum and laser transport line around it, and the requirements that let it run unattended. As a founding hire, you'll start hands-on and hire as the scope grows. Direct ownership of the machine our product depends on.

The role

As Founding LPA Engineer, you'll own the laser-plasma accelerator at the center of MuRay's muon source, from working point to product. Concretely, you will:

• Assemble and lead the Muon Source team, covering LPA, converter, and optics. Start hands-on. Hire and structure the team as the work grows.
• Oversee the development of working points and a density-tailored plasma source that survive the thermal load of a 100 Hz, 100 TW focus. Millions of consistent shots. Not one good shot.
• Lead the developmentof the plasma source. Execute experiments at user facilities to iterate the design towards powering our main product: the transportable muon source.
• Isolate the laser specs that matter most. Ensure they get delivered. Pulse energy, duration, pointing and energy stability, beam quality: the numbers that decide whether the LPA works.
• Own the vacuum system and the laser transport line. Vacuum chambers, differential pumping, vibration management, thermal management. This is what turns the LPA into a machine that fits inside a shipping container and runs 24/7.
• Define the requirements for the control system, the machine protection system, and the diagnostics suite. They let the machine run unattended.

What you'll bring

• Team leadership. You've built and led a technical team before. You're ready to be hands-on again before this one exists.
• Hands-on LPA experience. You've built and operated a laser-plasma accelerator. Not just modeled one. Injection, dephasing, depletion, and guiding physics you've tuned on real hardware.
• Experimental leadership at user facilities. You've planned and run a multi-year experimental campaign before. You know how to iterate a design from real beamtime data.
• High-power laser system literacy. You can write a spec a laser manufacturer can build to: pulse energy, duration, pointing and energy stability, beam quality. You hold vendors to it.
• Vacuum and opto-mechanical engineering judgment. You know what vacuum chamber design, differential pumping, vibration isolation, and thermal management require to keep the LPA running under continuous, high-average-power use.
• Controls and diagnostics systems thinking. You can translate "runs unattended, 24/7" into concrete requirements for a control system, a machine protection system, and a diagnostics suite, even where another team builds them.

How we work

• Skunkworks approach: We work in small teams with full ownership. We keep it simple, stupid.
• Move fast: a shiny prototype means we spent too long on it. We build to learn. We polish later.
• Disagree together, commit together: we debate and challenge, regardless of title. Then we deliver the decision as one team. We win as a team. We pivot as a team.
• Courage: we always make the call. A mistake isn't a failure: it's proof we're improving. Either way, we own the outcome.
• Honesty and transparency: we share what's really happening, good or bad. That lets everyone make the right call. We stay open. We stay honest.

What we offer

• Impact: you'll own the machine that makes MuRay's product possible. The muon source doesn't run without it. Every hour of uptime you engineer becomes a scan for a customer.
• Autonomy: this is a founding role. You build the Muon Source team, and the machine itself, from the ground up.
• Infrastructure: MuRay has on-demand time at multi-GeV beamlines, including DESY's PRIMA. Collaboration pathways extend to ELI Beamlines, EPAC, and ATLAS.
• Network: research collaborators include DESY, DLR, CERN, and Imperial College London. Commercial partners include Siemens Energy, Airbus, Caelora, and ZAL.
• Ownership: an equity plan gives you a meaningful stake in the company.
• Compensation: a salary that reflects your contribution to MuRay's growth.
• Relocation: we support your move. If you're relocating from outside the EU, we help with the paperwork.

Contact

For any additional questions, feel free to reach out to [email protected] or apply directly through our application form!

We are looking forward to hearing from you.