Business Strategy & Operations Lead

Xcimer Energy leverages decades of research on Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) combined with groundbreaking new laser architecture. Our mission is to deploy fusion power plants to meet global decarbonization goals as fast as possible. Xcimer has assembled a team of leaders in tough tech, fusion science, and manufacturing with a track record of rapid execution. Supported by leading investors, Xcimer is uniquely positioned to deliver limitless, clean, fusion power to combat climate change. Join us in powering a better world with inertial fusion!   This is a full-time role based at our headquarters in Denver, CO, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer.    As a Strategy & Operations Lead, you will apply your skills to connecting Xcimer's strategic priorities to day-to-day execution by partnering with Program Management and the Chief of Staff to close the gap between decisions made in leadership reviews and what actually gets built, running the analysis that informs program and resource prioritization, and personally driving the rollout, training, and adoption of new operational processes across the company. You'll often be the connective tissue on initiatives that don't sit cleanly inside any one function, owning ambiguous, cross-functional problems end-to-end, from first framing through implementation, and handing off a clean, sustainable process rather than a one-time fix. We are looking for our operations leaders to apply their technical expertise, problem solving skills, and dedication to quality to positively impact the future of energy! Responsibilities:

• Serve as the implementation arm for newly approved operational processes: write clear, usable process documentation, design and run the training and rollout plan, and own the post-implementation adoption review.
• Own operational projects end-to-end — from problem definition through solutioning and implementation to a clean transition of ownership — coordinating finance, procurement, IT, facilities, and HR to deliver company-wide operational projects that don't sit cleanly inside a single engineering program.
• Own headcount planning and demand/supply forecasting for business-operations functions, building the tooling and processes that support efficient resource allocation as Xcimer scales.
• Define and evolve Xcimer's operational knowledge-management and information architecture (e.g., Confluence or similar), driving adoption and content hygiene across departments.
• Maintain a prioritized backlog of identified-but-unresourced operational process gaps across the company and recommend sequencing and resourcing to close them.
• Partner with other departments to map end-to-end business data workflows (e.g., Teamcenter, Boltline, ERP) and drive resolution of cross-team data and process gaps.
• Work with the Chief of Staff to translate decisions and action items from executive offsites and business reviews into resourced initiatives with clear owners, timelines, and follow-through.
• Identify, evaluate, and help mitigate operational risks and single points of failure across business operations functions.
• Partner with Finance to build and maintain the program-level economic models that connect technical and schedule decisions to long-run plant economics, capital requirements, and investment tradeoffs — feeding the assumptions Finance uses in its capital-markets and fundraising models — to support program prioritization and make/buy decisions.
• Partner with the Head of PMO to represent business-operations capacity and constraints (finance, procurement, IT, facilities, data systems) in program planning, ensuring program schedules are built against realistic support-function resourcing.
• Project-manage across large, cross-functional stakeholder groups: lead working sessions, wrangle multiple threads at once, and report progress up to executive stakeholders without dropping the ball.
• Prepare analysis and materials to support budget reviews, board updates, and investor reporting as requested by the COO.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, operations, or a related field; MBA or equivalent experience a plus.
• 5+ years of experience in strategy, business operations, program management, or management consulting, ideally supporting a hardware, deep-tech, or complex engineering organization.
• Demonstrated experience designing and rolling out operational processes end-to-end — including training and post-implementation follow-through — in a fast-growing or resource-constrained organization.
• Demonstrated experience with headcount planning, demand/supply forecasting, or workforce modeling in a scaling organization.
• Experience supporting facilities or space planning, ideally across multiple sites.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills, with comfort building quantitative models that connect technical or program decisions to business and economic outcomes.
• High ownership and low ego, with a bias toward proactively stepping into ambiguous, cross-functional problems rather than waiting to be assigned one.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively — and lead meetings — across engineering, finance, procurement, IT, and executive stakeholders.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee of granted asylum

Desired:

• Experience in fusion, aerospace, defense, or other capital-intensive hardware development environments.
• Familiarity with PLM/ERP and business data systems (e.g., Teamcenter, Boltline, or similar) and the challenges of integrating data across them.
• Experience administering or architecting Confluence or a similar knowledge-management platform at scale.
• Experience with BI/analytics platforms such as Looker, Tableau, or similar.
• Experience establishing or scaling a PMO, or working closely alongside one, in a matrixed engineering organization.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar certification.

Equal Employment Opportunity Xcimer Energy is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified, diverse, and dedicated work force. Xcimer Energy hires and promotes people on the basis of their qualifications, performance, and abilities. We support the establishment and maintenance of a workplace that fosters trust, equality, and teamwork, in which all employees recognize and appreciate the diversity of individual team members. We provide all qualified applicants for employment and employees with equal opportunities for hire, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin/ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, and/or local law. Xcimer Energy will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.   Benefits Xcimer offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employee health, well-being, and long-term success. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage; basic and supplemental life insurance; short- and long-term disability; paid parental leave for employees at the time of birth or adoption; and a 401(k) with a company match of up to 6%. Eligible employees also receive equity, allowing them to share in the company’s long-term success.   Xcimer operates under a flexible Paid Time Off (ATO) approach. Rather than a fixed number of vacation days, employees are trusted to take the time they need to rest and recharge while meeting the expectations of their role and team. In addition, employees receive paid sick time, 13 company-paid holidays, and an annual paid company shutdown. Benefits are available to regular employees, including part-time and fixed-term roles, as well as interns, with eligibility varying by benefit.