Company details

HEADCOUNT

100-499

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Energy & Climate

WEBSITE

http://www.proximafusion.com/

About the company

Proxima Fusion is a fusion energy company focused on building stellarator-based fusion power plants, with a “simulation-first” approach that leans heavily on software, computation, and high-temperature superconducting magnet engineering. The company positions quasi-isodynamic stellarators as the most robust path to putting fusion on the grid. Proxima Fusion was founded in 2023 and has raised major European funding rounds to accelerate toward prototype hardware and an “Alpha” device concept.

Locations and presence

Proxima Fusion is headquartered in Munich, with additional presence around Zürich and Oxford, including placements tied to Paul Scherrer Institute and the Culham Campus. Roles are typically listed as on-site and cluster around those hubs.

Palpable Score

62.5

/ 100

Proxima Fusion publishes several genuinely early-career roles and internships with clear scope, and the hiring steps are unusually explicit for a deep-tech startup. The score drops on pay transparency and outcomes because salary ranges and benefits are not consistently visible, and public signals on retention and progression are mixed.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

15.5

/ 20

The company advertises multiple true early-career entry points, including Junior Software Engineer, IT Operations Intern, and a paid Internship – Software Engineer.
Proxima Fusion also hired for a Program Associate – Engineering framed for recent graduates or early-career professionals, expanding access beyond pure engineering roles.
The company shows repeat junior hiring across different functions rather than a one-off internship slot, which is a strong startup-style access signal.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

14.0

/ 20

The company lays out a structured interview flow in listings, typically showing Recruiter Interview, Technical Screening, a 3×60 min technical panel, then a CEO call, which helps candidates plan.
Proxima Fusion job descriptions are detailed about “what you will do” in roles like Junior Software Engineer and IT Operations Intern, reducing guessing and bait-and-switch risk.
The company rarely shows salary ranges on widely shared postings, which limits transparency for early-career applicants trying to assess affordability in expensive cities.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

13.0

/ 20

The company describes internships as mentored and hands-on, explicitly stating the internship work is under mentorship of experienced software engineers and involves production-grade contributions.
Proxima Fusion frames support in early-career roles with language like “you don’t need years of experience” and emphasizes learning-by-doing in day-to-day IT operations and automation work.
The company has mixed signals from employee feedback on how well feedback and performance management works in practice, which caps confidence in consistent support.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

10.5

/ 20

The company labels at least one internship as full-time paid, which is the baseline for fair early-career access in deep tech.
Proxima Fusion does not consistently publish salary bands on prominent job mirrors, making it hard to judge whether junior pay matches the intensity and cost of living in Munich or Oxford.
The company has weaker public signals on benefits and compensation satisfaction (limited benefits reporting and low compensation sentiment in employee feedback), pulling this pillar down.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

9.5

/ 20

The company positions interns as “junior team members from day one” with real ownership, which is a good responsibility signal but not the same as proven progression.
Proxima Fusion has mixed employee-reported outcomes: some feedback describes rapid growth and strong teams, while other feedback points to performance-review friction and overtime pressure that can drive churn.
The company does not publish clear early-career outcome data such as intern-to-full-time conversion rates, promotion timelines, or 12–24 month retention, which limits how high this pillar can go.