Head of Licensing & Regulation

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. WHY JOIN PROXIMA FUSION * You will get to work on some of the most complex tech challenges to bring abundant, safe, clean energy to the world. * You'll get to join and learn from an exceptional selection of accomplished and driven individuals. * Do your life’s best work and enjoy the journey. * Get to show that big things are possible in Europe when you assemble the best talent. YOUR IMPACT * You own Proxima Fusion's building regulations and permitting strategy - across multiple sites, from day one. * Your work spans the Alpha facility permitting process, site development approvals, and the early regulatory landscape definition for Stellaris - a programme horizon broad enough that you will be shaping permitting strategy for projects still being defined alongside those already in motion. * Permitting is a critical path item, not a support function. You ensure that regulatory requirements are understood early and fed upstream into design and planning decisions - and that Proxima Fusion's relationships with planning authorities are built on solid ground. * You work in close coordination with both the Head of Siting & Infrastructure, responsible for Proxima’s construction projects and the Head of Licensing & Regulation, who leads Proxima Fusion's nuclear and radiation licensing strategy - ensuring that building permit timelines and licensing requirements are sequenced correctly and never work against each other. WHAT YOU WILL DO * Own the permitting strategy and execution for Alpha across all relevant sites - defining the regulatory pathway, managing authority relationships, and ensuring permitting timelines are embedded as hard inputs into the Integrated Master Schedule * Lead building regulations and planning approval processes across Garching and Gundremmingen simultaneously; manage the possibility of a site change as a live planning scenario without losing momentum on either active front * Establish and maintain working relationships with relevant planning and building authorities, and specialist regulatory advisors at all locations * Ensure permitting requirements flow upstream into the Basis of Design and structural, systems, and MEP design inputs - not the other way around; act as the bridge between regulatory constraints and the engineering team * Prepare and manage permitting documentation in coordination with the lead architect and external planning team; own the submission process and track authority responses * Define the regulatory landscape and way-forward playbook for Stellaris permitting preparation - including site-specific constraints, authority mapping, and timeline implications - so that when Stellaris permitting begins in earnest, the groundwork is already in place * Coordinate closely with the Head of Licensing & Regulation to ensure building permit processes and nuclear licensing requirements are sequenced coherently - flagging where planning approvals and licensing timelines interact, and ensuring neither track creates blockers for the other WHO YOU ARE * Experienced in building regulations, planning law, and permitting processes for major industrial, energy, or research infrastructure projects in Germany - you know how German planning authorities work and how to move them * Strategic as well as operational: you can define a multi-site permitting strategy and manage its execution simultaneously, not just process individual applications * Comfortable working in a design-inform role - you understand how regulatory constraints shape structural and systems design decisions, and you engage with engineers upstream rather than reviewing outputs downstream * Experienced managing authority relationships directly - you are the owner-side face to planning bodies, not a coordinator of external consultants who hold those relationships * Aware of the radiation protection licensing landscape in Germany - you do not need to be a specialist, but you understand how nuclear or radiation-related facility licensing timelines interact with building permit sequencing and can plan accordingly * Fluent in German and English, written and spoken - authority relationships are German-language; internal working language is English * Familiar with AI tools and digital working methods; comfortable in a lean, high-autonomy environment * Background in planning, building regulations, or regulatory affairs for energy, industrial, or research facilities is strongly preferred; experience across multiple simultaneous permitting processes is a strong plus * Aware of the radiation protection and nuclear licensing landscape in Germany is a plus - you do not need to be a specialist, but you understand how licensing timelines interact with building permit sequencing and can coordinate effectively with the Head of Licensing & Regulation who owns that domain INTERVIEW PROCESS * Recruiter Interview (30-60 min) * Technical Screening (30 min) * Technical Panel (3x60 min) * Final CEO call (30 min) *This role sits at "L3" of our framework, please inquire during the recruitment process for further information. 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.