Trying to build a star in a box: the scientists and engineers working to make fusion, the reaction that powers the Sun, into a clean energy source.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Plasma Physicist: Studies plasma, the super-hot fourth state of matter, to make fusion, the power source of the Sun, work on Earth. Typical pay $140k.
Fusion Reactor Engineer: Designs the machines (tokamaks, stellarators, and laser targets) that try to create and hold fusion reactions. Typical pay $135k.
Superconducting Magnet Engineer: Builds the incredibly strong, super-cold magnets that squeeze and hold fusion plasma. Typical pay $140k.
Laser Fusion Physicist: Uses the world's most powerful lasers to crush tiny fuel pellets and spark fusion. Typical pay $145k.
Fusion Diagnostics Scientist: Builds the instruments that measure what's happening inside a plasma too hot for anything to touch. Typical pay $130k.
Tritium Fuel Cycle Engineer: Designs how a fusion plant will make, capture, and recycle tritium, a rare radioactive fuel. Typical pay $135k.
Neutronics Engineer: Calculates how neutrons from fusion or fission reactions travel, heat things up, and make materials radioactive. Typical pay $130k.
Pulsed Power Engineer: Designs giant electrical systems that dump enormous bursts of energy into fusion machines in an instant. Typical pay $125k.
Plasma Control Engineer: Writes the real-time software and magnet controls that hold a plasma hotter than the sun in place inside a fusion machine. Typical pay $140k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Fusion Device Operator: Runs the control room of a fusion experiment, executing 'shots' planned by physicists. Typical pay $95k.
Cryogenics Technician: Runs and repairs the refrigeration systems that keep fusion magnets near absolute zero. Typical pay $72k.
Vacuum Technician: Builds and maintains vacuum chambers emptier than outer space for fusion and physics experiments. Typical pay $68k.
Research Facility Electrician: Installs and maintains the heavy electrical systems that power fusion and physics research labs. Typical pay $70k.
Fusion Target Fabrication Technician: Builds the tiny fuel capsules, smaller than a peppercorn, that giant lasers blast to create fusion reactions. Typical pay $72k.
Laser Optics Refurbishment Technician: Cleans, inspects and repairs the big glass lenses and mirrors damaged by laser shots at fusion labs so they can go back into the beam. Typical pay $70k.
Fusion Regulatory Specialist: Helps fusion companies get permits from state and federal regulators, who decided in 2023 to treat fusion machines more like particle accelerators than reactors. Typical pay $95k.
Starter: fastest way in
Research Machinist: Machines one-of-a-kind parts for fusion experiments, often from exotic metals like tungsten. Typical pay $54k.
Fusion Research Technician: Helps scientists set up experiments, run tests, and keep lab equipment working. Typical pay $52k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.